Chicken Katsu!

Yet another NEW section!
Spangiepantz Adaptations
Basically, I find recipes on the internet and follow them, and then make a pictorial guide if they are successful!
I finally decided to do an internet search for one of my most FAVOURITE dishes ever, Chicken Katsu! And I found this one, which was absolutely spot on! Well, it was close enough anyway. :P

SO here's a pictorial guide to the actual recipe, although my version is tweaked just a little bit.
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!Chicken Katsu!
First of all:
Ingredients

1. Panko bread crumbs
2. Chicken breasts/ steaks/ tenderloins
3. Eggs
4. Salt & Pepper (to taste)
5. All-purpose flour
6. Canola oil
7. Tonkatsu Sauce
8. Japanese Mayo

The last 2 aren't the main ingredients, they're just the sauces that go with the final product! :)
With the chicken, I usually use chicken tenderloins or chicken steaks because I find them easier than chicken breasts, which are quite often pretty thick.. So these are thinner! :) But whatever floats your boat :P
I don't follow the actual measurement for the flour and egg, just because it really depends on how much chicken you're coating.. :) But if you wanted to, it's one egg and 15grams of flour.
ANYHOW.
To begin!
Step 1:
Wash your chicken! :)
Scrub 'em up good and then after that, drain the water, and attempt to get every bit of water out!
Step 2:
Sprinkle as much/as little pepper you want on the chicken.
Followed by salt. I usually put about a teaspoon in, but sprinkle to your tastes!
Rub the salt and pepper into the chicken well, and then leave aside for about 5 minutes.
Step 3:
While the chicken is soaking in the salt and pepper, prepare the coating apparatus! :P
Usually, I put the flour and egg into shallow dishes & bowls, and the panko bread crumbs on a plate.
Eggies. I used 2 as I had quite a number of chicken tenderloins..
Whisk up the egg/s with a fork.. Or an egg whisk. Whatever pleases you.
Then pour out the crumbs onto the plate. You can keep pouring some out while you are coating so don't overpour.
Pat the crumbs flat.
Set up the "coating station"
Flour first, then egg, then lastly, crumbs.
Step 4:
Get the chicken
Roll it around in the flour so that the whole piece is covered in flour.
This will ensure that the egg actually sticks to the chicken.
Then dust off the extra flour, you don't want too much flour!
Step 5:
Dunk the flour-ed chicken into the egg. Make sure all the chicken is covered, so the bread crumbs will stick to it!
Step 6:
Next comes the bread crumbs. Throw the chicken on on one side, then grab some crumbs and toss it onto the top, and rub them in so they stick well.
Now this will get messy, so I recommend paper towels on standby or you just keep going to the sink to wash off the nasty goo off your fingers. Mmm how appetizing. :P
Step 7:
Place the crumbed pieces onto a plate in preparation for cooking.
Step 8:
When you have done just about all the pieces, get some canola oil and pour it into a frying pan.
Just enough to sort of shallow fry the pieces. Well, abit more oil than shallow fry but not as much as a deep fry.
Put it over a low-ish flame. You want the oil to heat slowly so it doesn't burn the crumbs and leave the inside raw.. Because that's just nasty.
Step 9:
I'd recommend setting up a plate beside the frying pan with pieces of kitchen towel on it to soak up the oil from the finished pieces, but you don't have to if you prefer to have oil rigs in your mouth.
This is Handee :D
When you feel enough heat radiating off the pan, it's time to start a-cookin! :D
Place as many chicken pieces as possible in the pan.
I just keep using the same pan when the pieces are done until the whole batch is complete.
Leave them in there until the bottom side is a nice golden brown, then flip them onto the other side to cook.
I use wooden chopsticks to turn the pieces, it seems to be easier than using a spatula.
Repeat step until whole batch has been cooked. :)
Step 10:
Remove the chicken and let the oil soak into the paper towel.

AND FINALLY
Serve up the chicken cut into pieces, with steamed rice, furikake (Seaweed seasoning), tonkatsu sauce and japanese mayo! :D

This is a delicious meal, extremely easy to make and on the whole, something everyone will appreciate! :)
You should be able to find Tonkatsu sauce and japanese mayo at your nearest oriental store! :) They're delicious sauces to go with the chicken!

Quick Snack!

Introducing a NEW section!
Quick Snacks!
Short, sweet recipes that you can make with ease.
This is a great snack to make when you have some leftover chicken that you don't know what to do with!
Tired of having the same old chicken?
well make this quick toasty snack and you'll always want to have left over chicken! :P
hahaha yes that's lame.
OH WELL.

Just get a splash of olive oil, mix in some cracked pepper and oregano.

Chop up the chicken into bite sized pieces, and do the same with ONE tomato, and some cheese.
Mix it all up, and then spread over pieces of lightly buttered bread. In this case, it is pieces of bruschettina.

Bake in oven at 180c for approximately 10-12 minutes
and VOILA!
A tasty, healthy snack that explodes with flavour! :)

Enjoy!

Review: James Street Kitchen

Yes, yes I've been away for awhile!
And I'm aware there's only been TWO posts on this lame blog. :P
But I've revamped (of sorts) and changed the title and URL.
I figured "The Idiots Guide to Awesome Cooking" was a tad long to remember.
So here we are, at the new chefspangie.blogspot.com =D
just to confirm, I'm not ACTUALLY a chef.
I just couldn't think of what else I could put as my URL. lol.
And I decided, that apart from recipes, I could also chuck on a couple of food reviews! :)
So, here's the first.
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James Street Kitchen
It is a Chinese restaurant situated in Northbridge (Perth, WA), pretty near Chinatown (which in my point of view is extremely pathetic in comparison to other Chinatowns I've seen, and also somewhat dilapidated.)
However, James Street Kitchen is far from dilapidated!
It's recently seen a whole renovation makeover, as well as a management change.
It used to be just a very plain, simply functional place with good food. Although the quality of food dropped for awhile. But now, James Street Kitchen has gotten back on it's feet, with a whole revamp to boot!

It's got new chairs, tables, dishes & cutlery.
Freshly painted walls and a whole new colour scheme.
And very nice toilets!
So the layout of the restaurant is lovely, and quite charming.
Nice ambience for a night out with the family and friends.
But, you may ask, what about the food?
Well, I patronised the place with 4 other people, needless to say, we couldn't really order too much! Or it would've gone to waste. :)
But here are the 5 delicacies we tasted.

1. Fried Tofu with Chilli

Well, seeing as I don't actually eat tofu, I can't give a personal description.
But the others who ate it said this wasn't too bad.
However, they did say that it used to be much better.
So I guess the quality of their tofu has gone down!

2. Pan fried Toothfish

This fish is absolutely FANTASTIC.
It's one of the most tastiest fish ever to come out of the ocean ;D
The meat is soft and buttery and simply to die for.
And it is pan fried to perfection.
Having a delicious sauce would help too! We couldn't get enough of it.
however, it is pretty expensive, and should be saved when you have a number of people joining you for dinner, or if you are a very rich person. :P
The tooth fish disappeared really quickly!
We demolished it pretty fast :P

3. Broccoli and Snow Peas

You've gotta have your veggies, even if you don't like them!
But these were absolutely succulent.
Well, broccoli is my favourite veggie, so of course I attacked them :p
the sauce was very much absorbed by the veggies, as the juices squirted into your mouth when you bit into the veggies. Not such a big fan of snow peas, although the others seemed to love the snow peas! :)

4. Sweet and Sour Pork

Ahh good ol' sweet&sour pork, a common dish on the menus of Chinese restaurants.
James Street Kitchen however, is one of the Masters of sweet and sour pork! :)
the meat is so tender and the sweet and sour sauce is absolutely beautiful.
It seems to melt in your mouth. The pork I mean.
I dislike the sweet and sour pork which has that magenta/hot pink sauce.. blegh..
This one was absolutely delicious.
A definite must-try!

5. Black Pepper Fillet Steak

Last dish, my favourite dish EVER to be placed on a Chinese restaurant menu.
This is the dish I look forward to sampling whenever we go to Chinese restaurants.
James street Kitchen does it really well.
The beef is tender, soft and the sauce is absolute perfection
there's not much sauce, it seems to be marinated in the beef itself, but man is this beef delicious! :)
Another must-try for this restaurant!
~*~*~
I'm quite picky about Chinese food; I'm not actually a big fan.
stupid really, since I'm from Singapore. :P

well, okay, to make it more accurate, I'm picky about Chinese food in Perth.
Because not many are up to my standards! :P
But James Street Kitchen is definitely on my list; top notch.
In short, anyone looking for excellent Chinese food, should make their way to James Street Kitchen, for good dining, ambience and friendly service! :)
Overall, a rating of:

4.5 happy faces! :)

Basa Fish Fillets

First food related blog post for this blog! :D
Today's recipes are:
BASA FISH HERBACIOUS PAN-FRIED FILLETS

AND

BASA FISH DEEP-FRIED PIECES
First up, just a reminder:

Got it? Greaaat. :)
General Notes:Basa fish fillets
Basa fish fillets taste vaguely like barramundi(?) but the meat is less dense
In Australia, they should be able to be purchased at Coles in a pack for roughly $8 maybe less, or perhaps check any other places which may sell Basa fish fillets.
If they are thawed, cook them on the same day, but if they are frozen they can wait until the next day too.

First step:
Wash the fishy fillets
Scrub them with your fingers and run them under water.

Second step:
Slap 'em on a plate and pat them as dry as you can with paper towels

Directions to make Pan Fried Herbacious Fish
ingredients
Basa fish fillets
Olive Oil
Mixed Herbs
Cracked pepper
For this dish, cracked black pepper and MasterFoods brand Mixed Herbs were used.

Step One:
Pour olive oil into a non-stick pan, and let it heat up on a medium flame.

Step Two:
Sprinkle the mixed herbs and crack the pepper all over the surface of the fish fillets, then turn them over and repeat the same thing until there is a layer of herbs covering the fish.
Step Three:
Place fish fillets into pan once oil is hot, and press continually on the fish while frying.
Note* You may need to add a little more olive oil when the pan is hotter
Step Four:
The fish should be turning golden, so flip it over to cook properly on the other side, and continue to press down on it.
Press down on the fish for it to cook evenly on the inside.
It should be golden, a little less golden than this (it's only this yellow because of the lighting!)
Step Five:
Remove fish from frying pan, and serve hot with brocolli for a nice healthy meal :D
Mmm look at that fish :D

MMMMMMMMMMM.... Deliciouso:D
This fish also goes well with a glass of chilled water with some lemon juice in it :)
If you don't like to drink water because it tastes strange, add some lemon juice and you'll be refreshed in no time :D And cold water always tastes better :D

Directions to make BASA DEEP FRIED FISH PIECES
Ingredients
Basa fish fillets (cut)
Approx. 3 tablespoons of Cornflour
White pepper
Canola Oil
Light Soya Sauce
This fish goes well with rice, and is usually accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce, but is good by itself too. A nice treat for kids, it is generally well-received by those who have eaten it ! :D

Step One:
Cut the fish fillets into smallish pieces to ensure thorough cooking.

Step Two:
Pour light soya sauce and some white pepper into a bowl containing the cut pieces of fish, just enough to cover every bit of the fish, and stir it around. Then leave the pieces in there for about 10-30 minutes, depending on how salty you want the pieces to be.
Step Three:
While the pieces are marinating, pour some canola oil into a deep pan, and place it on a high flame to heat the oil. The oil must be hot in order for the fish pieces to cook properly.
About this much oil should suffice. Note the non-stick deep frying pan too!
Flame should be about this high.
Step Four:
Next, we set up a system, the three-stations system.
Fish, Flour, Fire (Which really isn't fire, but more oil. but hey, otherwise it wouldn't be the three Fs!)
Step Five:
Remove the fish fillets from the sauce, and then put them into the cornflour which is the second station. Thoroughly rub the flour into and onto the fish piece, making sure that the entire piece is covered. This step should only be done just before the pieces go into the hot oil.
Step Six:
Now, slowly drop the flour-covered fish pieces into the hot oil.
NOTE: The oil MUST be hot, or the fish pieces will not be cooked right.
Move the pieces around to allow them to fit with the other pieces better.
At this stage, it is advisable to be using wooden chopsticks to cook.

Step Seven:
Once the fish start to turn golden, use the wooden chopsticks to flip the fish pieces around to the other side, so that they don't get burnt on one side, and undercooked on the other!

Step Eight:
Shake off the excess oil once the fish pieces are completely golden, and place them onto paper towels laid on plates to absorb the oil.
FINITO!
Serve it up immediately, or you can reheat these in the over at 230C for about 6 minutes depending on your oven strength!:D They're a perfectly delicious snack that can be eaten by themselves without any sauce!
Ta-DAH
And so here ends the first food-related entry :)
For those who really didn't quite understand the directions, here is a special video I made which will help to enlighten you, hopefully.
Excuse the post for any bad grammar/spelling as it is 12:48am and I am quite tired :)

The song playing in the background of the video (there is no dialogue) is Speeding Cars by Imogen Heap.