Sunday, April 20, 2008

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
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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!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

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!
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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:
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4.5 happy faces! :)