Chickpea fries ひよこ豆フライ

My wife saw this recipe for chickpea fries in the Washington Post. She then realized she had bought chickpea flour some time ago, to make an Indian dish but she never made the dish. The flour had been sitting in the freezer for some time. So, she thought this would be a good way to use the chickpea flour. She figured, the most arduous  part of making this dish was that it had to be deep fried.  But, turns out that was not a problem for her since I am the one who does the deep frying in our kitchen. In any case, this was our collaborative effort. As with any fried starch, this was very good. The outside was light but crispy and the center was creamy. These are very similar in texture to the fries we make with nagaimo (but have not posted). We did not make a dipping sauce. We did not even need salt. 

Ingredients(We halved the recipe which made about 20 fries)
1 teaspoons olive oil, plus more for greasing the parchment
2 cups water
1 cups (120 grams) chickpea flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Cut two pieces of parchment paper to fit a 9-by-13-inch sheet pan or casserole dish. Use a little olive oil to lightly grease one side of each piece of parchment. Place one parchment piece on the bottom of the baking sheet (oil side up) and reserve the other.

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil and water. Just before it starts to boil, slowly sprinkle in the chickpea flour while whisking to remove many (if not all) of the clumps and form a smooth batter. Whisk in the salt and pepper and reduce the heat to low. Switch to a wooden spoon and cook, stirring constantly, until the batter stiffens and starts to pull away from the sides and/or bottom of the pan, 10 minutes.

Scoop the batter onto the greased parchment in the pan and spread it out evenly as quickly as you can (it will start to firm up as it cools). Place the second piece of paper, greased side down, on the batter and gently press to smooth it out evenly. Transfer the pan to the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, until it has cooled and set. (we kept it in the fridge for three days before frying).

When the batter has set, remove the top paper and use a butter knife to cut the chickpea block into 20 sticks.

In our Tempura pot, heat the cirsco oil until it reaches 350F (or 180C) on an instant-read thermometer. Working in batches to avoid overcrowding, gently add the chickpea sticks to the oil and cook, turning with tongs when needed, until golden on both sides, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Using the tongs, transfer to the rack to drain.

These were very good—crunchy on the outside silky smooth on the inside with a very subtle grainy taste. Initially they were extremely greasy but over time the excess grease got absorbed and added to the outside crispiness. We subsequently read that instead of frying they should be sautéed in a frying pan with a small amount of oil which would significantly reduce the greasiness. These crisped up very nicely in the toaster oven. 

Apple Fritter アップルフリッター

We received a Christmas present which included a good number of apples and pears. We finished all the pears and made a significant dent in the number of apples but we still had several honey crisp apples left. We happened to come across this recipe for “apple fritters”. Since we have never made an apple fritter, and we also happened to have some apples on hand, we decided to try it. It was kind of a production but we fried up fritters for breakfast one weekend. We did not bother with “glazing” them. Hot off the oil (#1) and with cappuccino/cafe late, this was quite a special breakfast. Crispy outside and soft inside with apple cinnamon flavors—can’t be beat, although we should not have this type of breakfast too often.

The original recipe came from “Serious eats”.

Ingredients

For the apples:
226 g granny smith apples (we used two honey crisp apples, peeled, cored and diced in small pieces)
42g unsalted butter (1 1/2 ounces; 3 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon plus a pinch kosher salt

For the dough:
355 g all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons apple pie spice*

2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Canola oil, for frying

*Apple pie spice: 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/2 tsp cardamon.

Directions:
In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly with a wooden spoon, until milk solids sink to the bottom of the skillet and turn light golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Add apples and stir to evenly coat in butter. Cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are crisp-tender and still hold their shape, about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and apples are glazed in sugar mixture, about 2 minutes. Transfer apples to a large plate and refrigerate until cool, about 20 minutes.

Set a wire rack inside a 13- by 18-inch rimmed baking sheet; set aside. Fill a large Dutch oven with 1 1/2 inches of canola oil and heat over medium-high until oil is 375ºF (190ºC).

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, apple pie spice, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt to combine; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk eggs, milk, sour cream, and vanilla to combine. Add sour cream mixture and cooked apples to dry ingredients, and, using a flexible spatula, fold together until a thick batter forms.

Working in batches carefully drop about 1/2 cup of batter into the hot oil and, using the back of a spoon, immediately press fritter until fritter is about 4-inches in diameter. Fry, adjusting heat as needed to maintain temperature, and use a spider skimmer or slotted spoon to flip fritters halfway through. Cook until fritters are browned, puffed, and cooked through, about 5 minutes (picture #2). Transfer finished fritters to prepared wire rack and repeat with remaining fritters (picture #3).

This recipe made a quite large amount (picture #3). The fritter heated up very well in the toaster oven. They were quite a treat (Can’t go wrong with sweet, spicy, fried bread.) The outside had a wonderful crunch and the inside was soft and sweetly spicy. The apple gave a burst of sweet fruit taste. 

Marinated Chicken Tender Cutlet 鳥のささみのカツレツ

We like chicken “sasa-mi” 笹身*  tenders and made quite a few dishes and posted them in the past. One of the problems with chicken tenders is that they tend to get dry when cooked. The best way is to make sous vide skin-on, bone-in chicken breast , then remove the tenders from the breast after cooking. This will provide succulent and chicken tenders. I serve these tenders by teasing them into small strands by hand and usually dressing them in sesame dressing. But only one tender can be had per chicken breast half. Other ways of cooking including Yakitori 焼き鳥 works well but over cooking happens if you are not careful. Japanese will serve undercooked (on purpose) or even “raw” chicken tenders but it is not safe to do so here. In any case, I came up with marinading the tenders in ponzu and mirin mixture (hoping the acidity of ponzu may further tenderize and keep them moist and the sweetness of the mirin mitigates the sour taste of the ponzu). I marinate them at least a couple of hours before breading and deep frying them (Chicken tender cutlet). The night I made these chicken tenders they had been marinating over night. Since I had hot oil when I cook them this way, I also fried some arancini I had made some time ago from left-over mushroom risotto. (I shaped the risotto into balls with cubes of Mozzarella cheese in the middle then breaded and froze them. I discovered you can deep fry frozen arancini and they come out really nice.) I served this with fried “renkon” 蓮根  lotus root marinated in X4 Japanese noodle sauce and then dusted with flour. I also served spicy tofu cubes (previously cooked and just heated up before serving in the toaster oven) (pictures #1). 

*Chicken tenders are called “sasa-mi 笹身” in Japanese. “Sasa” is a type of smaller bamboo plant (broad-leaf bamboo) and the shape of its leaves are similar to that of chicken tenders. “mi 身” means “meat”.

The chicken tender cutlets were indeed very nice. The tenders came from Whole Foods. We usually do not buy chicken from Whole Foods but these tenders are one of the best we can have. The round item shown on the left in the picture is the arancini cut in half (you can just see the melted mozzarella in it). The center item is the chicken tender cutlet and beside that on the right is renkon (picture #2).

Ingredients:
One package (1.5lb) chicken tenders

Marinade*
2 tbs Ponzu shoyu
2 tbs Mirin

(*Addendum 12/11/24: Now I use a new marinade which makes the chicken really tender and moist.)
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tbs soy sauce (or x4 concentrated Japanese noodle sauce which also adds a bit of sweetness and dashi-based umami)

Flour, egg water and panko for breading
Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
In a quarter gallon Ziploc bag add the ponzu and mirin, and the chicken.
Knead to spread the marinade and remove the air as much as you can and let it marinade at least few hours or overnight in the refrigerator

Remove the chicken leaving the marinade.
Bread it with the flour, egg water and Panko bread
In 180F oil, fry for 3-4 minutes turning until crust is golden brown and the center of the thickest part is opeque.

This was quite a meal. The tenders, arancini, and fried renkon were really good. Plenty of crunch with different profiles of flavors. (My wife really likes chicken tender cutlets made this way). The left-overs warm up perfectly in the toaster oven. 

Chicken Tender Fry with Salted Plum Sauce and Perilla ささ身の梅大葉揚げ

We were trying to use up frozen items hidden deep in the freezer. At one time, we bought chicken from a special poultry on-line store. We were not particularly impressed with the quality of the chicken we got. One of items was chicken the tenders. We decided they had matured long enough in the freezer so it was time to use them up. This is a variation on the chicken tender yakitori with perilla and salted plum sauce and is  based on a recipe posted on line. This time I shallow fried (picture #2) instead of cooking in the toaster oven.

Because it was fried with a batter coating, it has a crispy outside and soft inside with flavors of perilla and umeboshi 梅干 salted plum (picture #1). This combination works well. This heated up nicely in the toaster oven as well.

Ingredients:
10 chicken tenders, tendons removed and bi-valved (not cut through, just make a pocket)
10 perilla leaves

For Umeboshi  梅干しsauce or “Bainiki 梅肉 sauce
3 umeboshi salted plumes, meat cut off and finely chopped
1tsp mirin
1 tsp sake
1 tsp soy sauce
1 small pack of “kezuri-bushi” 削り節 bonito flakes 

For Batter
Equal amount of ”katakuri-ko” potato starch

Peanut oil for frying

Directions:
Umeboshi sauce
Add the chopped umeboshi fresh into a Japanese “suribachi” mortar, add the mirin, sake and soy sauce. Mix and grind using a pestle until smooth. Add the bonito flakes and mix to incorporate.

Smear the umeboshi sauce inside the bi-valved chicken tenders, close the tender and put the batter on one side of the perilla and encase the cut side, coat it with the batter and fry in the 180F oil, 1-2 minutes per side turning once (picture #2). Drain, cut in half and serve.

The umebishi sauce and perilla flavors are a very nice combination and frying makes it better. So there is no argument this is a good small dish to have.

Smelt Fry シシャモフライ

Smelt and Capelin (shishamo ししゃも) are all similar small fish and often (including myself) used almost interchangeably. Rarely I see “smelt” in a U.S. grocery store with head off and gutted. In oriental grocery stores, the whole fish is sold with head, gut and roe intact. If the fish has roe, all-the-better. Weee carries frozen “smelt” (label said capelin from Canada). We tried them twice so far and they are pretty good. The only problem is that it is sold in a package of 600grams (1.3 lb) of fish frozen together. I usually manage to semi-thaw them and divide it up into three or four smaller portions (7-8 fish per pack), vacuum pack and re-freeze them. It turned out these frozen smelt/capelin are quite good, probably best for frying rather than grilling. Japanese style slightly dried Capelin may be the best for grilling.

As suggested above, two common ways of cooking are grilled or fried. Frying can be “kara-age”; fried dredged with flour/potato starch, or tempura and fry with breading. The night I cooked the capelin I was also making arancini, so I breaded the capelin and fried it. I also fried  seasoned quail eggs. In the picture, the left two objects are halved arancini, center two are capelin fry and the right round one (half buried under the capelin) is a quail egg. Some of the capelin had roe and tasted especially good. The arancini was made from left-over shiitake risotto with a center of meting Mozzarella cheese which by definition could not taste bad.

There is no recipe for the Capelin fry. Dredge in flour, place it in egg water and bread it with Panko bread crumb and deep fry in 180F oil for several minutes. We are glad to now have reliable source  of smelt/capelin.

Egg roll 春巻き

Although I posted a few egg rolls 春巻, none are traditional/classic. So, I tried to make something close to “classic”. After consulting several recipes, I came up with this one. The filling is mostly vegetables (cabbage, carrot, bamboo shoot, rice noodle, shiitake mushroom, and a small amount of pork that I had roasted (in Weber with some smoke). It came out ok but we decided we are more used to and probably prefer gyoza 餃子 and shumai 焼売. We had fried shrimp heads from when we took out sashimi and sushi from Tako Grill. We re-fried and served them with the egg rolls. Sweet and sour sauce must be the most common dipping sauce but I did not make any sauce and instead, served this with green tea salt. 

Since I did not measure the ingredients, this is not recipe but note to myself. The filling made a total of 14 egg rolls.

Ingredients:
3-4 leaves of cabbage, thick ribs removed and cut into small rectangles
1 small carrot, peeled, sliced and Julienned
Half of a package of boiled  bamboo shoot, sliced and julienned
Ginger, skinned and thinly julienned
2 caps of fresh shiitake mushroom (dried could be better but I did not have time to rehydrate them )
1/4 package of dried rice “harusame” 春雨 noodle, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbs vegetable oil plus a splash of sesame oil
4-5 slices of roasted pork julienned (or uncooked julien or ground pork and shrimp)

Egg roll wrappers
Mixture of water and flour to make a slurry/glue (to fasten the ends of the egg roll wrapper)

Seasonings:
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tbs Xiaoshing wine
2 tbs Soy sauce
2 tsp potato starch + water to make slurry
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sesame oil

Directions:
In a wok on medium-high flame, add the oil and sauté the ginger, vegetables and the pork. Season with the salt and pepper. When, the vegetables are cooked add the seasonings and mix. Add the starch slurry and splash in the sesame oil and mix.
Spread the filling on a metal cookie sheet to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate covered.
(I made the egg rolls several days after I made the filling)

Assembly:
Place the wrapper diagonally and place the filling near center but more toward the bottom, fold the bottom corner over the filling and then both sides and roll. Paint the flour/water mixture on the far conner of the wrapper and complete the roll (see picture below). (I made the rolls 1-2 hours prior to cooking. I covered  them and placed them in the refrigerator).

Instead of my regular “tempura” set up, I used a 10 inch frying pan for to  “fry” them.  Place the rolls with the end seam side down first and turn it over after the bottom is brown and continue cooking until the wrapper is all brown and crispy.

These were pretty good. The filling was adequately seasoned and the wrapper was crispy. Initially we thought there is too much wrapper as compared to the filling since we were more used to the proportions of gyoza. But over time the flavors melded together and actually tasted better. We discovered one egg roll made a nice lunch. Also they crisped up very nicely in the toaster oven.

Duck Tender Cutlet and Arancini 鴨ささみのカツレツ

Looking ahead to the up coming Easter dinner my wife ordered a bone-in forequarter lamb roast from D’Artagnan.  She also ordered lamb tenderloins (which we’ve had before) and something we have never had before but which she wanted to try; duck tenders. They came as a fairly large quantity frozen in a single package (picture #4). I was intrigued by a french recipe which I saw in D’Artagnan website entitled “Yakitori de canard” 鴨ささみの焼き鳥. It was in french and although I did not look at it my wife assured me she could probably translate it if I wanted to try it. Nonetheless I can easily imagine this would be made exactly like chicken tender yakitori. (Hence no translation necessary.) But that is beside the point because I also wanted to make “arancini” for this meal. So it was “cutlet de canard” on the menu instead. In the picture #1, the top are arancini cut in half showing melted mozzarella cheese and the bottom shows the duck tender cutlet.

The duck tender is dark meat as opposed to chicken tender (picture #2) and has much more flavor.

The arancini was made of leftover shiitake mushroom risotto.

There is nothing special about making duck tender cutlet. After semi-thawing this is the amount we had (picture #4). They were frozen in a big one mass. I had to separate each tenders and vacuum packed 5-6 tenders per bag. I left one package for immediate consumption. Initially I was thinking of marinating the tenders before cooking but taking my wife’s suggestion that since we have never had them before we should taste them as is without any flavoring that might mask the original flavor. I opted to just lightly salt and pepper then breading them and cooking them the same as any other type of cutlet.

I was afraid of the duck tender to become dry after cooking but that was not the case and had much more flavor than chicken tender. I will definitely try to make “Yakitori de canard” next.

Arancini and Mini-Scotch Egg アランチーニとミニスコッチエッグ

My wife ordered some small appetizers from Harry and David. We were already going to order dried fruit medley from them to make fruit cakes and bread. So she added an assortment of small frozen appetizers to the order which included “arancini” among the other items. I told her that arancini is typically made from left-over risotto and I could make it very easily as long as we had left-over risotto. We tried the arancini we had ordered. During the heating, the cheese came out and it was ok but not great. Since we had made shiitake risotto a few days earlier, my wife took me up on my boast about how easily I could make arancini as long as we had left-over risotto and challenged me to make some. So with my feet accordingly held to the fire by this challenge I made arancini from the risotto. Since I would need hot oil for frying to make the arancini, I decided to also make mini-Scotch eggs from quail eggs and ground chicken. The picture below is not a great presentation—the arancini with the melted mozzarella in the center is shown on the left and the scotch egg with the quail egg in the center is shown on the right. We ate this immediately hot out of the oil with some Tonkatus sauce. Both the arancini and Scotch eggs had fresh shiitake in them and both were great.  The arancini had the melted mozzarella cheese in the center, a crunchy outer shell and soft risotto with a strong shiitake flavor.

For arancini

Ingredients: (made 8 arancini as seen below, the round ones are arancini and oval ones are mini-Scotch eggs)
Shiitake risotto (left-over) about 2 cups
Mozzarella cheese, 10 small cubes, low-moisture
Flour, egg, and Panko bread crumbs for breading
Oil for deep frying (I used peanut oil)

Directions:
Moisten your hands and make a ball about 1 and half inches in diameter and insert the cheese and encase it completely. If needed lightly squeeze to make sure the cheese is completely encased.
Bread the balls as usual; first coat with flour, then egg water and then with Panko bread crumbs (see picture below).

Deep fry in 180C (350F) oil for 2-3 minutes or until the surface is golden (everything is already cooked inside). See below picture.

The arancini I made were great straight out of the hot oil but they also warmed up nicely in the toaster oven. I would say the ones I made were much better than the store-bought and accordingly my wife has conceded that I met her challenge and has now commissioned me to make arancini whenever we have left over risotto.

Quail egg fry and Scotch eggs うずらの卵の串揚げとスコッチエッグ

We started using quail eggs ウズラの卵 from fresh eggs that we boil rather than using canned ones since the quality is much better. We can get fresh quail eggs from three sources; Weee on-line Asian grocery delivery service, our local Japanese grocery store (not always) and Whole Foods. Fresh quail eggs have their own problems, however. 1. It is difficult to judge if any eggs are cracked unless it is leaking the white or otherwise quite obviously damaged, 2. while boiling some quail eggs develop the cracks and 3. It is not easy to peel the shell without taking off some of the white. So the yield is 70-80% on good days. In any case, we got a dozen eggs and ended up with 10 boiled quail eggs (that is 83%!). I made mini Scotch eggs with the quail eggs and ground chicken. I also made “fried boiled eggs” (i.e. boiled quail eggs that are breaded and then deep fried). As a starter for one evening, I served half a Scotch egg, fried boiled quail eggs, fried shrimp heads from our Tako Grill take out and marinated or “zuke” tuna and hamachi sashimi. As a vegetable, I served “asazuke” 浅漬け of cucumber, nappa, daikon and carrot. I initially served with green tea salt and wedge of lemon. My wife requested “Tonkastu-sauce” as well.

I skewered two fried quail eggs with a tooth picks (shown under the shrimp head) emulating “Kushi-age” 串揚げ, Japanese breaded fried items on skewer, which is a classic Izakaya item.

How to prepare boiled quail eggs:
Add quail eggs to a pan of cold water on medium flame, as the water gets warmer, gently start stirring the water which helps to center the egg yolks. Once the water starts boiling turn down the flame and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately cool in ice water

Quaril egg Scotch egg:
Ingredients: Made 5
8 oz ground chicken (or beef or pork)
5 boiled quail eggs
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 shiitake mushrooms, finely chopped
freshly grated nutmeg, black pepper and salt to taste
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs Panko bread crumbs

For breading
Flour or potato starch
1 egg beaten mixed with 2-3 tbs water
Panko bread crumbs
Peanut oil for deep frying

Directions:
Sauté the onion and mushrooms in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, let it cool to the room temperature
Add ground chicken, panko and the seasonings, mix well and knead by hand (if too loose add more panko and/or potato starch).
Coat each quail egg in potato starch
Divide the meat mixture into 5 parts and make an oval 1/3 inch thick on your palm.
Place the egg in the center and encase it with the meat mixture to make an oval sphere (or ellipsoid)
Bread the sphere by coating in the potato starch (or flour), the egg water and the panko bread crumbs
Deep fry at 180F for about 5 minutes or until the bubbles become small
Cut in half and serve

This was quite good. The fried quail egg had a nice crunchy outside and the inside yolk was velvety smooth. The overall flavor was very nice too. It would have been easy to eat many more. The little Scotch egg was just the right amount as an appetizer for us. (We find the Scotch eggs made with regular hens eggs are too big.

New Divided Plate and 9 Otoshi Appetizers 9つ仕切り皿にのせたお通し9種類

This is on the theme of multiple small “otoshi” appetizers. Previously we used a 5 segmented plate to serve 5 appetizers. A few days ago, I found a 9 segmented square plate available on Amazon which was reasonably priced so I got two. I thought it would be hard coming up with 9 appetizers but I managed it with 8 dishes I made. The ninth dish was an exception since I didn’t make it. It was the fried shrimp head which came from Tako Grill when we had our sashimi/sushi take-out. (Shrimp head is a by-product of “botan-ebi” 牡丹海老 sashimi/sushi). In any case, I was surprised that once I started thinking otoshi I was on a roll and could have served two or three more appetizers if I wanted to. This was a nice start of the evening but even very small dishes are filling for us and we ended up with a  “shime” 〆ending dish after this.

In the 1st row, left, is a sugar snap in salt broth スナップ豌豆の塩びたし. We used to be able to get decent sugar snaps from our regular grocery store but recently, we have had to go to gourmet grocery stores to get decent ones This was crunchy, sweet soaked in salt dashi broth.

In the 1st row, center, are cucumber onion salad and stir fried shirataki, jalapeño pepper and enoki mushroom.

In the 1st row, right, is the cheese curd my wife made  but instead of jalapeño pepper, she added “Yuzukosho” 柚子胡椒, soy sauce and cream. I added a dab of yuzukosho on the side to provide an added “schmear” of yuzukosho flavor if desired.

Tsukune on a slice of lotus root 蓮根つくね.

“Uni-shuto” ウニ酒盗 from Maruhide. As I stated before this is the best uni aside from fresh uni. I served it with cucumber and perilla leaves.

I refried the shrimp head kara-age which was part of take-out from Tako Grill a few days ago. Shrimp head has a good amount of meat and is very crunchy but you have to be careful how you eat the prickly legs so as to not injure your mouth.

Recently, we discovered that Whole Foods carries fresh quail eggs. We really like boiled quail eggs. Although we can get canned boiled quail eggs, boiled eggs prepared from fresh quail eggs are much much better. I served it with marinara sauce, basil and sprinkle of salt.

Blanched asparagus with sesame mayonnaise. The dressing is a mixture of mayo, Japanese sesame paste or nerigoma 練りごま and soy sauce.

Salmon salad. My usual. The dressing is mixture of mayo, Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard.

We really like our new plates. If I serve 9 appetizers for two of us in small bowls, we have to wash a total of 18 bowls but here we had to wash only two plates. We really like the many small dishes we had here; true Izakaya-style.

Crispy Roasted Porcelet Belly パリパリ皮のロースト(子)豚バラ

Some time ago, we bought a special pork belly called “Porcelet” from D’Artagnan. It is from a milk-fed piglet and arrived with the skin on. The quantity was quite large so we divided it into 3 pieces one of which we used right away and froze the other two. Since the pieces in the freezer generally will not improve the longer we keep them frozen, we decided to make something out of one of the pieces. We thawed a portion of about 2 lbs. After consulting many recipes on the Internet, I decided to use the recipe from “America’s test kitchen (ATK)” on YouTube. It is a modification of a Chinese dish called “脆皮燒肉”. Actually ATK has two versions of video posted; one by  “The Pangs”, a father and son (Kevin Pang) Chinese cook duo and the other by Dan Souza. After watching both (which are mostly the same recipe), I cooked this porcelet with crispy skin. I made two sauces; one by Dan Souza which is inspired by North Carolina BBQ sauce with mustard and vinegar and the other by the Pangs which is Hoisin sauce based. We had this with oven fried potato which my wife made (using white potato and a bicarb treatment but using olive oil instead of duck fat) served with ketchup (picture below). OMG! This is an excellent pork dish with very crispy skin, juicy and tender meat/fat.

Here is the appearance of the pork belly after it was finished. The skin is golden brown and has multiple bubbles and extremely crispy.

Ingredients (This made three large portions providing servings for both of us for several meals over several days):
2lb skin on pork belly (in our case, porcelet belly)
Salt (for salting the skin)
Vegetable oil (to add to the rendered pork fat to make it 1 cup of fat)

For dry rub
Brown sugar and salt (1:1) ratio, we used regular sugar with one tsp dark molasses and kosher salt (#2)
Chinese 5 spice powder, optional, but makes it closer to the authentic flavors).
We found this rub a bit too salty so we will change the ration when we make it again.

Sauces (the amounts are from the original recipe, I made a much smaller amount keeping the ratios of the ingredients the same)

For the Chinese sauce
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
4 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tbs scallion, chopped

For the Mustard sauce
1 cup Dijon mustard

1/3 cup wine vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used dark buckwheat honey)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce (as much as you like, I used 1tsp Sriracha)

Directions:
Cut the pork belly into three equal portions (#1)
Cut the skin and underlying fat (but not the meat) every 1/2 inch interval (#1)
Put the dry rub (#2) on the meat side including the ends and sides but not on the skin (the sugar will make the skin burn while baking)
Salt the skin surface (about 1/2 tbs for each piece) (#3)
Refrigerate without covering for 12-24 hours  (To dry the skin surface) in a glass baking pan (liquid will come out while in the refrigerator)
Some juice accumulated in the bottom of the baking dish and the skin surface looks dry without residual salt visible
Place the pork in a baking pan with the metal rack
Bake at 250F for 2 and half to 3 hours (to the internal temperature of 195F, in my case the temp went over 200F) (#4)
Set the pork aside and pour out the rendered fat to the 1 cup measuring cup. Add more vegetable oil to make it 1 cup.
Pour the fat into a 12 inch frying pan and place the pork skin side down in the cold oil and then turn on the heat to medium (#5)
Fry for 5-8 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and develops multiple bubbles and crispy (#6)
Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before slicing using the slits on the skin as a guide.

This pork was fabulous; probably one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The meat was tender and the skin was wonderfully crunchy. It had a delicate pork flavor. We tried both sauces but we probably like the hoisin-based sauce best with this wonderful pork. The mustard sauce is good but a bit too vinegary for our teste. In any case, this is an amazing dish and the skin was crispy beyond belief. We are glad we made this dish. Our only concern is that it tasted a bit too salty for us. I may reduce the salt and/or increased the drying time in the refrigerator.

Addendum:
For us, knowing how best to reheat the left-overs is often important (since this is something we often do.) Particularly for this dish when re-heating, we would like to have the skin crispy and the underlying meat juicy. So, I sliced two each for a small appetizer one evening. I wrapped the slices together, standing up and wrapped all sides and bottom with aluminum foil but exposed the top (skin). I placed this package skin side up in the toaster oven and toasted at 7 (darkest setting for toasting bread). This heating method worked very well. The skin was crispy and the meat/fat underneath is soft and juicy and nicely warmed up. The picture below shows how I served it with the two sauces; The dark one on the left is the hoisin-based and the one on the right is mustard and vinegar. We both agree that the hoisin-based sauce is much better. The next batch I may add Chinese 5 spice powder in the rub.

Shrimp and Avocado Croquette エビとアボカドのコロッケ

This is another variation of Japanese potato croquette. I have already posted quite a few variations on this potato theme previously. I got the idea of adding shrimp and avocado to a croquette from watching one of the YouTube episodes. Since my wife had made mashed potatoes when we cooked chicken in the Weber grill a few days ago and we also had a ripe avocado which had to be used quickly, this was a no-brainer. I served this as an appetizer one evening with a side of Tonkatsu sauce. On the cut-surface, you can see pieces of the shrimp and avocado.

Ingredients (this made 9 small croquettes):
6 large shrimp, thawed, shell and vein removed, cut into bite size, salted and sprinkled with sake (#1).
1 ripe avocado, skin and stone removed and cut into bite-size cubes, tossed in juice of a half lemon (#2)
Mashed potatoes (I used the mashed potatoes my wife made (#3). (The amount is uncertain but they were made from 2 russet potatoes wrapped in aluminum foil cooked in the Weber grill when we cooked two small chickens. We ate a small amount of the potatoes with some of the chicken for dinner the night of the barbecue. My wife added butter, cream cheese with onion and chive, and seasoned with salt).
Flour, egg and panko bread crumbs for dredging and breading

Oil (I used peanut oil) for frying.

Directions:
Mix the mashed potatoes, avocado and shrimp (#4)
Portion out the mixture (I used an ice cream scoop) (#5)
With hands wet with water, press and form an oval-shaped disk.
Coat with the flour, egg-water and Panko bread crumbs for frying.
Refrigerate for a few hours before frying (or freeze)* to prevent the croquets from exploding while frying.
Fry for 2-3 minutes each side (#6)
Drain and serve immediately or heat up in a toaster oven after placed in the refrigerator for later consumption.

*I made this twice. The first time, I just refrigerated the mixture for one hour before shallow frying. It was mostly OK but some of the croquettes crust did not remain completely intact. The second time, I froze the breaded croquettes overnight and deep fried them without thawing which produced a much better result.

The contrast of the shrimp’s firm and avocado’s soft and creamy textures makes this croquette very nice. The potatoes served as a nice creamy background for the shrimp and avocado. The breading provided a very satisfying crunch juxtapose to the creamy filling. We really like this croquette.

“Canned mackerel and hanpen” Satsuma-age like fish cake 鯖缶とはんぺんの薩摩揚げ

Canned mackerel or “saba-kan” 鯖缶 is a very popular canned fish item in Japan and is readily available in the U.S. Upon inspection, of the canned mackerel in our pantry, I realized that the “Best used by” date had just passed on one of the cans. (I thought canned food lasted forever but that is apparently not the case). I needed to use this can fast and I then saw a perfect  recipe of fried fishcake on the Japanese website I follow using canned mackerel and “Hanpen” fishcake はんぺん.  This type of fishcake is called “Satsuma-age” さつま揚げ, which is a very common dish served grilled in Izakaya. Although I attempted to make Satusma-age from scratch, it was not quite authentic due to the lack of appropriate kinds of fish. The current version is interesting because instead of using ground fish meat “surimi” すり身 which is the authentic way to make Satuma-age this recipe used a mixture of canned mackerel and hanpen.  I served this with the usual grated ginger and soy sauce. It does not have the texture of authentic Sastuma-age but this was good; crispy outside and tender inside with the firmer texture of edamame and carrot. It all worked. The inclusion of ginger and deep frying toned down the otherwise strong flavor of the mackerel. This is a perfect dish with sake.

Ingredients:
One can of boiled (Mizu-ni 水煮) mackerel (190 grams with the liquid, about 150 grams fish meat), drained and crumbled
2 hanpen steamed fish cakes, frozen, thawed (240 grams), cut into small pieces.
1 tbs potato starch
1 tsp sugar
30 grams julienned carrot(1/3 of medium carrot), boiled or microwaved for 30 seconds
60 grams cooked and shelled edamame
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Peanut oil for shallow frying

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients until completely incorporated (The original recipe placed everything in a plastic bag and hand massaged it to make the dough, I did not have the patience to do that so I used an immersion blender, #1).
Mix in the edamame and carrot and make flat ovals (I made 8) (#2)
Add the oil to the frying pan to the depth of 5mm and heat to around 350F and shallow fry for 3 minutes (#3)
Turn over and fry the other side for 3 minutes (#4)
Drain and serve immediately (or once refrigerated, toaster-oven to warm).

This is not Satsuma-age but it is a nice fishcake and we really like it. Since the ingredients (hanpen and canned mackerel) are easy to get, this is a good and easy dish to make.

Tempura 天麩羅

I have posted quite a few tempura dishes. But I have  not made tempura for a long time. My wife wanted to have chicken kara-age 唐揚げ and I had marinated chicken thigh for “Kara-age” but I needed  to use new oil since I discarded the old reused peanut oil the last time I made a deep fried dish. Since fresh clean oil is best for making tempura, as my wife’s suggested, I made a few tempura items before frying the kara-age. I made, shrimp, shiitake and green beans tempura.

I am a bit out of practice making tempura and I made the batter a bit too thin but it came out OK. (Although not great especially for the shrimp.) I also re-fried the shrimp heads we got as part of take-out from Tako Grill. They came out very nice and crispy (better than heating them up in the toaster oven).

I served this small assortment of tempura with green tea salt and a wedge of lemon. After this, I cooked up the chicken kara-age. For dredging, I used half-and-half mixture of rice flour (“mochi-ko” 餅粉) and potato starch (“Katakuri-ko” 片栗粉) which was really good and produced more crunchy crust as compared to my usual potato starch.

Renkon "hasami-age" with avocado and cod roe アボカドとたらこのレンコンはさみ揚げ

My wife found an interesting YouTube series called "Kimono Mom".  A former geisha retired early got married, had a daughter, and now became a YouTuber showing Japanese cooking. She has many followers. In any case, we watched some of her episodes. One of the dishes she showed was "Hasami-age" はさみ揚げ meaning stuffing sandwiched between two slices of renkon 蓮根 (lotus root). The “sandwich” is then battered and deep fried. This is a common way of using renkon and I have previously posted such a dish.  The stuffing is usually meat especially chicken. Kimono Mom used a mixture of avocado and spicy cod roe called "mentaiko" 明太子. I happened to have a fresh renkon which I got from Tako Grill (besides packaed and frozen Japanese grocery items, Tako Grill grocery section now has some fresh Japanese vegetables and even sashimi blocks). I did not have "spicy" tarako but I did have frozen tarako. I could make tarako spicy by adding Sriracha. So I have everything to make this dish.

I also had fresh Japanese "shishi togarashi" 獅子唐辛子 pepper. So I just fried it as a side. I served the renkon dish with a wedge of lemon and green tea salt.

This is a rather unique and good dish. The renkon remains crispy and the avocado creamy with salty and lightly spicy (I did not add too much Sriracha) tarako flavors come through.

Ingredients: making 6.
One segment of fresh renkon, peeled and sliced (about 1/2 to 2/3 inch thick, I got a total of 12 slices).
6 perilla leaves
One sac of tarako, roe scraped out from the sac (#1)
One ripe avocado, stone and skin removed (#2)
Sriracha or other hot sauce to taste

For tempura batter
1/4 cup cake flour plus a bit more for dredging the renkon slices
1/4 cup carbonated water

Oil for deep frying

Directions:
Mash and mix the avocado, tarako with the sriracha hot sauce to taste (#3 and #4).
Lightly dredge the renkon slices. Put on a perilla leaf and then 1/6 (2-3 tsp) of the stuffing (#5).
Top the stack with another slice of renkon. Press lightly to secure (#6).

Heat the oil to 320F.

Mix the cake flour and cold carbonated water to make a relatively thin (like crepe batter) tempura batter.

Dip and coat the renkon “sandwich” and deep fry (#7) for fa ew minutes on one side. Turn it over and cook another few minutes then drain (#8) and serve.

I served this cut in half with a wedge of lemon and the green tea salt. We really like this dish. This could be good with beer but since we do not drink beer, we had it with cold sake.

Mixed seafood fry 海鮮フライ

This is our effort to clear up some frozen seafood inventory that has been in our freezer “long enough”. Among the items in danger of exceeding their allotted time were  scallops we got from Great-Alaska-Seafood and Pacific Oysters we got from Vital Choice wild seafood. I added shrimp also from Great-Alaska-Seafood to these items so that I could make a mixed seafood fry.

The picture below is not one of my better jobs at presentation, but hot out of the oil, these fried items were great. I served them with homemade Pa Dutch coleslaw, Campari tomatoes and wedges of lemon.

Although the scallops had freezer burn, I carefully shaved it off before cooking. Despite that, they tasted good. We should not be eating this type of fried food too often but when we  do, we  really enjoy it.

Mint and pea kakiage ミントと豌豆のかき揚げ

Sometime ago, I saw this recipe in the web version of a Japanese newspaper. I thought mint and pea kakiage (a type of tempura made with several small food items) かき揚げ was very interesting and unique but was dragging my feet in actually making it. The mint crop is flourishing in our herb garden and my wife harvested some to make mint tea recently. She reserved some mint leaves for me to use for this kakiage (so I found myself fresh out of any excuses for not making it.) Finally, I made this dish one weekend evening. I served it with wedges of lemon and green tea salt.

I did not remember the details of the original recipe (and I could not find it any longer) but I used cake flour and carbonated water to make rather thin tempura batter and it came out very light and airy.

Ingredients (I did not precisely measure anything but it made four kaiage tempura).
About 1 cup of fresh mint leaves, washed and dried.
About 1/2 cup of peas (I used frozen petit peas, thawed).
Cake flour for dusting.
Peanut oil for frying.

For Tempura batter
About 1/2 cup cake flour
Cold carbonated water.

Directions:
Lightly dust the mint leaves and peas with the cake flour (#1 in the third picture)
Mix the cake flour and the carbonated water to make thin tempura batter and add the peas and mint leaves (#2)
Using a slotted spoon, I scooped up the mint and peas and slid the clump into the hot oil (350F) (#3)
Turning once, I fried them until crispy and slightly golden then drained them (#4)

We couldn’t taste much of the peas but this was very light, airy and crunchy with refreshing mint flavor. Perilla leaves, which are a bit similar to mint leaves, are a standard tempura item which I have used in several variations but mint leaves are certainly unique. Since we have a good supply of fresh mint leaves during the summer, we might try this in different combination...asparagus and mint immediately comes to mind.

Addendum
I made this dish again a few days later. I also found the original recipe and only thing I missed was adding potato starch (should equal 1/2 the amount of cake flour used). I also added fresh corn. I lowered the hot oil temperature to avoid browning. All worked better.