Curry Don Katsu

Using the curry recipe from the previous post, you can make another great dish. You are probably familiar with a famous Japanese dish named Katsu. Katsu refers this breaded deep fried meat. Don katsu refers to fried pork chop basically. Chicken katsu is fried chicken meat (usually breast) that is flat in a shape of steak. In the United States, I usually see chicken Katsu more often than Don katsu though I believe the original katsu dish included pork. Well, it doesn't really matter which meat you use. Also, if you have some leftover curry from the other day, you can use that as sauce for this dish.

1. You need a few pieces of sliced pork loin.



2. Using your kitchen knife, make some cut marks in both directions to soften up your meat.

3. Sprinkle a little bit of black pepper.

4. For batter, use 1/2 corn starch and 1/2 flour and mix with water and eggs. (1 cup of starch, 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup of water)


5. Dip your meat into the batter.

6. This is Panko, Japanese bread crums used for deep frying meat.

7. As soon as you take your meat out of your batter from step5, put Panko all over your meat.
Do that for every piece.

8. Heat up oil in your wok for 7 minutes in high heat. Then deep fry your meat for about 7 minutes until blood stops coming out of your meat.

9. After you take your Katsu out, put them on 2-3 layers of paper towel. You want to drain as much oil as possible from your meat before eating.

10. Pour curry sauce over your Don katsu. The side dishes are pickled Daikon and cabbage salad.
Enjoy!

Pecking Style Chinese Spicy Chicken Wings

This Pecking style Chinese spicy wings dish is called "Kan Pung Gi", "Kan Pung Ki", "Gan Pung Gi"or "Gan Pong Ki." It is a Chinese dish sold at some Chinese restaurants. It is especially common in Chinese-Korean restaurants. In Korea, there are a lot of Chinese restaurants that use recipes from mainly Pecking or Manchurian region, which also serves the taste of spice loving Koreans. I don't know if the dishes became extra spicier as these Chinese food became culturally assimilated in Korea but some of the dishes are spicy using the dried chili peppers. This dish is definitely an example of that.

First you need to fry some chickens.

1. Pour milk into chicken wings. Milk will get rid of any bloody flavor of chicken and make it taste smooth.

2. Add 2tbsp of minced garlic and sprinkle some black pepper.

3. You let the wings get marinated into milk for 20 minutes.

4. Then drain out the milk, preserving the garlic pieces.

5. Pour 3tbsp of sake (rice wine) into the wings.
6. Sprinkle some smoked paprika powder and ginger powder.

7. Mix it around and you need to put this in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
8. Now it's time to start making some batter. It won't be much of liquid batter. Instead, add 4:1 ratio of flour and corn starch to the wings and mix them around.

9. Now prepare a container with corn starch.

10. Throw chicken wings into corn starch and let the powder get onto the meat thoroughly. Make sure you do this quickly and throw it into the hot oil for frying while the corn starch is still dry on the outside. Once the chicken soaks up the powder, you will not get a crispy clothing after you deep fry them.


11. Deep fry the wings for the first time. Do not make the oil extremely hot for the first time. You can leave the oil in medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes before deep frying. This way, you get to slowly cook the chickens thoroughly all the way inside for the first time. Take about 10 minutes to cook. It's always a good idea to take a sample to see if it's been fully cooked, though.

Once you take the chickens out, you will have nice and crispy wings. You can still eat the wings at this stage, however, normally chickens are fried for the second time to make sure it gets very crispy. If the chickens are crispy enough for your taste at this stage, and the chickens are fully cooked, you might as well skip second frying.
This is what it looks like after deep frying for the second time.

Have a closer look.

Now let's make the sauce in which you will be stir frying your fried chickens.

12. Finely chop onions, and slice Serrano peppers.

13. Cut off the tip of dried red chili and empty out the seeds. If you cook with seeds, you are assuming the risk of having a hell fire in your mouth.


14. Pour about 2 cups of sake (rice wine).

Heat up for 2 minutes.

15. Add minced garlic and 2 table spoons of chili oil.

16. Add the vegetables you prepared in step 10 and 11.

17. Add about 3 table spoons of soy sauce and 1 table spoon of vinegar.

Sauce is ready.

18. Add the fried chickens into the sauce and soak the chickens in.

19. Add corn starch to thicken up the sauce. Dissolve it in a cold cup of water first.

20. Add green onions and heat for another 1 minute.

Finished!

As for garnish, you can use crushed peanuts of cashews to sprinkle over the chickens. Enjoy!

Korean Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken Wings

This Korean sweet soy glazed chicken wings dish is called "Gangjung dahk." I'm not quite sure exactly what Gangjung means but it means something like "candied." Anyways, I remember I tasted the best sweet soy glazed chicken wings at a local farmers' market in Incheon, Korea when I was little and just fell in love with it and so I gained 10 pounds from eating those a little too much everyday over a winter break.

1. Pour milk into chicken wings. Milk will get rid of any bloody flavor of chicken and make it taste smooth.

2. Add 2tbsp of minced garlic and sprinkle some black pepper.

3. You let the wings get marinated into milk for 20 minutes.

4. Then drain out the milk, preserving the garlic pieces.

5. Pour 3tbsp of sake (rice wine) into the wings.
6. Sprinkle some smoked paprika powder and ginger powder.

7. Mix it around and you need to put this in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
8. Now it's time to start making some batter. It won't be much of liquid batter. Instead, add 4:1 ratio of flour and corn starch to the wings and mix them around.

9. Now prepare a container with corn starch.

10. Throw chicken wings into corn starch and let the powder get onto the meat thoroughly. Make sure you do this quickly and throw it into the hot oil for frying while the corn starch is still dry on the outside. Once the chicken soaks up the powder, you will not get a crispy clothing after you deep fry them.


11. Deep fry the wings for the first time. Do not make the oil extremely hot for the first time. You can leave the oil in medium high heat for about 10-15 minutes before deep frying. This way, you get to slowly cook the chickens thoroughly all the way inside for the first time. Take about 10 minutes to cook. It's always a good idea to take a sample to see if it's been fully cooked, though.

Once you take the chickens out, you will have nice and crispy wings. You can still eat the wings at this stage, however, normally chickens are fried for the second time to make sure it gets very crispy. If the chickens are crispy enough for your taste at this stage, and the chickens are fully cooked, you might as well skip second frying.
This is what it looks like after deep frying for the second time.

Have a closer look.


12. Now, let's make the sauce. First you heat up minced garlic over a hot pan.

13. Add about 3 table spoons of soy sauce to the pan.

14. Add about a cup of water and then 2 table spoonds of sesame oil and corn starch.

15. Then add corn starch. You need to dissolve the corn starch in a cup of cold water before adding. Directly mixing the power will result in forming chunks.

16. Little bit of brown sugar.

17. Then add finely chopped onions.

Finally, either dip your fried chicken wings into the sauce or pour the sauce over the chickens. Garnish the dish with crushed peanuts or cashews, and dried red chili. Enjoy!