Chicken Katsu with Sesame Scallion Waffles

Sometimes, southern comfort food is best. And sometimes, you really want something that’s an homage to the original with a different twist.

Here’s my take.

Chicken Katsu

• 1 package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (6-8 count)

• Salt

• 1 cup AP flour

• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• 3 eggs beaten with a splash of water (1-2 tbsp)

• 3 cups Panko bread Crumbs

• 3 cups vegetable oil

Season the thighs in a bowl with salt. Mix flour and peppers together and put in a pie plate or pasta bowl, and then also do the same with the egg and panko so you have three easy to use dishes of these items. NB: If your chicken thighs are huge, give them a whack with a heavy pot or tenderizer mallet to drop them down to less than 1/2 inch thick. you’ll thank me later.

Dredge 1 piece of chicken in the flour and tap off any excess flour — you’re just trying to get the egg to adhere to the chicken. Dip into the egg mixture and tap off excess, then — you guessed it — repeat with the panko. Stage the breaded chicken on a cutting board.

Repeat until you have all of them done and then get out a wide skillet or whatever you like to deep fry in. Add the oil and heat until shimmering, if you’re using a thermometer you’ll want to hit the 325-350º F range.

Add the chicken and fry until done, turning once. You’re looking for each side to be holden and crispy, and if you can maintain temperature, you’re going to probably be done in the 3-4 minute range depending on heat.

Drain on paper towels, hold warm in oven while you make the waffles.

Sesame Scallion Waffles

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 vegetable oil, plus extra for brushing the ol’ waffle iron (or pan spray, but not the butter flavored/baking versions)

• 1.5 cups whole milk

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1.25 tsp salt

• 2 cups AP flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp five spice

• 1/8 tsp sichuan pepper (if you’re lazy like me ground in a food processor and whatever chunks you get are what you get)

• 1/8-1/4 tsp white pepper, ground

• 1 bunch of scallions, trimmed, washed, and chopped

• 1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds (retoast them in a pan even if you buy roasted ones, the flavor is so much better)

Beat the eggs and oil together, the whisk in the whole milk, sesame oil, salt, sugar, flour, baking powder, five spice powder, Sichuan peppercorns, and white pepper until it’s just combined. DO NOT OVERWORK THIS AS IT WILL SUCK.

Add scallions and sesame seeds and mix until incorporated. Let sit a bit while you get your waffle iron ready.

Heat the waffle iron to a medium-high setting, and once it’s hot give it a oil wipe with that extra veg oil and pour in whatever amount of batter you need to cover it. I use a Belgian waffle iron, so I likely use more than you would in a standard one.

When your waffles are done, grab one of the Katsu and slice, then place directly on top of waffle on a plate. Dress with Hoisin, Sambal, Sriracha, Tonkotsu sauce, leftover peanut sauce you found in the fridge… whatever your heart desires.

Ramps, Ramps, Ramps!

I love ramps. There is no logical reason for how much I love ramps, but yet, here we are.

Once a year, I tend to buy a case of ramps during the 15 seconds they’re available and then turn it into so many things. This year, it’s pickles and pestos!

Genovese Ramp Pesto

• 2 quarts of ramp leaves, washed, dried, and loosely wrapped in paper towel

• ~0.32 lbs Parmesean cheese (small bag of grated from your local coop is perfect usually)

• 1 lemon

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1/4 cup pine nuts, freshly toasted in a pan

• 4 cloves garlic

Take off the paper towel wrapper from those ramps and drop all the above save the olive oil and lemon into your food processor. Squeeze the whole lemon in, and get it a-stirring. Once everything is finely chopped, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until you get a creamy looking consistency to the pesto. You may use more or less olive oil depending on your preferences.

Casa Del Krogan “House” Ramp Pesto

• 2 quarts of ramp leaves, washed, dried, and loosely wrapped in paper towel

• ~0.32 lbs Pecorino cheese (small bag of grated from your local coop is perfect usually)

• 1 lemon

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 tsp kosher salt

• 1/3 cup cashews, freshly toasted in a pan

Take off the paper towel wrapper from those ramps and drop all the above save the olive oil and lemon into your food processor. Squeeze the whole lemon in, and get it a-stirring. Once everything is finely chopped, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until you get a creamy looking consistency to the pesto. You may use more or less olive oil depending on your preferences. This one will be extra unctuous from the pecorino and extra creamy from the cashews.

2020 Experimental Vietnamese Pesto Flavor Bomb

This one is something new we decided to try out

• 2 quarts of ramp leaves, washed, dried, and loosely wrapped in paper towel

• 1.5 clamshells of mint (the plastic packed prewashed mint at the grocery store) leaves plucked off stem, washed and dried

• 1 cup Thai holy basil leaves plucked off stem, washed and dried

• 1/3 cup peanuts, freshly toasted in pan

• 2 inch hunk of ginger, peeled

• 4 garlic cloves

• 2-3 tablespoons of fish sauce (I used Red Boat)

• 2 limes

• 2 teaspoons white sugar

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon sambal or Chinese garlic chili paste

With this one, repeat as above, but save 1/2 of the ramp leaves from the first part and reserve them. Once the solids are ground, juice the limes in, add the fish sauce, and give it a blitz. Drop in your sambal and let the heat of the blade warm the mixture for a minute. Add more fish sauce or lime juice to reach pesto consistency. Once you’re there, pop the blender or food processor open and add in your last leaves, and process until everything’s broken up — this last step will help balance out the remaining herbaceousness of the holy basil and mint against the ramp and let the ramp really shine.

We’re serving this last one with rice noodles, sautéed garlic shrimp, hoisin glazed pork belly, scrambled egg, ground peanuts, and some fresh cilantro.

A Triumphant Return to Public House, Reykjavík!

We... pushed through.  We survived. And we have lived to tell of it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the awe and majesty that is Public House, Reykjavík, you are in for a treat.  It's a wonderful Icelandic/Japanese fusion restaurant with some amazing Izakaya style food.

Logan was excited for the meal.  Yeah, let's call this an "excited " face.

And we ate that place down.

Public House has been one of my favorite things to rant and rave about Reykjavík ever since we stumbled in there one day after a long wander around town in desperate search of beer.  Actually, all we wanted was some beers.  That was it.

It was October of 2015 the first time we set foot into this wonderful place.  AND IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT NIGH THESE MANY YEARS LATER.

The food is creative takes on some awesome gastropub food, and... damn, I just have to let it speak for itself.

I managed to snag shots of our 11 courses we ordered over the course of our 2 hour dinner.  All delicious, all wonderful.

JFC - Japanese Fried Chicken

Chicken kara-age, blue cheese sauce, BBQ

TEMPURA

Langoustine tempura, sriracha mayo, pico de gallo

WAAAAAASSSSSSSAAAB-I

Wasabi beans

SO NOT PIZZA

Fake “pizza”, beet root, goat cheese, truffle ponzu

SMOKE & A PANCAKE

Duck thigh in a pancake, avocado, ginger hollandaise

GO PORK YOURSELF

Iberico pork ribs, chili crumble, lime

JAR-JAR BINX

Steamed duck dumplings, nut soya

CHOPSTICKS

Duck chopsticks, truffle ponzu, chives

EDAMAME

Sake fried edmame beans, coriander, chili

TATAKI

Beef tataki, ponzu, spring onion, garlic crisps

LOLLIPOP

Spicy lamb lollipop, spring onion

Ground Pork Stirfry

One option to serve with the cauliflower rice from before!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and sliced into pennies
• avocado oil
• 1 shallot, diced as finely as you can stand to do it
• 5 cloves garlic, minced, shredded, or pressed
• Some ground pork (around 1 lb) or other ground meat
• 2 jalapeños or fresno peppers
• 3-4 tbsp coconut aminos
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 green onions sliced fancy like
• toasted sesame seeds for garnish
• Watercress for garnish
  
  Get your avocado oil nice and hot, then sweat your shallots (feel free to add onions too) and garlic in it.  Once translucent, add in your ground pork and get that nice and cooked up.

Once you get everything browned, add a little salt, your coconut aminos, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and give it a whirl.  When the peppers have started to wilt and mix in with the rest of the food, go ahead and garnish with your green onions, watercress and sesame seeds.  Serve with the cauliflower rice.

Cauliflower Fried "Rice"

At the end of June, a bunch of us decided that we really needed to do a whole30.  Paleo food for a month? Why not!

INGREDIENTS:

• Paleo compliant bacon (or regular bacon if you're not doing whole30)
• Ghee, avocado oil, or coconut oil (or other fat if not whole30)
• 4 eggs
• fish sauce
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 cups's worth of chopped green onions -- slice 'em pretty like
• 1 half an onion, sliced
• 4 cloves of ginger, minced, shredded, or grated
• 2 small heads (or one big one) of cauliflower (or pre bought pre shredded cauliflower if you live in a place that has that)
• 1 inch knob o ginger, minced
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 5-6 tbsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce if you're not whole30ing)
• 1 tsp sugar (substitute some apple juice or just skip for whole30)
• frozen peas
• shredded carrots
• sesame oil
• 1/4 c toasted almond slices (chopped peanuts work too if not whole30)
• Furikake 
• Rice Vinegar

Grate the cauliflower using a food processor and grating blade, box grater, or use a knife if you really hate yourself and want to dice two heads of cauliflower down to rice size.  If using pre bought "rice" skip.

Pop your frying oil in the pan, and add some diced bacon.  Get that nice and crispy, then remove the fried bacon to a paper towel lined plate.  Using the pan with the bacon fat in it, scramble up those eggs and fry up -- leave in large chunks so you can chop it up later.  Think "country style omelette" when you're making your scrambled eggs.  When done pop on top of your bacon on the plate.

Add a little more oil to the pan and get the onions, garlic, and ginger frying.  Once softened, add the grated cauliflower and shredded carrots and get those starting to infuse with flavor.

Once the cauliflower starts to soften, add the coconut aminos or soy sauce, pepper, red pepper flakes, sugar, couple dashes of fish sauce, furikake, and some salt and toss.  Taste, and add more of any of the above to your liking.

Once the cauliflower has had a chance to all soften to be like finished rice and you've got the flavor down, chop up that reserved omelette and add that, the bacon, frozen peas, nuts, maybe some extra dark green scallions, and continue to stirfry until everything is piping hot. 

Korean Style Popcorn Chicken (Dakgangjeong, 닭강정)

A few weeks ago, some friends of mine and I took a long weekend to head up to Lutsen, MN to escape from the city.  It was a weekend of fun, lots of drinking, and a buttload of cooking, including a ludicrous amount of Korean food and Soju consumption.

This recipe is from that night.  What I remember of it, anyway.  Did I mention the Soju?  I may still be hungover.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Package of Chicken Thighs, Boneless and skinless (we're being lazy here)
• 1 Tbsp Mirin (because the Soju wasn't open yet)
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• .5 tsp sea salt
• 2 big pinches black pepper
• Corn starch (or potato would work too if ya got it)
• Frying oil (we used Canola for this)
• .5 cups Ketchup (plain, regular, ketchup.  Heinz in da house)
• 1.5 Tbsp gochujang (Korean fermented chilli paste)
• 4 Tbsp dark brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• Sesame Seeds for Garnish
• Green Onions for Garnish, sliced
• Dry roasted peanuts, crushed, for Garnish

Take your chicken and hack it into small, bite sized bits and throw it all in a ziplock bag.  Add the rice wine, ginger, salt, and black pepper, seal that bad boy up, and then mix it with your now clean hands through the bag.  Pop it in the fridge for at least 30 min to marinate.

While that stuff is in the fridge, now's a great time to get the sauce going.

Take your ketchup, gochujang, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic, and throw that in a pot on the stove.  Heat it up slowly over a medium flame until it just starts to simmer -- the goal here is to get all that sugar to melt and leave you with a smooth sauce when it's all done.  As soon as the texture is smooth, pull that sucker off.  Also, feel free to riff on the quantities if you like a particular flavor more (Want it hotter? Add more gochujang.  Want it sweeter? Add a touch more sugar or honey.  Have people who hate freedom? Dial up that ketchup.)

Next, grab a bowl and drop some of your starch in it, so you can start batch frying this stuff.

I used a cast iron dutch oven, but if you've got a fryolater or deep fryer or even just a deep walled sauce pan you're cool using with it, go to town.  You're going to want enough that you can add a bunch of chicken to and keep the temperature high enough to prevent it from getting soggy (and also not cooking the chicken).  My dutch oven is 6 quarts, and a whole half gallon of fryer oil went into it.

You're gonna want an oil thermometer (different from a meat thermometer, but not necessarily different from a candy thermometer if you're on Amazon and having a lark) and you're going to want to balance your oil temp around 350ºF/175º (also, those are not the same temperature, but close enough for what we're going for here -- by the time the chicken looks done, it will be).

Once your oil hits temp, drop some of your chicken into the starch, give them a toss, and then pop those bad boys on over into it.  At temp, if you can keep it there consistently, you're probably looking at around 3-4 minutes until the chicken is done.  If you're like me, you're going to drop the temp down, and then have people talking to you and you're going to have a cocktail or three, and wind up around the 5 minute mark.  Lucky you, this recipe is still good if you overcook the chicken, but for fuck's sake, try not to.

When all the chicken is out, go ahead and toss your chicken with the sauce, top with some green onions, sesame seeds, and peanuts and serve.  Alternately, if you're like me and tired and a bit buzzed, go with the sesame seeds just as people are sitting down because you forgot all about the other things you brought.  Stainless steel chopsticks optional, but damn classy.