Skip to main content

Food Week - A classic Japanese appetizer for you to enjoy

 Edited BY


G P Kennedy


Karaage by Ian and Minako

 

“What’s this? Japanese fried chicken! I thought these guys were vegan!” we hear you say.

Don't worry; this is the soy meat version.

 

 Karaage actually means something that's coated in flour and deep-fried.

Chicken is by far the most popular karaage but it could be any meat or even fish. It's a fast food that you’ll find everywhere in Japan at home, in lunch boxes, in restaurants, bars, convenient stores and festival stalls.



 The “meat” is marinated and lightly coated in flour or potato starch before deep-frying in oil. It's common to use the twice-fry method to make it extra crispy on the outside but we don't normally bother. It's typically served on a bed of shredded cabbage or salad along with with rice.

 

 We always make enough to use on a second day, it's great in a sweet and sour sauce or stir-fry.

 

Ingredients

For about 20 bite size pieces

Dried soy meat chunks

 

For marinade:

50 ml soy sauce

1 teaspoon grated garlic

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1-teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon marmite (Note: this is our (optional) secret non-Japanese ingredient, don't tell anyone)

 

Plain flour, rice flour or potato starch

Oil for frying

 

Method

Re-hydrate the dry soy meat pieces according to product instructions.

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl.

Squeeze excess water from the soy chunks and put into the marinade and leave for 30-60 minutes ensuring the meat is well saturated.

Heat enough oil for deep-frying to 180 deg C.

Squeeze the soy pieces, you want enough of the marinade to keep the flavour and moistness but not too wet.

Lightly coat the pieces with flour and drop carefully into the oil.

This is best done in batches as too many pieces lower the oil temperature. We normally do 2 batches of ten but soy chunks can be quite small.

Fry until they look ‘done’, getting crispy and darker.

(For twice-fry method, fry at 160 deg for a while, then take out, rest for 5 minutes then re-fry at 200 deg.)

Drain well and serve up.

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 16 - Daily Diaries - Saturday in London is a 20-hour Momma marathon for Sally

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Sally...,and the baby - London, UK  02:05am  Good morning…. the baby, as usual, has woken up for a bottle of milk.  She is still in our room, before Covid 19 hit we found black mold in the nursery and the landlord wouldn’t sort it out. Then we went into full lockdown and for a few months people could not come into your house to do work, so to cut a long story short the baby is still in with us at 15 months old!  She is not the best sleeper and wakes 2-3 times a night, so we haven’t had a full night’s sleep in forever. She wouldn’t settle after the bottle and nappy change so came into bed with us.   06:25am  The baby is awake again which means we all are.  After 6 o’clock is good as she is usually ready to get up for the day between 5am and 5.30am.  We have a small Android tablet, which we will put CBeebies on just so we can get 30 minutes more sleep usually. The baby's room 07:00am  The baby and I are up for break...
Post a Comment
Read more

Racial Justice and Equality - Part 6 - An Awakening

Edited BY G P Kennedy Sally - London, UK #blacklivesmatter  The death of George Floyd has been a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement to be brought for the forefront of the news.  The color of someone’s skin should not matter in 2020 but for many ignorant, racist, prejudiced, ill-informed people, it still does?  Seeing and reading some of the stuff on the news and on social media, it is unbelievable to see that we are still living in a hugely racist world.     I admit that I thought it was getting better as I tend to surround myself with people that are similar to me, people that do not judge others by their color, their appearance, their sexual preference but by what kind of human being you are, but I have realized this is not a realistic view of the world.    I am from a predominantly white family but I have close relatives that are black so I know about racism through them and am disgusted at how cruel some people can be.    S...
Post a Comment
Read more

Music Week - Day 3 - Love and Friendship

Edited BY G P Kennedy   Day 3 of Music Week takes us from West Africa to the normally bustling hub of Karachi, Pakistan. Here we find Tassy, our yoga expert, taking time out to contemplate love, family, and friendship, with two of her favorite songs. Tassy - Karachi, Pakistan    Rose Rouge – St Germain  This song represents friendship. In our lives before Corona, which feels like an eternity ago but was actually not so far back, every weekend an intimate circle of friends we have known for almost thirty years, and in my husband’s case since childhood, would meet.  Sometime soon after sunset around 7:30pm I would go to my living room, and set the tone and mood for the evening that would follow. Lay out the drinks, fill up nut bowls, light the candles, and put on my music.                                        My playlist invariably would start with this song...
Post a Comment
Read more