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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.

 

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