Katsudon

I made Katsudon last night for my first time ever.  It is one of my absolutely favorite dishes I get quite often here in Japan.  It was simply to make and so good. The fried pork cutlet on top is called Tonkatsu.  Then you have sticky rice and a slightly sweet sauce with onions and egg over the rice.  We use Japanese eggs because here in Japan they eat raw eggs quite often so they have much higher standards for their eggs.  We can cook them less or not at all if we prefer but using American eggs I'd cook it through.  You'd be surprised at how quickly you can get use to eating raw egg.  A year ago I would have said "no way", but now I do it often and enjoy it and actually sometimes prefer it that way in certain dishes.  This makes 1 bowl of Katsudon.  Just double or triple how you see fit to make as much or as little as you need.  I usually make it for two and use two separate skillets so the egg cooks for just that one bowl in that one skillet but you don't have to do it that way. 

The egg you are pouring into the liquid at the end needs to be just barely beaten.  You want it mixed but not like you do scrambled eggs.  Just enough to pop the yolk and give it maybe 4-5 mixes then you are good to go.  For sticky rice use a good sushi rice in a rice cooker on sushi setting.  You can usually find hon-dashi in the Asian section of supermarkets.  Instead of making a batch of dashi stock fresh this is the granulated way to do it.  Similar to how you use chicken bouillon for chicken stock if you don't have chicken stock or don't want to make it from scratch for just a small amount.   

Tonkatsu:

Pork Chop (Boneless)
1/2 c. Panko
1 beaten egg
1/2 c. All-Purpose Flour 

Sauce:

1 tbsp. mirin
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1/5 tsp. hon-dashi
1/8 c. water
1/2 onion thinly sliced

1 egg, very lightly beaten

Start your sticky rice.  Preheat your oil to 375 degrees.  Dredge the pork chop into flour, egg then panko and drop it hot oil and cook until golden brown and cooked all the way through.  It takes about 3 minutes a side roughly.  Place on paper towels and allow to cool while making the sauce.  Mix all sauce ingredients in a small skillet that has a lid.  Allow to come to a boil and turn down to a simmer for 5 minutes with lid on.  Cut the tonkatsu into slice and place into the simmer liquid.  Pour the beaten egg over the top and around the edges of the tonkatsu into the sauce and cover with the lid again.  Allow to cook for 45 seconds.  Remove lid and pour entire skillet of sauce, egg and tonkatsu over your sticky rice.  Enjoy!      

Asian Stuffed Peppers

I've been wanting to do stuffed peppers for a while now but everyone in my house starts complaining as soon as I mention it.  Tonight is my birthday and I can make whatever I want and no one can say a word so I decided to make these peppers.  I'm totally in love with ground turkey with Asian flavors and could eat it all day long so I decided to stuff it with my favorite.  I used baby red bell peppers so I only needed to bake them about 20 minutes until the peppers were really soft and tender.  I imagine using full sized peppers might take a bit longer.  I also opted to not mix my rice into my mixture as I originally planned to do for no reason other than my rice cooker was taking way to long cooking the rice and I didn't feel like waiting on it.  So I served it over brown rice instead.  This was a huge hit with my kids.  My husband of course doesn't care for ground turkey, peppers, onions or brown rice so I didn't expect him to jump up and down over it.  My 2 year old absolutely loved it and ate his entire pepper too before asking for more. 

Filling:
1lb. ground turkey
8 small red bell peppers
1/2 red onion
1/4 c. hoisin sauce
1/3 c. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. chili sauce (or any spicy Asian sauce)
1 tsp. olive oil 


Preheat oven to 375.  Chop the onion and 2 of the small bell peppers and add a bit of olive oil to a skillet and saute until just tender. Meanwhile slice the remaining peppers length wise and scoop out inside seeds and flesh to give the meat a place to rest.  Now, add ground turkey to pan with the onions and peppers and cook until not longer pink.  Add in the soy sauce, hoisin sauce and chili sauce and allow to cook a few more minutes.  Now taste to determine if you need salt as I don't add extra because the soy sauce is salty enough.  Place peppers on a non-stick baking sheet (or simply spray baking sheet with pam).  Fill peppers to the top and bake 20 minutes or until tender.  Serve over brown rice.  

Asian Noodle Bowls

Another recipe I found while looking through The Pioneer Woman's blog.  I liked this because it was a cold noodle dish and something easy to feed everyone spur of the moment without too much fuss. I really liked it but no one else in my house did.  I wasn't a fan of the meat cold so I heated that up but I liked the flavors of this.  You can see her recipe here The Pioneer Woman.    

Asian Noodle Bowl
 
1 whole Sirloin Steak, 3/4 To 1 Pound
 Salt To Taste
3/4 cups Soy Sauce
3 Tablespoons Pure Sesame Oil
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
1 teaspoon Hot Chili Oil
2 cloves Garlic, Peeled And Minced Finely
2 teaspoons Minced Fresh Ginger
2 Tablespoons Packed Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sliced Green Onion
8 ounces, weight Thin Noodles (I Used Thin Spaghetti)


Season both sides of the sirloin with salt. Grill on an outdoor grill or indoor grill pan until medium rare. Remove from heat and set aside.  In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, hot chili oil, garlic, ginger, and brown sugar. Mix to combine, then taste and adjust flavors/seasonings to your taste.  When steak is cool enough, place in a large plastic storage bag. Add 3 tablespoons of dressing. Seal bag tightly and place in fridge until needed.  Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and place in a bowl. Pour remaining dressing over the top and toss to combine. Finally, toss in green onions. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours or until cool. You can make the steak and noodles well in advance of when you want to serve.  To serve, remove steak from storage bag and slice against the grain into thin strips. Drizzle a little soy sauce over noodles just to give it a little flavor boost, throw in plenty of cilantro leaves, and toss to combine. Serve strips of beef over mound of noodles, or throw it all into a bowl together. Serve with chopsticks if you have them.

Baked Sweet & Sour Chicken

Trying to lighten up one of my husband's favorites I came across this baked sweet and sour chicken on Life as a Lofthouse recently.   Of course, it isn't the same as the amazingly delicious deep fried version but for a lighter version it was good.  I normally don't like the sweet and sour sauce made with ketchup but because this sauce cooks in the oven for an hour it was pretty good.  I would say definitely use tinfoil to make your clean-up easier otherwise the sauce will probably never come off your pan!   

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Salt & Pepper

1 cup cornstarch

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup canola oil

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp. ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. garlic salt

Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees. Rinse your chicken breasts in water and then cut into cubes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken into the cornstarch to coat then dip into the eggs.  Heat your 1/4 cup oil in a large skillet and cook your chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place the chicken in a 9x13 greased baking dish. Mix all of your sweet and sour sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk and then pour evenly over the chicken. Bake for one hour and during the baking process you will need to turn the chicken every 15 minutes.  

Sweet and Sour Chicken

When my husband and I lived in South Carolina we ate out ALL the time.  Granted at the time we were much younger, both worked full-time, were non-military and had no children.  Now with two young children, my husband in the military and me being a stay-at-home mom I realized the importance of cooking.  Especially in the state of Washington.  I'm not sure if we are just use to the food we use to eat in the South but I tell you the food in our area is absolutely dreadful.  I'm not saying the food in Seattle is dreadful as with two small children we don't really have the time to go there and try it and we can't really take our monsters out to anything fancy in Seattle either.  I'm speaking about our area specifically.  We go out to eat probably once every few months and it leaves us disappointed.  So I've learned to make some of our favorites.  This is one of them.  We use to get Chinese take-out all the time and we haven't found any place around here that even compared to what we were use to.  I found that most sweet and sour sauces have ketchup added which to me made it taste like a bunch of stuff with ketchup in it.  I didn't like it.  This is my own version of what I think sweet and sour chicken and sauce should taste like.  

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

1/2 c. pineapple juice

1/4 c. rice vinegar

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tbsp. tomato paste

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 carrot (rough chopped)

1/4 green bell pepper (rough chopped)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and whisk together until cornstarch is dissolved.  Allow to come to a boil and turn down to a simmer for about 10 minutes to allow flavors to combine.  Remove carrot and bell pepper before serving.  I like to add some of the pineapple into the sauce while it cooks and serve it with it as well. 

Batter:

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 c. ice cold water
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat dutch oven or deep fryer to 375 degrees.  Combine the cornstarch, flour, baking soda and water.  Add diced chicken pieces and then drop directly into hot oil.  Cook until golden brown, roughly 8 minutes.  

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Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry

This is one of the many different types of stir-fry recipes I use in our house.  I love making stir fry because you can take what you have in the house and throw it together.  You can use chicken, pork or beef.  You can throw in broccoli, peppers, onions, mushrooms, asparagus, sugar or snap peas.  Whatever you have and whatever you like can be combined into one delicious stir-fry.

Beef & Broccoli Stir-Fry

1 egg white
3 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tbsp. corn starch
1/3 c. orange juice
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. mirin
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
3 lb. Flank Steak
1 head of broccoli
4 mini sweet peppers
1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp. canola oil

At least 1 hour before you want to start your stir-fry prepare the meat tenderizer and toss with the meat. This is 1 egg white, 1 tbsp. corn starch and 1 tbsp. rice vinegar. You don't want to do this too far ahead of time because the vinegar will start to break down your meat.  Whisk together and add to a large ziplock bag.  Take the flank steak and cut strips against the grain of the meat (cut the opposite way the lines are going on the meat to prevent it from being tough).  In a separate bowl toss the orange juice, soy sauce, mirin, 2 tbsp. rice vinegar, garlic, ginger and 1 tbsp. corn starch and whisk and set aside.  Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil and add a bit of salt.  Blanch off your broccoli by simply placing it in the boiling water for about 2 minutes and taking out.  Set aside to toss in your sauce later.  Use a wok or skillet on a medium high heat and in batches sear off the meat until nice and brown on each side and put aside on a separate plate until all meat is seared.  You don't need to cook it fully at this point because it will cook more in the sauce.  Now add the vegetables such as the broccoli and peppers with 1 tsp. oil and begin to saute.  You want to give them about 5 minutes.  Add in your sauce and beef and cover and allow to thicken a bit and give it a cup turns to coat everything.  Top it with seseame seeds.  Serve over rice or something else great to try is regular spaghetti noodles cooked and then tossed into the pan and covered with the sauce.

Asian Lettuce Wrap

I had ground beef defrosted tonight for dinner and wanted to do something different.  I get tired of the same ol' tacos, spaghetti and burgers we normally do with ground beef.  Granted it isn't easy to make ground beef look appetizing  in a picture but the flavors in the meat is really good so I didn't want to not post the recipe simply because my ground beef wasn't having a very photogenic day.  In the picture the peppers are sweet mini peppers.  I've been using a lot of those lately with my asian dishes because I love the pepper rings oppose to the strips and my daughter loves raw peppers and to keep her from getting bored I switch it up occasionally.  I just roll up my lettuce and eat it like a wrap.  My husband thinks that this is unmanly so just eats his over rice.


Asian Lettuce Wrap



1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
2 tbsp. chili-garlic sauce 
1  tsp. toasted sesame oil
4 tbsp. soy sauce
1/3 c. hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. sherry vinegar
2 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
Bibb Lettuce 
Bell Peppers 


Add ground beef to a pan and brown.  Whisk together the chili-garlic sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, sherry vinegar and ginger.  Pour onto meat and simmer for another 5 minutes.  I like to serve mine just like the picture shows.  I serve it over brown rice with diced red, yellow and orange bell peppers.