KARAGE CHICKEN
When I first had Japanese food MANY years back I really hated it. My dad had taken the family to some restaurant in Hurlingham to welcome my aunt Ciru back home. All I remember from that night is how me and the toilet bowl were best friends for the night. I cud not stand the food especially the thought of having raw food. Years later I was introduced to more “African” friendly dishes (read fully cooked) I was introduced to sushi rolls with cooked fillings and also to Karage and some saucy chicken wings whose names I do not remember, from there at least I have been able to move to the more experimental foods.
Anyway as I had posted last week I asked my Japanese colleague Tomoko to teach me and my gals a few Japanese dishes and in addition to Teriyaki Chicken she also taught us this dish that Liz kept calling Karanga (dry fried meat in Swahili). It was really good. We ate it with just a bit of mayonnaise and rice and it was really good. Hope you like it too. HAPPY COOKING!!
2 chicken fillets (butterflied)
· 1 egg
· 2 tablespoons Sake ( you can use sherry if you do not have, but you can buy from Health You stores)
· 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (Tomoko swears by Kikkoman brand)
· 1 teaspoon of sesame oil ( if you do not have regular oil will do)
· 1 teaspoon garlic
· 1 teaspoon ginger
· 1 ½ tablespoon of corn/potato starch (if you do not have replace with corn flour or regular flour)
· 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
· Oil for frying
Ingredients Instructions Mix the Sake, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and oil in a bowl.
Cut the chicken up into cubes and place into a zip lock bag. Pour the sauce into the bag and mix up well. ( if you do not have the zip lock bag you can mix this up in a bowl. Refrigerate for 30mins.
Break the egg and whisk it, add it into the zip lock bag and mix well. Refrigerate for a further 30mins.
Remove the chicken from the sauce and drain out excess fluids. Mix the corn starch and flour and place the chicken in the flour and toss till well coated
Heat the oil till hot. Place the chicken in the oil and cook till slightly brown. Remove and set aside. Cook till all the chicken bits are browned then return them to the hot oil ( start with the ones you first removed)
Cook until completely cooked. ( this makes the chicken crispier). Serve hot. HAPPY EATING!!!
Cooking Club; Class 2: Japanese: TERIYAKI CHICKEN
Our lovely teacher Tomoko
Last year one of my gals, Mo came up with an idea of starting a club in Kakuma. Her brilliant idea was that we start a book club which we all refused because, well it was too…………. (Insert whatever politically correct term you want to put there).
After a lot of thinking and with me starting the blog Liz said we should do a cooking club. It took us forever to have our first meeting and even to coordinate what we wanted to learn. We had the first club meeting at my house and I think we made roast chicken with veggies, it wasn’t too bad but we did not take photos (maybe purposely). After our first meet up I started having an urge to take advantage of the multi-cultural nature of our office. We have international staff from quite a number of countries and I felt that I should at least learn a few of the dishes before I leave Kakuma (God knows when that will be)
Since I have taken a liking to Japanese food I decided to approach Tomoko to teach me how to make Chicken Teriyaki and Karage Chicken (which Liz kept calling Karanga chicken LOL) it was a great night, we learned a lot, ate good food and had lots of laughs. Hope you will enjoy the meal. HAPPY COOKING!!
OOOH Forgot to mention I first heard about Teriyaki chicken from my pal Ngome back in 2006 I had no idea what that was and he thought I was such a shade (ignorant person from the village) well Ngome at least now, 6 years later, I can make it 🙂 .
NB: the photos did not turn out soo great but the food was really tasty, trust me!
*After a lot of public out cry from the brains behind the book club and her cronies I hereby apologize for forgetting whose BRILLIANT idea it was to start the cooking club, the idea was Liz Chege. I am sorry that forgot 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce ( Tomoko swears by Kikkoman brand)
- 1 tablespoon Mirin ( get from Nakumatt)
- 1 tablespoon Sake (get from Healthy U stores, there is one at Westgate and Yaya Malls)
- 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
- Freshly ground black pepper
- A little all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Instructions
Place the fillets in between two sheets of cling film and bang them with a meat mallet or rolling pin till thin.
Generously pepper the fillets with the black pepper.Place the peppered fillets in the flour and cover completely with a thin layer.
Mix the mirin, sake and brown sugar in a bowl.
Put about a tablespoon of oil in the pan.
Place the fillets in the pan, pour in the sauce and cook for about 5 mins on each side.
Cut up the cooked fillets and serve. HAPPY EATING!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/cooking-club-class-2-japanese-teriyaki-chicken/
SPEEDY AS…… PEPPERED FISH
I’ve been lazy of late.
Ok maybe not lazy but pressed for time so maybe the word is busy.
I don’t seem to have time to do ANYTHING outside of my work! And I don’t seem to do enough of my work either. Don’t know what happened to the 24 hours in a day coz to me it feels more like 8hrs.
Oooh and did I mentioned? I’m not getting enough sleep so beats me where my time is going.
Anyway last week after my not so productive day I felt like a speedy “healthy” meal so I opted for fish and mango cucumber salad. Food was ready in about 15minutes start to end, how happy was I? So this is a recipe for one of those days when u wish u had a cook in your house but because life is just sooo unfair you have to fix meals yourself and you can’s stay hungry you make this. Happy Cooking!!
Ingredients
- 2 good size fish fillets or one large cut into two
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon coriander powder
- salt to taste
- ½- ¾ cup of bread crumbs
- About 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour
- 3 tbsps of oil for frying
Instructions
Break the egg into a bowl; add the peppers, garlic and coriander powder and salt. Beat till well combined. Set aside
Place the Fish in the flour and coat well. Remove it from flour
Place floured fish into the egg mixture and coat well.
Put immediately into the bread crumbs and coat well.
Put about 3 tablespoons of oil into a pan. Once hot place the fish
Cook until it browns, about 4-5 minutes, then flip and cook other side. Try and flip it only once.
I had this with the Mango and Cucumber Salad from a previous post (click on link to view post. HAPPY EATING!!
https://www.themothershipvillage.com/speedy-as-peppered-fish/
