Dinner Tonight

This is just a quickie post, I'll get to posting the recipes later.

The roommate and I decided to cook a couple dishes tonight and share. Found a nice fresh looking whole tilapia at Super 88 and decided to steam it with some ginger and scallions. Also been meaning to make Ma Po Tofu for a long time and it turned out pretty well. Could be a little saltier but it was still pretty good :)

Here's a teaser pic, I'll post one of the recipes tomorrow I hope.

Pork Katsu-don

One of my favorite dishes to get for lunch at the Porter Exchange (most notably, Cafe Mami) is Pork cutlet-don. They have the meat pre-marinated and then fried up to order, mixed with some onions and an egg, and served steamy and hot! Quick, cheap, and very tasty!

The pork katsu-don always seemed like something that I could try my hand at making but my previous attempts weren't so great (read : failures). I never could get the sauce right, either it ended up too salty or just plain flavorless.

But then my roommate cooked it up once using a couple recipes and it tasted great, so I had to try one more time. I grabbed the recipes he used and then compared them to a couple other I found online and came up with the version I'm posting today. (This is the version I closely modeled : mmm-yoso)

Anyway, on to the food!

Pork Katsu-don

Ingredients
4 Pork cutlets (boneless pork chops - about 3/4 a pound)
1 medium onion, sliced
4 eggs, lightly beaten (can use more if you like)

Sauce
3 tbsp sake (or other rice wine or sherry)
3 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp mirin
5 tbsp soy sauce
3/4 cup water
1/3 tsp Dashi

For Dredging
Flour
Panko Breadcrumbs
More eggs, beaten

Method
1. Use a meat tenderizer to flatten out the cutlets.
2. Dredge the cutlets first in the flour, egg, then breadcrumbs.
3. Pan fry until almost cooked through, set aside.
4. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil and then add the sake, sugar, mirin, and soy sauce. Return to a boil, add the dashi and simmer.
5. Pour 1/4 of the sauce into a small frying pan and bring the sauce to a simmer under medium heat. Add 1/4 of the onion.
6. Slice a cutlet along the width (try to maintain the shape of the cutlet) and place in the pan on top of the onions. Then pour 1/4 of the eggs on either sie of the cutlet. Cover and simmer for about a minute or so.
7. Remove cover and serve over rice.
8. Repeat 4-7 for the rest of the cutlets.
9. Top with some chopped scallions

NOTE: If you really like sauce, you can add 50% more to the recipe or even double it.

Thai Thani - Norwood MA

Thai food is one of my favorite kinds of food to eat when going out. The combination of spices, sweetness, and flavor really are great for a kick during lunch. That and I have a special affinity towards noodle dishes, they're probably my favorite style of dish too!

Thai Thani is a small 6-7 table restaurant down in Norwood that I frequent about once a week for lunch. They don't do a lot of my favorite noodles since they don't serve the wide flat (haw fun) noodles, but their curries and basil pad thai are excellent (ask for the duck!). Cheap, quick, and tasty :)

House noodle soup

Tom Yum Soup with Chicken

House Fried Rice

Basil Pad Thai

Mixed Greens and Chicken Udon Stir Fry

I ended up with a couple different packets of noodles once, some udon and some other rice noodle that I don't have a name for. Had some watercress, chives, and scallions in the fridge so I threw those together with some marinated chicken. It was my first time putting a dish together without any real recipe and it actually turned out alright (no fires or explosions thankfully)

The Amoy Chicken Marinade is a great soy sauce, it's a little bit sweeter than normal soy sauce and works really well with chicken (hence being chicken marinade :P). I threw that in with some sesame oil, more sugar, a little fish sauce, corn starch, and some sherry and marinated it overnight.

Mixed green and chicken stir fry

Marinade
3-4 tbsp Chicken Marinade
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp corn starch
2 tsp sugar
1-2 tbsp sherry/rice wine
1 tsp fish sauce

Ingredients
1 lb Chicken, cubed
Some mixed greens (broccoli, chinese broccoli, watercress, chives, scallions, spinach...)
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic
2-3 packets of rice noodles (depending how much you like noodles)

Method:
1. Mix the marinade together with the chicken. Let marinate in the fridge overnight (or a couple hours will do)
2. Heat the wok on medium-high with a little oil. Toss in the garlic for about 30 seconds, then add the chicken.
3. Stir-fry for a few minutes until the meat is browned on both sides, then add the onion and mixe greens.
4. Stir-fry a few more minutes until the greens get softer and add the noodles.
5. Make up a smaller batch of the marinade and toss it in with the noodles.