Japanese Sesame Chicken

I found this recipe through a complex and untraceable channel of internet links, copied it to Wordpad, didn't save, and lost it when my computer crashed. And couldn't find it again. This is the recreated recipe, and honestly I can't imagine the original recipe being any better.

This is good chicken. Especially if you have a passionate love for sesame seed oil, like I do.

Ingredients:

• Boneless, skinless chicken or turkey breasts (enough for two to four people)
• Vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 or two eggs (depending on how much chicken you want to make)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sesame seed oil
• 2 tbsp sushi rice seasoning (2 tbsp rice or balsamic vinegar plus a couple tsp sugar)

Preheat a skillet with enough oil to fry your chicken. Combine the cornstarch and the egg in a bowl. When the oil is hot enough, dip the chicken breasts in the mixture (you can cut them into nuggets or strips first, if you like) and drop in the oil, preferably without burning yourself. Cook for a minute or two, turn, and cook until done.

This goes very well with red bell pepper. Add bell pepper slices to the oil right from the start. If you're feeling adventurous, give them a swirl in the cornstarch mixture first.

When the chicken is cooked, drain the oil and return the skillet to the heat. Add the soy sauce, the sesame seed oil, and the vinegar mixture. Heat. This won't take long. Toss your chicken onto a plate of that wonderful sticky rice you've already prepared, pour the sauce over everything, and enjoy.

Sticky rice

I feel like a genius today. I just cooked up a giant pot of the most beautiful sticky rice you'll ever see. And not only did I do it without a rice cooker, I did it without instructions! Because the instructions that I found online insisted that they were "100 percent sure that [I'd] burn the rice." Way to be fatalistic, huh? Well, if their recipe leads inevitably to burned rice, then I'd say it's time that they get a new recipe. Mine, for example! Follow these instructions and you can have perfect rice for sushi, for sticky fried rice like you get at Kobe's, or for just about anything else.

1. Buy short grain rice. Not medium, short. It has to be short. Don't buy special sushi rice. Special sushi rice is short grain rice repacked with a higher price tag.
2. Measure your rice. Dump into a large bowl.
3. Add water to large bowl. You don't have to measure yet. Just add lots of water.
4. Let stand for thirty minutes. This will make the rice more supple and help in several small ways. Notice that after thirty minutes your rice has turned a beautiful pearly white, rather than the whitish grayish transparentish that it was before.
5. Wash the rice. If you use a colander, you'll probably end up with little grains of rice plugging up every hole. Use a bowl. Fill it up with water. Pour the water out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until the water stays mostly clear. All of this is to remove starch that will keep your rice from being sticky. This is a very important step. Don't skip it.
6. Drain the rice in a colander for thirty minutes to an hour. This is not a very important step. I included it here for thoroughness. You can skip it. I always do.
   
7. Add a small amount of water to a large pot. Dump in the rice. Then add one cup water for every cup of rice. Don't stir the rice! Remember all that effort to get the starch out? Stirring will bring it all out again. So don't do it.
8. Bring to a boil on high or medium high heat uncovered.
   
9. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down to low and put on a tight fitting lid. If you don't have a tight fitting lid, feel free to get creative. I have lots of success with stacking a skillet and a heavy Pyrex bowl on top. Seriously. Looks dumb, works well.
10. Go away for ten to fifteen minutes. If you think your heating element is pretty hot, make it ten. If you think it leans on the cool side, make it fifteen.
11. Remove the pan from the heat source but don't remove the lid! Let sit another twenty to twenty-five minutes. You're steaming the rice now, so don't even peek. You'll let the steam out and ruin everything.
12. Take off the lid and celebrate your beautiful rice! If you're making sushi out of it, then this is part where you add the vinegar mixture and then let the rice cool (by spreading it on cookie sheets or plates, if you want to speed up the process). Then you cover the rice with a damp cloth until you're ready to make sushi.

That's it! Okay, so it's rather a long process, but it's worth it. Now go make some sushi! Or go make my Vietnamese fried rice. You won't be disappointed.

Hawaiian Ginger Beef

I got this recipe when I lived in Hawaii. You can use a cheaper cut of meat, you'll just need to simmer it longer.

1 1/2 pounds boneless sirloin, sliced into thin strips
1/4 cup beef stock
2 teaspoons dry sherry
1 1/2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 clove garlic, mashed
2 or 3 slices of fresh ginger root
3 green onions, diagonally sliced into 1/2" pieces
2 Tablespoons oil
1 Tablespoon each of cornstarch and water

Combine soy sauce, sherry, beef stock, and sugar; set aside. Heat oil in large frying pan; saute garlic and ginger for 1 minute. Add meat and onions to the pan and stir-fry over high heat. When meat is almost completely browned, pour in the soy sauce mixture; cover and simmer about 3 minutes. Mix cornstarch and water, gradually stir into the liquid in the pan. Cook until slightly thickened, stirring to coat meat. Remove ginger slices before serving. Serve with steamed rice. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Walnut Chicken

Here's one I cut out of a newspaper years ago. (from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) It calls for 1/4 cup beer. Just drink the rest, or dump it out. Don't omit the beer, because it will not be the same without it.


1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup beer
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup broken English walnuts

Combine soy sauce, beer, and ginger. Add chicken and marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet, add chicken and the soy mixture. Stir-fry until chicken is cooked and soy mixture begins to coat chicken (approximately 5 minutes). Add green onions, garlic, mushrooms, and walnuts. cook 3 minutes, tossing mixture with slotted spoon. Serve with rice. Makes about 4 servings.

Vietnamese Fried Rice

1Well, this recipe started out as Vietnamese fried rice, but I've tweaked it so many times that it's probably a totally different recipe now. Also, I apologize for the vagueness: I basically made this recipe up and I never measure.

Cook some rice. I usually start with between 1 and 1 1/2 cups dry, and use a rice cooker.

Heat up a skillet with enough oil to cover the bottom, and a bit to spare.

Add rice.

Then, add (about):

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Chinese 5 spice

garlic powder

onion, in some form (if it's not dried or powdered onion, then you should simmer it for a while before adding the rice)

1 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp sugar

And mix that together really well. If you have some cooked, cut-up meat, you can add that now. I usually don't, and it's still delicious.

Spoon all the rice to one side of the skillet and add an egg to the empty side. Let it cook a little bit, and then stir it in. Pour another egg over the rice and mix that in until it cooks. And, if you have lots of rice, add another one.

If you're a healthy person you can add some peas or other relevant vegetables, or you can do it my way and call it done with the egg.

Meatballs Hawaiian

I've been making this for many years.


1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
1/4 cup flour
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 can (about 14 oz.) pineapple chunks, juice reserved
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2 green peppers, seeded and cut in strips
hot cooked rice

Mix ground beef lightly with salt and ginger; shape into 16 balls. Beat egg slightly with water and then dip meatballs into egg mixture, then in flour to coat well. Brown meatballs in oil in a large frying pan; remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Drain syrup from pineapple into a one-cup measure; add water to make one cup; stir into drippings in pan. Mix brown sugar with cornstarch, vinegar, and soy sauce; stir into pineapple juice mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens and boils three minutes. Add meatballs, pineapple, and green pepper, stir gently to coat with sauce; cover. Simmer 10 minutes, or until meatballs are cooked through. Serve over rice. Garnish with macadamia nuts, if desired. Serves 4.

Shoyu Chicken

This recipe was given to me by Novena Dunhour, a friend of mine when I lived in Hawaii. I usually thicken the sauce a bit when it is done (by using cornstarch and a little water) because I like to serve it over rice.

1 fryer, cut-up
1/2 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1/2 cup water
2 - 3 Tablespoons sugar
1 slice fresh ginger root, crushed
1 clove garlic, smashed
a dash of Chinese Five Spice
2 or 3 green onions, sliced

Brown chicken in skillet. Mix remaining ingredients except for green onions and pour over chicken. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken tests done. Place chicken on platter and garnish with green onions. Serve sauce on the side.

Here is a tip for you if you like to use fresh ginger root but find that you cannot use it up before it goes bad: Purchase a ginger root and some dry sherry. Peel and slice the ginger, then place it in a jar and cover it completely with the sherry. This will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. The ginger-infused sherry is wonderful in many recipes. Just remember to top off the jar with more sherry!