Cooking: Katsudon

I've been waiting a long time to make some katsudon for Justyn. It's his favorite comfort dish and it doesn't seem all that complicated to make. (Just wait...)

I got the recipe from chubbyhubby.net. His recipes always look so professionally executed and delicious so I wouldn't settle for anything else. I'll post a link to his recipe on the bottom of this post.

I started out with some pork loins and marinated them in soy and mirin. I deviated from ChubbyHubby's recipe by added some of the white parts of the green onion and some peeled and thinly sliced ginger. This marinated for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cooked the rice and prepped the green and yellow onion.

I also made a breading station. From left to right, cornstarch, 2 beaten eggs & panko breadcrumbs. I also laid some foil down for when I was done with breading the pork.

After I prepped the breading station, I prepared the katsudon "sauce" which consists of a bottle of dashi, light and dark soy sauce, sugar and mirin. ChubbyHubby's recipe is for 2 people but I found that the recipe made A LOT of sauce. I would seriously cut down on the measurements. At most, you will only need 3/4 cup of sauce for 2 people. The sauce is also very salty so I recommend watering it down. I also added sugar which is not in his recipe.

Once the pork was done marinating, I patted them dry with some paper towels and added some pepper.

They went through the breading station...

And into some vegetable oil (340 degrees) for 4-6 minutes on each side. In retrospect, I should've turned the heat on my stove down a touch.

Because... this looks kinda burnt. Luckily, Justyn likes eating overly carmelized (burnt) food.

I recommend using a separate pan for the egg topping just because it's a pain in the ass to pour HOT oil down a sink and having to wash the pan to reuse. I had Justyn dispose the oil and beat about 5 eggs for me.

I heated up some veg oil in the pan and a sliced onion. Once they become translucent, I added the katsudon sauce and some green onions. Once that comes to a simmer, you add the beaten eggs, swirl it around and let it set up. It will be runny on the surface but by the time you serve it, it should be medium rare.

I put some Japanese sticky rice on the bottom, added the fried pork and then topped it with the egg mixture. As garnish, I added some pickled radish. I also had some shredded nori but I forgot to put it on.

Now that I've tried this recipe out, there are definitely some things that I would change. Less sauce (add more sugar and water to thin it out) and DON'T make this on a weeknight. I was wrong in saying that this recipe was easy. It's very time consuming especially if it's your first time. Also, it would help a lot more if you make the egg topping in a non-stick pan... or an authentic donburi pan as ChubbyHubby recommends.

Justyn's 2 Year Anniversary Card

It looks simple but it took me soooo long to make it! It was the chipboard that took the most time. I didn't have any Tombo glue so I used the snail instead. The cardstock didn't stick too well on the chipboard but eventually I got it done.

Happy Anniversary B!

Cooking: Leftovers from Halloween

I had some meat mixture left from the cabbage rolls I made for Jason's Halloween party so Justyn suggested I make meatballs out of them and serve them over pasta. To be honest, I didn't really like how the meat mixture came out. It tasted weird, but I suspected it had something to do with how I messed up the cooking time and tempurature.

Anyhow, I rolled the meat mixture into balls.. hah yeah I said balllls and then I pan fried them.

I know I might get some shit from you foodies out there about this, but Ragu spaghetti sauce is sooooo good. After having it with this dish, I'll never go back to Prego. Why not make my own sauce? Cuz I'm lazy. That's why.

I served the meatballs with some leftover ziti I had in the cabinet. I liked the meatballs MUCH better than inside cabbage. It was a nice quick dinner for a Sunday night.

Halloween Weekend

Huge post FTL.

Well anyways... here's what we did for Halloween weekend. On Friday, we went to Catherine's party first.. The most memorable costumes was Hoho's Todd from Scrubs and Douchebag. Yeah, some guy actually dressed up as a douche bag. I seriously LMAO'ed when he was in character. They also shot gunned some Natty Ice... worst beer ever. Oh yeah and the Douchebag kept getting hit on the head by the Douchebag Police. Hahaha! What a concept.

After that we went to Ken's house for the rest of the night. The chickadees were hot and the jack-o-lanterns were hotter! They actually put flare sticks in the pumpkins. Scary, but full of awesome! Lots of great costumes and fun!

The next morning, I went to Lucky to get ingrediants for AltonBrownSlideways' cabbage rolls. It's a very easy recipe..... take a look:

2 decent sized heads of cabbage

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 lb ground lamb

1 red bell pepper

1 small onion

1 bunch of green onion

1 1/2 cups rice cooked

Oregano

Tarragon

Salt & pepper

For the sauce:

1qt sour cream (I don't use it all, but I always like to have extra in case)

1 large can diced tomatoes

Vodka (add to taste)

What to do:

Start cooking your rice while you carefully peel the large leaves off the cabbage.

Blanch them for about 1-2 minutes in boiling water, then immediately immerse them in ice water.

Set aside to drain.

Finely chop the pepper and onions.

Mix the beef, lamb, veggies, and cooked rice together in a large bowl. Use as little or as much rice as you like. I like just enough to notice as texture/taste/filler, not overpowering. Season the mixture with the afforementioned spices as you see fit.

Then take small handfulls of the filling and roll them up in your drained, blanched cabbage leaves. This should net you about 12-14 good sized rolls.

For the sauce: Combine the tomatoes, sour cream, and vodka (again, do this to taste) in a saucepan and simmer till everything is nice and mixed and happy... should be a sort of pinkish color. Maybe about 10 min or so.

Bringing it all together:

Preheat your oven to 400. Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Set the rolls on top of the sauce, then pour the remaining sauce over them. Cover loosely with foil and bake for about 30 minutes or until they reach 160F when checked with a meat thermometer.

These cabbage rolls along with the leftover vodka were transported to Jason's house. We ate, drank and were merry until someone decided to turn on a very gory and no plotted movie. What was it called? Something vomitmdolls.com. Yeah.... gross as hell and boring. But other than that the party was awesome! It was fun to help Jason cook (he made Beef Bourginon sp?) and provide my inputs. One of the highlights was him making a ghetto roux. The sauce he was reducing wasn't getting thick enough so instead of starting with a roux he microwaved some butter and flour together and then mixed it into the sauce. Apparently it worked because the sauce thickened right up. A good tip to keep in mind. Anyway, it was good to see some faces I haven't seen in a while.

Well, besides all of that... our weekend is pretty much over. Tomorrow we rest and clean. The next weekend we'll be celebrating our 2 year anniversary as husband and wife! Wooo!