Wednesday 29th of June 2005

Tonkatsu

Here´s another one of my favorites, and a real easy one. Tonkatsu (豚カツ) is made with pork fillets cut thinly, but you can also make it with chicken (chicken-katsu or チキンカツ) if you like. I usually make a little of both, as both happen to be very tasty. A good thing to accompany this with is some sticky rice, but we’ll learn how to make that some other time (or buy a japanese rice cooker like I did).

I like to use a mixture of regular flour (grain) and corn flour, but it´s really not neccesary. This is just me being wierd. So, here we go:

What need you?

• 1 to 2 slices of pork or chicken fillets per person, cut about half an inch thick.
• 1 egg (possibly more if you´re making a lot of meat).
• Panko, found in japanese stores, or bread crumps if you can´t find it.
• Flour.
• Corn flour, optionally.
• Vegetable or sunflower oil.
• Salt & pepper.
• Tonkatsu sauce (トンカツソース) and/or japanese mustard, both also found in japanese stores
• Cabbage, optionally (to serve the meat on).

What do you?

1. Make sure the meat is around half an inch think. If it´s not, fix it. Set the meat on a cutting board, set your palm on top of it, and slice through it. Having a good knife helps a lot here.
2. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the pork. Sprinkle the salt with your fingers for a more dramatic effect (just don´t say bam!, please), and if possible, use freshly ground pepper.
3. Take a plate, and mix half a cup of flour (grain) and half of corn flour in it, otherwise, just use flour. Use more as needed.
4. Beat the egg in a deep plate. Savagely of course. Use more eggs as needed.
5. Grab yet another plate, and put the panko or bread crumps on it.
6. Now, just like in a production chain, first coat the meat thoroughly with the flour. Leave no crevice alone. Then, dip the coated meat in the beaten egg, both sides, and finally, coat it again with the panko or bread crumps this time. Feel the thrill Henry Ford experienced.
7. If you like, leave the breaded meat in the refrigerator for 20ish minutes. It makes it easier to fry later on.
8. If you decided to go with the cabbage, shred it very thinly in long strips, soak the strips in iced water for around 20ish minutes so that they become nice and crisp, then drain it and make a “bed” on a plate in which to set the meat.
9. Heat up the oil in a deep pan. Moderately high heat.
10. Shove the meat in, let it fry slowly until golden brown.
11. When done, take it out of the pan and set it on some paper towels for a minute as to dry off the oil. After that, i find that cutting it in strips makes it easier to eat with chopsticks. And you want to eat it with chopstick. So, do it.
12. Done! serve it on a plate, or in the cabbage bed, with tonkatsu sauce or japanese mustard if you prefer.

Itadakimas!

Thursday 16th of June 2005

Brimming days

Last sunday I spent what´s possibly the best 14 euros I´ve ever spent in my life. -Heather and I were walking around Puerta del Sol, place where you can find the center of the Iberian peninsula, and it seems, also the best street musicians I´ve ever heard yet. A trio they where, and they played a violin, a viola and a cello. We stopped and listened for a bit, I recorded one song, and then we each gave them 50 cents. This is first time I actually give money to any of these street musicians types or beggars, et cetera for that matter. They actually deserved it.

Anyway, we then went into Fnac, as I wanted to buy a USB compatible gamepad to use with the laptop. Sadly, all my sidewinder are the midi port kind. We first went around was the computer section, looked at the laptops, at the macs, then at the keyboards and mouses, even cables. The last thing we went for was the gaming section, and thus, gamepads. And there it was; sitting on the shelf, a splinter of light, a shard of truth, lone as it was; forsaken by everyone, outlined against the faint neon lightning of the store, indeed, I was beholding greatness itself. For a mere 14 euros, a PS2 gamepad to USB adaptor.

I had been fooled before. When I was in Japan, I had witnessed such a device, and after inspecting it, I found out it only worked for one gamepad and it would have set me back 48000 yen. But no, this time it was not so. It did indeed say 14 euros on the back, and despite the fact that it didn´t actually say anything about two gamepads, you could definetly see through the clear plastic, the exquisite beauty of it all. It did indeed have two plugs, one on each side of it´s magnificent cheap ass clear blue plastic shell.

Despite me being skeptical, I bought it. On my return to my humble abode, I proceeded to unpack greatness, and was presented with a generic CDR labeled “A” with a marker. I was scared there for a moment, but I plugged in greatness itself into my laptop anyway. No drivers where asked for. I went into the control panel and I see the two ps2 gamepads being recognized correctly. I then ran Kawaks and procceded to play some Garou - Mark of the Wolves, the response was great. It felt great. The friggin analogs sticks work too. I never figured out what the damn “A” CDR actually had. I then remembered I had only spent 14 euros in greatness, and laughed at the world while I basked myself in bliss. Today is thursday, and I´m still laughing.

Tuesday 7th of June 2005

Pasta alla carbonara

There´s been a few people that have asked me how I make pasta alla carbonara, including Alex asking me to marry him after trying it last night, and although it was a most adoring proposal, I´d rather just give him the recipe.

I have learned this from my father, with just a few personal modifications from my part, so all appraisals should go to him. I´m just merely able to follow instructions correctly.

I find that carbonara has always been a victim a various different interpretations, each different person swearing that they have the one true recipe. There´s people that like to add onions, some that don´t, some that like to add panna da cucina (cream basically) and some that don´t, people that prefer it to more dry than others, et cetera; while most American interpretations I´ve seen take out the eggs completely using only cream, not even panna.

I have decided there is not a true, single way of making it, although it should always have eggs in my opinion. Why close all the doors behind you, when you can leave them all open and retreat to any of them in case of need, as well as enjoying a nicer breeze while at it? -In that spirit, I will tell you how I make it, but feel free to experiment adding onions, et cetera. Just make sure you cook the pasta al dente, and don´t you dare cut the damn spaghetti. I can feel the disturbance in the force when you do, and I will come for you.

What need you?

• 1 egg for the pot, plus 1 per person. (so, if it was for four people, i´d use 5 eggs).
• 100 grams of pasta per person (use long pasta such as spaghetti, linguini, et cetera).
• 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese per egg. (very full ones).
• Half a clove of garlic per 4 eggs.
• 80 grams of pancetta or bacon if you can´t find any, per egg.
• 10 grams of butter.
• Half a tablespoon of panna da cucina per egg, optionally. (Italian stores people!).
• Extra virgin olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

What do you?

1. Peel the garlic, and slice it all the long way. Cut the bacon into small cubes.
2. Get a pot out, fill it up with water and set it to boil. Make sure to add a salt to the water.
3. Add the butter to a frying pan, set it to mid-high heat. Once it has melted, add some olive oil and shove the garlic in. Give it a minute, and add the pancetta. Give some generous pepper treatment and add salt as well. Stir this mixture of magnificent and delectable godliness until the garlic is golden and the pancetta “cooked”, not crisp. You will begin to notice an enchanting smell, this is normal and expected. (Americans like expected things in instructions).
4. Brake the eggs into a bowl, add parsley, salt and pepper. Beat the eggs like a mad man. Add the cheese and the panna if you decided to go with it. Beat it some more. Take a step back and admire your beating prowess. Call a friend and rave about it.
5. Once the water has reached it´s boiling point, add the pasta. Cook it for exactly however long it is stated on the package. Do not cook it any longer or any less. Your genitals will wither and shrivel up to oblivion if you do.
6. Once the pasta is done, strain the water out and in the same pot where you boiled the pasta, add the garlic/pancetta mixture of magnificent and delectable godliness, the savagely beaten eggs and mix it with the pasta until it becomes “glazed”. Add more olive oil, salt and pepper as you need. If you happen to have some fresh basil laying around, add some for vanity purposes.
7. Serve and be amazed. Remember to feed your friends.

Epilogo: non me ne frega niente come la fanno gli altri, mi piace come la faccio io. Also, let it be known that I do like Americans. I think they´re cute. Grazie.