Last Night of Passover: Japanese Cooking

28Apr08

I don’t think that soy sauce is Kosher for Passover. Mr. Tess is back home, and I wanted to make a nice meal.

Most Japanese recipes wouldn’t work—rice (maybe if you think Sephardic), soy sauce and miso (fermented, so probably not), wakame (must be soaked)…

Because I’ve had some recent success with deep-frying, a recipe I made last summer came to mind; it was a pretty dish with chicken cubes, some coated with crushed peanuts and some with black sesame seeds. Unfortunately, the dipping sauce relied on shoya and other Japanese flavors. The deep-frying technique of coating the chicken with potato starch (yes!! Kosher!), egg-white, and nuts/seeds was great. Because I didn’t make my usual almond macaroons this season, I decided to blanch and chop them to coat the chicken. And for the sauce, why not use some of the Patek’s Hot Mango Chutney that I used to make the Japanese chicken curry, and brighten the flavor with some fresh mangos. Let the spiciness take the place of the saltiness of soy sauce.

The meal included a nice variety of cooking methods: deep-frying (chicken), steaming (beet greens and chard), simmering (potatoes), roasting (beets), and fresh (mango). The colors: brown, green, white, yellow, and orange.

Almond Coated Chicken
serves 4
(it will be great as leftovers!)

• 1 1/2 cups blanched, toasted, ground almonds
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• oil for deep-frying

Cut the chicken into 1 1/2″ cubes. Dredge the chicken in the potato starch, shaking off excess. I let the coated chicken sit for about 10 minutes to allow the potato starch to adhere to the surface. Dip each piece in egg white, then dredge in the almonds to coat. (I ran out of nuts, so there were a few pieces of chicken coated with just matzoh meal.) Fry a few chicken pieces at a time. Heat the oil to 340°F, add chicken, and cook for about 1 minute. Decrease the heat to 320°F and continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Mango Chutney Sauce
1/2 cup Patek’s Hot Mango Chutney
3/4 cup chicken broth
red pepper to taste
salt to taste
In a small saucepan, combine the above ingredients and bring to a simmer for a few minutes. Serve sauce in a small bowl so you can dip the chicken.

The almonds made this very nice and crunchy! The 2 pieces of chicken on the bottom edge of the picture have only matzoh coating—just not as crisp! Some time, I’ll make and post the original recipe. It’s really very different, but the frying technique is such a good method to learn.

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Filed under: Agemono, Deep-Frying, Non Japanese Food, chicken   |  2 Comments
Tags: cooking tips