We've been homebodies since Saturday. We haven't gone much of anywhere since then really. And with the weather being so chilly outside, staying home is really nice. Staying indoors in a nice warm house, with the family and watching TV is a great way to spend fall, ha ha ha! Not bad...not bad at all.
Tonight, I decided to make sweet and sour chicken. I use the Cook-Do sauces, because they taste authentic and are available all over Japan.
I diced up the chicken breast. And put the flour and salt and black pepper mixture in a gallon freezer bag. Threw the diced up chicken in here and mixed it around. I love mixing it like this, because my hands stay clean and not all glue- like from the flour mixture! Ha ha ha! Diced my veggies and put them in the strainer. Don't rinse your veggies right before you cook...but if you have to... make sure they are 100% dry because they will go into the oil later and you don't wanna get popped! Ha ha ha! I rinse mine in the morning or the day before.
Fry your chicken in some oil until it gets all crispy and cooked. And then I put them in a bowl to wait for a while. Then fry up the hardest veggies first. Carrots. They take about a minute and a half to fry. They gotta still stay a good color. Look raw, bright and orange but be sorta half cooked. Still have a bit of a crunch but be cooked. Then the bell pepper. They take no time at all. They still have to be bright green. So don't over cook them. When they look sorta bendable but still bright green take them out. Then the onion. Onions get cooked in like 40 seconds or maybe even 30 seconds. Pull them out and onto the bowl or dish. Very important to not lay down paper towel. I did this once to try and soak up any excess oil and the paper towel bits of paper stuck to the damn vegetables! Yup...talk about a nightmare I had to pick paper towels particles outta my veggies. I won't ever do that again! Ha ha ha! And that happened about 6 years ago and I still remember that!
Throw all the cooked veggies and chicken into an empty clean pan. And turn the heat up and warm up all the stuff again. I like to hear a sizzle sound...when everything is all warm, I lower the heat and add the 2 packs of sauce. I use 2 packs of sauce because we like larger portions then a typical Japanese family eats. We eat good amounts at our house, ha ha ha! Just a minute or two for the sauce to get warm. And then serve. It's fairly easy. If you can make karaage then you can make this. It was a nice day here at our house. Nothing special. Nothing major going on. Just relaxing and hanging home. This was a great dinner. One that we all really enjoy at our house.
Side note....Noboru told me that next week, the weather is expected to *really* change in Japan. And that it will start to really feel like fall. And the cold weather will really be here in full force starting next week. Now, I'm not sure if he's right or what. But I just thought I might pass that bit of info on to you all.
Side note #2....Woohooo! The democrats took control of the Senate! Happy days! Happy days! Hopefully with the dems back in control of the house, we can see some positive changes! I can hardly wait until Bush leaves office! Ha ha ha! Spoken like a true democrat here! : )
Oyasumi nasai!
Posts
