Ingredients
300g chicken thigh fillet with skin on
20g ginger (peeled and grated)
One clove of garlic (peeled and grated)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sake
3 tablespoons potato starch, or as needed (or cornflour)
1-litre deep-frying oil or as needed (canola, soybean, or sunflower oil)
Oil absorbent paper as needed
Cooking method
Cut the chicken meat onto a sizeable bite-size piece and put them into a plastic bag. Add into grated ginger, garlic, sake and soy sauce: Shake and mix well, and marinate for about 10 minutes.
Heat the deep-frying oil to 160 degrees Celsius.
Put the marinated chicken meat into a mixing bowl and add 3 tablespoons of potato starch and mix well.
Deep fry the chicken meat. When cooked, drain oil well and serve on a platter with an old absorbent paper.
Boiled Edamame (えだまめ) Serves 2
200g fresh edamame
Salt as needed
1 litre boiling water
Boil the edamame for about 5 minutes or until a few pods pop open. Drain the edamame in a colander. Sprinkle salt over to, and fan to them cool off.
Pote-Sala, Potato Salad (ポテサラ) Serves 2
Pote-Sala on a Hoba leaf of a Japanese magnolia, hand-picked in the forest of Meiho, Okumino region, Gifu Prefecture
We tend to shorten the word, and we call potato salad, pote-sala. Pote-Sala is one of the most popular Izakaya dishes. Last night I test-cooked a lot of it. I spread the leftover pote-sala on my soba-bread this morning. You can also make a pote-sala sandwich.
Pote-Sala on soba chef-baked soba-bread for breakfast
Ingredients
1 large new season potato
1 large new season onion
A few slices of bacon (cut into one-inch pieces)
1 cucumber
A pinch of salt
1 carrot
3 tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise, or as needed
Salt and pepper as needed
Greens onions as needed
Tomatoes as needed
Cooking Method
Cut the large potato into four or six wedges depending on the size and boil them in salted water. This way you will save time. Then peel and mash it. As you boil the potato, also boil the carrot in the same boiling water.
Fry the bacon and sliced onions without adding oil. Cut the boiled carrot into 3mm medallions.
Cut the cucumber into 2mm thick slices. Put them into a mixing bowl and add salt then mix well. Leave for a few minutes or until the cucumber slices are moist. Rinse the cucumber in running tap water and drain well. Then squeeze out the excess water.
Put the vegetables, bacon, and some mayonnaise into the mashed potato and mix well. Add salt and pepper as needed. Taste the pote-sala and add more mayonnaise if needed.
Serve the pote-sala with some tomatoes and top with chopped green onions.