Chicken Curry like Mama did...sorta

So my mom always used those curry boxes you find at Asian markets but her trick was, she likes to use two or three different brands and combine them. I only had one kind so I wasn't able to do it but I had a hankering for some curry. Ma's curry takes longer than mine because she chops up chicken and cooks it in the curry so I'm making a chicken katsu curry. It's more prep but cooks very quickly.

Chicken Katsu Curry

I forgot to add the carrots in the photo...

Curry Ingredients:

• box of curry flavoring (try to get two-three versions)
• potatoes
• onion
• garlic
• carrots
• broth

Chicken Katsu Ingredients:

• Chicken breast
• flour
• egg
• panko

The amounts are going to depend on how much you want to make. I am only cooking for 2 people and I don't want much leftovers so I only got 1 baking potato, 1 onion, a couple cloves of garlic, and a handful of carrots. This amount made a very chunky curry sauce which I like. So if you like a thinner sauce, then don't put as much vegetables in or make a bigger pot with less vegetables.

1. Start by doing all the prep work. Cut the potatoes into the same size so it'll cook evenly. If you are in a rush, cut them into smaller cubes so that they'll cook faster. Cut carrots into similar size or smaller than potatoes (since they don't cook as fast).
   
2. If you want rice with it, then start cooking some rice now.
3. Pick an appropriate sized pot for how much curry you want to make.
4. Cook garlic in some oil until aromatic
5. Add onions and cook until tender
   
6. Add carrots and potatoes and then fill with water or use broth for more flavor. If you want a chunkier sauce like me, just fill to the top of the vegetables. If you want a thinner sauce, fill the liquid higher.
   
7. Bring to a boil and then simmer until vegetables are fork tender. If the liquid gets low, just fill with more water or broth.
8. While you're waiting for this, pound the chicken breast flat. Just look for the thinnest part of the chicken breast and pound the rest to match. I find thin sliced chicken breast is the easiest for katsu. You don't need to do much but you still want to pound it out to make it even. This ensures an even cook.
   
9. Dip the flat chicken breast into the flour, egg wash, then panko crust.
   
10. Fry until golden brown. 
1. The oil should be around 350F. If you don't have a frying thermometer, test it out by throwing a couple pieces of panko in there. It should bubble strongly. If you throw in your chicken and it sinks and only slightly bubbles, then the oil is not hot enough. If your oil is not hot enough, it will take longer to cook... meaning your panko will soak in more oil and it will taste/feel greasy.
2. If you are using a large pot for frying, throwing lots of pieces in can cause your oil temperature to drop too quickly. Don't overcrowd and don't throw too many pieces in at once.
3. Use a strainer and scoop out the remaining panko crust after each one. This will keep your oil clean. If you leave the bits in... they will overcook, burn and turn your oil brown and leave a burnt taste to your food. Your oil turning brown/black will also trick you into thinking you are done because it will get you to that golden brown faster. 
4. If you're worried about if it's done, then cut one and check that the juices are clear and the meat is white. If you pounded them out thinly and evenly, it should only be a couple of minutes on each side.
   
11. Place fried katsu onto paper towels over a cookie drying rack. (I like to also line the bottom with foil for easy cleanup.) This will help soak the oil away from the katsu, keep it crispy and not so oily.
    
12. When the vegetables are tender, add cubes of the curry flavor a little at a time. Stir to make sure it's completely dissolved. Once it dissolves, it will thicken your sauce. I usually like to do a Mild and Medium combo but today I only had a mild.
    
13. Taste and adjust. If it's not enough curry, then add more. If you like your curry runnier, then add more broth.
    
14. Place rice, curry sauce, then cut up katsu on top and enjoy!

    

    I actually topped with curry but it made my katsu soggy. So I would say place the katsu on top of the sauce to keep it nice and crispy.

Try the World - Japan Box

Today I tried some of the "Try the World" Japan box. Try the World is a subscription where you receive a box of items every 2 months in order to experience new cuisine from different cultures. I had thought that you just eat the things out of the box but apparently you have to do stuff with these items. I felt like this was more fun and adventurous (if you never had the cuisine before).

Most of the items of the Japan box were very predictable and easily accessibly to me so that was a bit disappointing. But that was to be expected since I love Japan and have gone before.

I was excited about the okonomiyaki kit though. Okonomiyaki is like a savory pancake where you can add whatever you want. I was excited to try this because I was too intimidated to try to order one when we were Japan so this will be my first okonomiyaki experience.

For today's meal, I went with okonomiyaki and soba. The left side is the items I used today and the right side is all the things I needed to buy.

First was the okonomiyaki. I ran to Mitsuwa, a Japanese grocery store, to search for this sauce. From Google Translate, it just translated Otafuku Your Favorite Sauce. Ok... what the heck does that mean?! I googled Otafuku and realized that this was just a brand name. Lol! Luckily, Mitsuwa did have this brand and I grabbed the one that said, "Okonomiyaki Sauce". So if you don't find this brand, look for anything that might be an okonomiyaki sauce!

I cut some cabbage and green onions and layered one side with bacon. Although I didn't have anything to compare this to, I thought it was pretty yummy!

I've had soba numerous times so this was no surprise. I also got the soba sauce at Mitsuwa.

End result: A bit predictable but it was really fun to experiment. It's easy for me to find Japanese items but I'm worried that it won't be so easy for me to find other cultural items. Hopefully the other boxes will not require such specific items.

Honeydew Sorbet

When Ben and I first started dated, he took me on an Alaskan cruise. Once, in the dining room, they served the most delicious honeydew sorbet that we've ever had. Well, to be honest, it was probably the only time we ever had honeydew sorbet. It's lasted in our memories and we always try to find someone who serves honeydew sorbet but we never have.

I looked it up and it seems so easy to make so I gave it a shot.

All you do is...

1. Cut up ripe honeydew
2. Puree the honeydew in a food processor
3. Strain the juice
4. Sweeten (almost to the point of too sweet because it will mellow out) and freeze. 
5. Pour juice into a container to freeze
6. Once frozen, chop it up and puree it again to get that sorbet consistency. I used a food processor for this part but I think it might be better to use a blender this time. It came out fine but took a while because the chunks of ice were hard to break down.
   
7. Put it back in the freezer for a little bit before serving because it will have melted slightly while you were pureeing it (about an hour is fine).
8. Scoop up and eat!
   
9. If you leave it in the freezer for a while, it'll get hard again so you'll have to puree it again. Or you can be like Ben and just scrape it.
   

My first attempt, I found a recipe that suggested using honey to sweeten it so I did. I did not enjoy the lingering and prominent honey taste so next time, I will try some rock sugar and water.

The results were delicious (except for the lingering honey flavor)). If you're like me,  you don't eat an entire tub full at once so one melon actually goes a long way.

After a couple of days, we didn't taste the honey anymore. I wonder if it mellows out even more after a couple of days?

Japanese Cheesecake Attempt #2

So I tried the recipe again except some minor tweaks.

Ingredients:

140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. unsalted butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour 1 oz. cake flour
20g/1 oz. cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Just like last time, use a double boiler to melt cream cheese, butter and milk.

Fold in flour, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and sugar until soft peaks.

Fold in cream cheese mixture in batches.

This time, I messed up the instructions. I folded 1/3 of the cheese mixture into the egg white meringue (instead of the other way around). This may or may not have messed things up. I'm not sure. I can see how it might since the cheese mixture is heavy and may have weighed down my meringue when I poured it in. I did notice that the bottom of my mixture wasn't well incorporated when I was pouring my batter out.

I liked the top before so I experimented with different molds and making the cake a little shorter.
I sprayed four of these with PAM and 2 without. The 2 without broke and didn't pop out. The four sprayed ones popped out just fine.

THE RESULTS:

• I got greedy with too many variations. The cake was not as fluffy but I'm not sure if that's because I left out half of the cake flour or because I tried new molds and it wasn't as tall/thick.
• I tried eating some right after baking/cooling and the lemon juice was VERY prominent. I did not like that. The next day (after fridge overnight), I tried it again and it had mellowed out. I think I still prefer it without lemon juice though.
• My crust on top wasn't as sweet and crunchy as last time. I wasn't sure how long to bake it because I reduced the sizes and shapes so I may have undercooked it this time.

too soft. would fall apart when picking up.

was too lemony when fresh baked

ADJUSTMENTS FOR NEXT TIME:

• Adjust cake flour to 1.5 oz
• Try to make some Japanese cheesecake "cookies" (since I love the burnt parts)
• Do the mixing correctly
• leave out the lemon juice (or half it)

Japanese Cheesecake Attempt #1

Yesterday I tried to make Japanese Cheesecake from this recipe.
I crossed out my alterations for this round below.

Ingredients:

140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. unsalted butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese 8 oz. cream cheese (I only had one box)
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice  I didn't have any lemons so I didn't put any in
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, salt, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Make the meringue by whisking egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. You can beat with a stand mixer or handheld mixer. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. 

3. Take 1/3 meringue and fold into the cheese mixture, then fold in another 1/3 of meringue. After incorporated, pour the batter back to the remaining 1/3 meringue and fold. FOLD GENTLY. Pour the mixture into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with grease-proof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

First Attempt:

• I didn't get an extra cream cheese so I only used 8oz instead of 9oz of cream cheese
• I forgot to get lemon so I didn't use lemon juice
• I misunderstood the instructions so I double lined the inside with parchment paper. Since parchment paper is not that flexible, I got a slightly weird shape on the outside. Not a big deal.
• I forgot to research water bath before I started so I just placed a pan filled with water on the rack under my cheesecake (instead of half submerging the cheesecake pan in hot water like you're supposed to). The cheesecake cooked well and there was no cracks although I wonder if this is why my result was a bit more condensed and less fluffy?
  
  LOL. If you look at my picture, I got paranoid that my water bath was too much of a failure so I took the cheesecake out after about 20 minutes, and wrapped the bottom in foil in an attempt to do the water bath correctly (place it in a bigger pan and fill with hot water halfway). Then I realized that I don't have a pan large enough to submerge my cheesecake pan so I had to put it back in the oven.

The outcome looked beautiful. I tasted a small, outer piece after it cooled from the oven and thought it was great. I put the cake in tupperware and let it cool in the fridge overnight and tried again in the morning. It felt harder and a little drier although I'm not sure if this is because I ate further into the cake or because of the fridge.

Outcome:

• It feels a bit fluffier on the top and a bit condensed on the bottom.
• The best part is the top with a slight sweetness to the browned part
• It left a very slight rough taste in my mouth (kind of like when you eat spinach). It went away quickly but I felt it.
• Not much flavor although coworker says he can taste the cream cheese
• *UPDATE* The more I try it, the more I like it... if that makes any sense. =P
  

Adjustments for next time:

• Use a larger pan so that it's shorter and has more top surface. Or make in mini cups.
• Add the extra 1oz cream cheese for the taste
• Add the lemon juice for some extra flavor
• Do the water bath right 
• (optional) try to make some sort of cream cheese frosting?

Rainbow Road, My Hardest Centerpiece

One of my original centerpiece ideas was the rainbow road in Mario Kart. I used to spend hours on this map, speeding as fast as I could and constantly falling over the edge. Although Ben didn't play this map, I was obsessed with the idea of making this centerpiece work.

First of all, I spent so much more money than I wanted to for this centerpiece. My first purchase was the road. I wanted lots of bling for this centerpiece. So I googled and googled for ideas until I came across these flatback beads on ebay.

There were a couple of variations in size so I thought about it for a couple of days. I didn't want to sit on it long though because these were from China and from experience, I knew that it could take a while to receive. I printed out life-sized pieces and started formed a circle to see if I liked the size and how many pieces I would need.

I determined that I liked the 8mm x 8mm beads and got six colors. They came in bags of 200 each so I had more than enough although the beads alone were already a little over $20. Not bad considering I got about 1200 beads though.

Next was the figurines. I was too lazy to make Mario Kart cars so I searched on ebay until I found some very tiny figurines. I came across this set of 10 that were 5-6cm each. I took the chance that they were small enough and that I could rip the character off some of the cars. Luckily, I was able to for two of them, which was enough for me.  That was another $20 gone.

The hardest part (and my failed part) was how to assemble the road. I started with some grand idea that I would have a floating, twisted road that was held in the air by some sort of legs. Here's my rough draft of it:

Please excuse the child-like doodling. This is the best I can represent my dream since I was far from achieving it.

I had hoped to have it floating in the air like the game and even hoped to add the little turtle cloud guy that fishes you back onto the road after you fell off. I tried manipulating a wreath wire to no prevail. I tried using plaster mix but failed at that too. I also failed to figure out what I could use as legs. I had spent a lot of money on failed attempts but I was running out of time.

In the end, I opted for the easy way out. I planned out a simple oval road and glued the beads onto paper. It wasn't what I had envisioned but at least I was still able to present a centerpiece that was relatively close.

To add to the effect, I made some clay items like the black bomb guard and a turtle shell. It wasn't as grand as I hoped but I think people were still impressed. 

From our amazing photographer Christopher Kim

Not enough time

Too many ideas... not enough time to implement!

I was going to do video game cartridges of classic games converted to Ben and Doe characters... =[
I only had time to create this one though...

That's not wood?!

I was super excited when I accidentally created these awesome "wood" separators.

I needed something to separate my Lindt truffle favors. Initially I was going to use woven tray and a paper separator (see left) but I realized I needed a deeper tray for all my Lindt. That meant I needed a taller/sturdier separater (plus this paper one looks really ghetto).






I had some leftover foamboard from my photobooth faces so I decided to use that. I measured my basket and carved out the slots.

At first I left them as white but it looked so ugly so I took some brown paint and just dry painted them with these sponge brushes. By "dry paint", I mean I slathered the brown paint on a plate (no water added) and I used the sponge brush and only brushed in one direction (up and down). That way, you get those streaks that look like wood grains. By going over certain areas a 2nd time, you get that aged wood look. 

FYI, THESE FOAM BOARDS HAD A PAPER BACKING. I doubt this works for the foam boards that are shiny/slippery.

I forgot to take a picture of the before picture but in this picture, you can see that the middle is still white. No one knew these weren't wood until I told them!

The finished product looks really classy and it was very sturdy!

Photobooth Prop - Giant Faces

One of the favorite props on our wedding night was our giant faces. Everyone loved them!

Chris Kim Photography

Ben wanted a big poster of us and I wanted the funny face
like that one guy who brings his own face to basketball games.
I always thought it was hilarious.



It's not TOO hard to pull off.

1. First, use a really good camera and set it to your highest resolution. The best option is to put it on a tripod so that you can take clear images. Use either a 2nd person to take the pictures or the timer. A 2nd person would be best because you can just stand there and make multiple faces without moving. That will make things easier later when you're choosing your photos/expressions.
2. If you want to do it the easy way, you can glue one facial expression per poster board. Just follow steps 4-6 from here.
3. If you want to do it the tricky way... You can put a 2nd facial expression on the other side of the poster board. That way, you can carry one poster board and flip over to display the expression you want. In order to do this, you have to make sure that you size both faces the same and that the reflection is the same shape.
   
   These are the two sides I choose for Ben's face
   
   

   

   

   On side 1, I outlined his face in Photoshop

   
   

   

   I reflected the outline and place it over Face 2 to make sure it was the same shape

   
   Make sure that each face is the same size! You may need to photoshop the face a little to fill up the space. It's okay if the space outside the outline goes past (see how Ben's hair goes past the outline? That's perfect!). You just want to make sure that when you cut out the face, you don't have white space (inside the outline).
   
   
4. I printed the posters at Walmart for super cheap (do not print the red face outline, that was just a reference to show you). The size will depend on how large you want the face and the size of your poster foamboard. I went with a 20" x 30" poster for each face.


5. Use an adhesive spray and slap on the first poster. (TIP 1: Use LOTS of adhesive. My faces started to peel off by the end of the wedding night... and TIP 2: adhesive spray gets EVERYWHERE. If you don't want sticky floors, line the surrounding area with newspaper or spray it outside on the grass.)


6. Cut out the first face from the poster board using a blade. I just bought this FoamWerks Freestyle Cutter and thought it worked really well. Go slow so that you don't slip and cut off more than you want. You don't need to press down or anything either. I found that it moves rather easily if you just guide it and I chipped the bottom of the blade because I was putting too much strength into it. ALWAYS CUT WITH AN EXTRA FOAM BOARD UNDER YOUR PIECE. You don't want to be cutting up your floor or table!


7. When you have your first face cut out, just line the cutout against Poster 2 and try to align it. You may have to hold it up so that you can see through the poster and guess where the face is. Trace out the shape on the poster and you can cut it out with regular scissors. Then just use adhesive spray again and line it up!

The best part about this prop is that it's a great substitute for the bride/groom. We had to disappear multiple times to greet people or to take pictures so one of our regrets was that we weren't able to take photobooth pictures with people. But now I'm looking through our images and it almost feels like we were there because people loved bringing our faces into the photobooth!

Chris Kim Photography