Miso paste is one of the most versatile ingredients that I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. Of particular interest to me is using it in grilled food since it really adds a lot of flavor when used as flavoring for grilled meat. Today’s dish uses yellow miso as a flavoring for grilled chicken, afterwards it is mixed with a butter sauce with some miso as well to complete the dish.

Difficulty: Beginner

The dish requires very little preparation and only involves mixing a marinade and grilling the chicken just right.

Tools Needed

Chopping Knife

Grill Pan / Grill / Nonstick Pan – You may use any of the following to “grill” the chicken depending on what you have

Spatula

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1 Boneless Chicken Breast – I did mine with the skin on but it’s up to you whether you want it on or off.

1/2 small shallot chopped

2 cloves of garlic crushed

2 tablespoons powdered ginger or 1 tablespoon of grated ginger

3 tablespoons of butter or margarine

3 Tablespoons of Yellow Miso for the Chicken and 1 Tablespoon for the Sauce

2 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil

Soy Sauce

Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Steps

Sprinkle some salt on the chicken then pound the chicken breast flat. Be careful when doing this so you don’t ruin the shape of the meat and separate the skin from the meat.

After doing so, rub the chicken with the yellow miso paste and and marinate in soy sauce, ginger powder/grated ginger, sesame oil, onions and crushed garlic. Leave the chicken soaking in the mixture for 15-30 minutes.

Turn the heat to medium and wait until the grill is hot. I’m using a grill pan, but if you have an actual grill that would be better. In the event that you don’t have either, a frying pan will do. Once it’s hot enough that drops water thrown in boils instantly, grill the chicken.

If the heat is right it will take around 5-8 minutes per side. Ensure that the meat and skin are toasted to get that grilled texture, set aside after grilling on a plate. Now we prepare the sauce.

In a bowl, place 1 Tablespoon of Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of Soy Sauce and 1 Tablespoon of Yellow miso and mix together.

Melt the butter or margarine in a nonstick pan and add the mixture to it. Mix and let it set for 1 minute.

Once you’re done, pour the mixture over the chicken and enjoy! Again this is a very straightforward dish that utilizes miso for grilling. Enjoy!

Asian fried chicken also known as Chicken Karaage differs from its western counterpart (southern fried chicken) in the fact that instead of using milk or milk by-products such as butter/buttermilk as flavoring for the chicken, the distinct taste comes from a mix of soy, vinegar and ginger. The resulting dish is a savory and tender dish since the flavors of the three penetrate the meat and the ginger helps in the tenderizing process of the meat.

This preparation style of chicken is also the base of many other popular Asian chicken dishes which lightly stew this chicken in sauce like Orange Chicken and General Gau’s Chicken. So if you would like to recreate those dishes, this is a good place to start, on it’s own though it’s already a very delicious dish.

Difficulty: Beginner

There’s no real difficulty in the preparation and execution of this dish. It’s all about mixing the marinade and letting the meat absorb the flavor and cooking it for the right amount of time in oil.

Tools Needed

Chopping knife – To crush and chop garlic only.

Wok – For frying the chicken in.

Tongs / Spatula – To assist you in taking the chicken out of the hot oil.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

1 Chicken Leg and Thigh Quarter Deboned – You can either have this done by your butcher or you can follow the instructions in my previous preparation post here if all you have is a bone-in quarter of chicken. Whether to keep the skin on or off is optional depending on your preference.

4 Cloves of Garlic

2 Tablespoons of Powdered Ginger – if you would like to use the ginger root, grate about 1/2 tablespoon’s worth.

3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

2 Tablespoons of Vinegar

5 Tablespoons of Corn Starch

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Steps

Prepare the marinade. Peel, crush and chop the garlic and place it in a bowl. In the same bowl, place in the ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir it with a spoon so the flavors mix.

Add the chicken pieces to the marinade. Using the spoon just pour the marinade over the chicken and let it set for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn it over and let it set for another 15 minutes. This is the minimum time for the marinade to set, if you would like to marinate the pieces of chicken longer feel free to do so.

Place the cornstarch in a separate bowl and coat the chicken in the cornstarch.

In a wok or pot, add enough oil that you would cover about half of the chicken and set your stove to medium. Once the oil is hot, place in the chicken pieces. Do not turn over the chicken pieces until the underside is brown already, otherwise the cornstarch and the skin will stick to the bottom of your pan and you’re left with a mess. All in all the frying part should take about 5-6 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the oil and pat it dry on a plate with a table napkin. For added crispiness, let it cool for about 5 minutes and then throw it back into the hot oil for 1 minute.

Once you’re done drying it off you’re ready to eat! Just have this with white rice and if you would like, some light mayonnaise on the side. For additional flavor, you can also squeeze some lemon juice onto the chicken. Enjoy!

Variations:

You can actually add anything you want to the marinade if you would like just as long as you don’t overpower the ginger, soy, and vinegar. An example would be a drunken version of the marinade by adding rice wine, you can also add some brown sugar for a slightly sweeter taste.

As for the breading you can opt to coat it in beaten egg first before dipping it into breadcrumbs for a fuller crust.

– Gerald

Using boneless chicken meat is something that is very common in cooking. For this session of Cooking 101, I’ll discuss how to debone a chicken thigh and leg quarter, this is actually a very easy part of the chicken to debone since we’re only dealing with two bones. It normally takes people just 1-2 tries to do this comfortably.

Normally people can actually ask of this from the butcher/meat section of the supermarket, but this is not the case for all people, there are some supermarkets that only carry the quarters without offering the extra services like filleting and specified cuts. On a personal note though I like to do it myself. Actually, the quarter that I’m using in this article was cut from a whole chicken that I carved as well.

Tools needed:

Fillet Knife – I’m using a Fillet knife for this one, it’s a slightly more specialized knife but as a substitute, you may use a small utility knife (similar to what you use for steak). The goal here is to have a knife that can easily fit in-between the bones and the meat of the chicken pieces.

Kitchen Shears – This will be used to cut the skin part of the chicken. Sometimes using a knife when slicing through raw chicken skin ends up with rough cuts and awkward tears in the skin, so to make the job easier and cleaner I recommend using Kitchen Shears.

Steps:

1. Starting from the joint, using the shears cut the skin to make a division between the leg and thigh.

2. Following the division you made, slice the meat until you reach the joint. You will want to make a slice that goes around the joint. After that you can simply pull the two pieces apart separating them at the joint.

3. After making the division, from the joint area, Insert your knife in-between the bone and the meat. Here you will want to slice out the connections of the bone and the meat. Pull every once in a while on the bone so you can assist your knife in separating the meat from the bone. Once you’re done on one side of the bone, go ahead and do the same for the other side. If done correctly pulling the bone out of the chicken will be a snap and you’re left with just the delicious thigh meat.

4. Moving on to the leg, you first make an incision to separate the skin of the leg from the bone of the leg itself. After doing this insert your knife again in between the bone and the meat from the joint where you pulled the leg and thigh apart. Similar to the thigh part, you will then slice around the bone to sever the connections between the bone and the meat. You will only need to do this on one side though. Slice around the bone until you are able to pull out the bone from the meat cleanly.

And now you’re finished! You now have boneless pieces of the chicken leg and thigh for you to use in a variety of recipes. As you can see it’s quite simple and once you’re used to it will only take a few minutes of your preparation time. Have a great time cooking!

– Gerald

Tip: When handling raw chicken make sure that you wash your chopping board very well afterwards. It’s highly recommended that you use one side of your chopping board for raw meat and the other side for vegetables and herbs to prevent contamination.

One of the types of recipes I would like to have is cooking canned food in quick simple ways that would bring out the flavor of the ingredients while keeping the simplicity and convenience of canned food. As many of us have experienced canned food is a staple in many Cooking Bachelor’s kitchens and meals, so it would be good to have ways of enjoying these items aside from just simply heating them or eating them out of the can.

For today’s recipe post our subject is canned sausage, it’s normally a quick and easy fix for many people looking for something to eat straight out of the can. In today’s recipe though we plan to spice this simple ingredient a bit and present it as a great quick meal for breakfast or lunch that will convert the normal taste of canned sausage and make it approach the savory taste of chorizo.

Difficulty : Beginner

This particular dish is perfect for beginners. There are no special skills needed and all the ingredients and equipment are commonly found in any kitchen. All in all from the start of the preparation until serving this should only take around 10-15 minutes.

Tools Needed:

Chopping Knife

Frying pan

Ingredients (Serves 1-2)

1 Small Can of Sausage (approx. 125g)

1/2 Shallot

1/2 Tablespoon of tabasco sauce

1 Tablespoon of vinegar

3 cloves of garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Steps

1. Place the garlic cloves on your chopping board, crush, peel and chop the garlic. Set this aside and chop the shallot as well.

2. Place the sausages in a bowl and mash them well with a slotted spoon. After it’s mashed add the tabasco, vinegar and salt and pepper. Mix this mixture in the bowl.

3. Turn your stove on to medium heat and wait until your pan heats up. Then you place 1 tablespoon of oil and place the onions in the pan. Saute and toss for about 1 minute and then place the sausage mixture in the pan. Place some pressure on the mixture with a spatula/spoon and then stir from time to time so that it browns. This will take less than 5 minutes.

4. Once the meat is slightly browned crack an egg into the pan and stir fry. Ensure that the egg is distributed well among the meat. Stop and press the mixture with your spoon/spatula again from time to cook the egg and once the egg is cooked place it in a bowl and…

5. Serve! That’s all there is to this dish. This is a simple dish for starting cooks to try out chopping and frying food in a pan and all you did was simply heat the sausage and enhance it with a little more flavor from the other ingredients. I won’t be placing variations anymore since I would encourage you to experiment with this very simple dish on your own. Enjoy!

– Gerald

Chinese Chili Prawns are a staple in Szechuan style Chinese cooking, personally I love Chinese Cooking due to the dynamic flavors and since I have a particular interest in spicy food, this is a recipe that I like to make. If done right you have a sweet spicy and sour dish that’s perfect served over white rice. This is a quick and simple dish that may require some preparation with the prawns but aside from that it’s quite easily done.

Difficulty: Intermediate

This is a very straightforward dish and aside from the preparation that I explained in my previous post, there’s no other skills needed for the preparation of this dish. Then again there will be some people who may have trouble getting used to the preparation hence the Intermediate rating.

Tools Needed

Knife – again I’m using the Santoku Knife but any knife used for chopping will do.

Wok – this will help make mixing the sauce and stirring the prawns with the sauce much easier. In case you do not have one, any rounded pan will do. An example would be the common non-stick frying pans that people use for omelets and pancakes.

Ladle/Large Spoon – this is needed to assist in mixing the sauce and stirring the prawns with the sauce.

Ingredients (Serves 1-2)

6 Medium sized Tiger Prawns shelled and deveined with heads separated – to see how this is done please see my previous preparation post here

1 Shallot Onion – this is to add aroma and texture to the sauce

2 Tablespoons Chili Bean Sauce – this sauce can be found in most supermarkets. It’s a generic Szechuan sauce that gives a certain sweet and spicy taste unique to the cuisine. If you want to make the dish hotter feel free to add more of this

1 Tablespoons Chinese Garlic Chili Sauce – again this is a chinese sauce found in most supermarkets. In the event you cannot find this sauce don’t fret. You can simply create this by mixing mild chili, vegetable oil, a little sugar and garlic.

2 Tablespoons Tomato Ketchup – this is a slightly modern version of this dish so we add ketchup to provide a slightly sour taste and make the dish a bit milder.

Corn starch – place this in a bowl with just enough to coat the prawns once. Add a couple of dashes of salt to the bowl and mix it well.

Salt and Pepper to taste

Steps

1. I’m assuming you’ve already prepared the prawns. If you haven’t please refer to the Cooking 101 Article on this. After preparing the prawns, peel and chop the onion. Note that we need it finely chopped as seen in the photo so that the prawns are not overpowered by the onions.

2. Coat the prawns in corn starch. We will not be using eggs or any other binding agent. Just make sure that the cornstarch envelops the prawn completely. The purpose of the cornstarch is to provide an absorbent outer layer for the sauce to bind to later on.

3. Turn on your stove to medium or medium-high head and once it’s hot enough add enough oil to your wok or pan to cover about a quarter to a half of the prawn. You’ll know the wok is hot enough if when you splash water on it the water droplets roll around instead of bubbling or just staying there, be careful that it’s not too hot though because the oil will ignite if it is. Just be careful when you’re adding the oil, if the oil smokes but doesn’t bubble that’s ok, but if it bubbles raise the wok off the stove to prevent it from lighting up.

In adding the prawns there’s no need to deep fry the prawn since we plan to use some of this oil as shortening for our sauce. So we want it to be as thick with prawn flavor as possible. Make sure there’s enough oil though that it doesn’t disappear from sight due to absorption when we add the prawns. Once you’ve done this just add the prawns and watch it cook. Observe the prawn as it changes color, when the tail end completely becomes red-orange and the cornstarch on the body has browned take it out and place it on a table napkin to dry.

Tip: do not flip the prawns until the side that is being fried is cooked already. This will ensure that the coating binds to the prawn and not to the bottom of your pan.

looks good enough to eat with a little soy sauce right?

4. Now we take the prawn heads that we spearated earlier. Remember that the jelly inside shouldn’t have leaked. If there’s too much oil left in the wok/pan after taking the prawns out, just remove the excess. We want just enough to cover the bottom of the wok/pan. Now you toss in the prawn heads and as they turn red-orange crush them with your spoon/ladle. This will enable the jelly inside to mix with the oil and produce the shortening medium you need for the rest of the sauce. After the resulting liquid is nice and pink remove the heads.

When they come to this color, this is when you crush them to get the “jelly” out.

5. As you see in the previous picture you won’t have much of the shortening liquid so before the liquid simmers and reduces away due to the heat add the Chili Bean Sauce, Garlic Chili oil and Ketchup and stir them together. After stirring reduce the heat of your stove to low. You should come up with the red liquid that will be the sauce you will use to coat the prawns you just fried. Take a quick taste test and add salt and pepper to adjust it to your liking.

6. Add the prawns and stir fry them in the sauce until they’re fully coated in the sauce. When that happens add the onions and stir again and let the whole mixture set with occasional stirring to prevent burnt spots  for about a minute or two for the onions to cook

Upon placing the prawns immediately stir-fry them into the sauce, this is a very quick step and you do not want the prawns to lose their crispness.

7. Once you’ve finished doing this place the mixture on a plate and serve it with white rice. White rice would go best with this dish as a complement to the spicy and strong taste of the dish.

And your dish is now complete. As you can see it’s very simple to make since all it requires is lightly frying the prawns and mixing the flavors of the sauces to make the main sauce then mixing everything together. Enjoy!

Variations:

You can also add an egg to the mixture as an additional neutralizer to the taste of the sauce. This makes it a milder dish and moves it closer to Spanish-style Gambas.

You can opt to use chopped green onions/scallions instead of shallots as well. This would add a different texture and a slightly different aroma to the dish. This depends on your preference.

Personally I like my food salty, but for people looking for a sweeter taste you may add half a teaspoon of honey or brown sugar to the mixture. Be careful when adding these though because if you add too much the sauce will glaze over.

– Gerald

Tools needed:

Knife – I’m using a Santoku knife, it’s a common knife that is useful for a multitude of kitchen tasks. You may substitute this with any slicing knife you have in your possession.

Kitchen Shears – I would advise any Cooking Bachelor to obtain a pair of Kitchen Shears, these are not expensive and will go a long way in your kitchen activities

Steps:

1. Defrost your prawns if frozen in water and about 2 dashes of salt with a salt shaker. It will not take too long for this to happen. Normally in about 10 minutes it will be in a chilled state and the prawn’s body will be malleable.

2. Using kitchen shears, cut off the appendages of the Prawns. You will need to get the ones under the body, and under the head. I also cut off the whiskers.

3. Chop off the head of the prawns. Be careful in doing this because you do not want the contents of the head to leak out. Inside the head of the prawns is the brains and the “jelly” of the prawns which produces a very strong taste that is normally used in soups and sauces. We will be needing the heads in creating the sauce for the dish we will make.

4. Peel the shell off with your hands. Grab the front end of the shell and pull back. It should then separate from the body of the prawn. Do not peel off the tail end. Now you’re done with peeling.

7. Finally we go to the deveining part. This is slightly trickier, here you would make a small incision along the backside of the prawn down the middle. Afterwards you would then feel around to look for the vein (which is actually the digestive tract) of the prawn and remove it. Once you find it, just pull it out until it separates from the prawn and throw it away.

And there you have it! You have successfully unshelled and deveined the prawns. It’s very simple actually once you get the hang of it. Many recipes will call for this kind of preparation and the next post is an example of such a recipe. I hope this post proves helpful!

– Gerald

– The Cooking Bachelor