noodsletter #.0045
Photos for the cookbook; gluten-free karaage
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Today, we’re making gluten-free karaage!
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Book Bit
She takes him out to lunch in Fornalutx—not to the intimate little restaurant that she and her husband frequent but to one attached to a hotel that a century ago was the residence of a local eminence. At its centre is a courtyard open to the skies: birds swoop in and strut around among the tables or dip themselves in the fountain. No one is curious about the two of them, no one shows any interest. They are free beings, answerable to none.
She visits the ladies’ room. Emerging from the shadows, she pauses in the doorway, waiting for him to catch sight of her, then threads her way towards him through the tables. His eyes are fixed on her, as are the eyes of the two waiters.
She is aware of the effect she can have on men. Grace: not such an antique concept after all. In Poland or Russia, she thinks, he will relive this moment, the moment when, crossing the floor towards him, came a vision of grace embodied. What have we done to deserve this, he will think, guests, cooks, waiters, all of us? Grace that descends from the skies, shedding its radiance on us.
From The Pole, by J.M. Coetzee.
Work Stuff: Muffins, Italian Beef, etc.
Busy as always at ChefSteps. We put out some supercharged muffin recipes, and a universal muffin recipe you tweak as you like (with, like, 11 different variations tested by us!).
Also have a couple new Eric Huang recipes: Dirty Fried Rice, and Hushpuppies with Apple Honey. Such a privilege to work with such a smart chef.
And then… we also put up an Italian beef recipe (along with the bread) to satisfy the baying mob of The Bear fans. I just made it this weekend (well, I made everything except the giardiniera, which is funny since it’s probably the easiest part). Very, very good, intensely good, beefily good. (I used top round, because it is about as cheap as I am. Made tsukemen out of the leftovers!
Cookbook Photo Shoot
noodsletter’s been on a bit of a hiatus because … I had to take the photos for my cookbook!
It was a lot of work, and a lot of stress, but it worked out great, I think. After making over 20 quarts of stock, 48 portions of 8 different kinds of noodles, and enough tare and rendered fat to make hundreds of bowls of ramen (and, of course, all the toppings and extra seasoning pastes/oils/vinegars/etc) in my tiny apartment kitchen, I carted it all over to a studio in Williamsburg named, weirdly enough, Shio Studio.
It’s fun working with food styling/photography pros. I had ideas for how all the composed bowls should look, and I did all the noodle folding and onion slicing, but the food stylist (Emma Rowe) and photographer (Linda Xiao) and the prop stylist (Ashleigh Sarbone) did all the actual magic. Some of them, like the duck ramen and the fresh fish ramen, were very tricky to style, and I am very pleased with how everything turned out. If you ever need food photo pros, I can’t recommend these people enough!
Here’s some snaps of the snaps.
“News”
Have you heard about this guy eating raw chicken every day until he gets sick? He’s on Day 16!
Max Falkowitz—great food writer who has inspired me many times in the past to hoof it across the city to eat dumplings and buy things like anardana (dried pomegranate seeds) even when I have no use for them—has started a tea newsletter. If you are interested in tea, you should subscribe. (He also writes the Fire Escape Bonsai newsletter.) I have yet to subscribe to the tea one because… I honestly cannot accommodate another hobby, and Max makes these things seem so interesting. (Did I spend several long nights last fall wondering if I should get into bonsai? Yes.)
Cucumber sharks and yellow squash geese. (I don’t know when I signed up for this newsletter, but I’m glad I did!)
Dennis Lee’s newsletters remain essential. And, look, he got a big ole profile in a glossy mag!
On eating sushi alone in Budapest. “Each time I ordered the same thing. When I entered, the staff recognized me and said something in Japanese that was warm and incantatory. No doubt they thought I was mad.”
It’s good news that Saveur is no longer zombie-Saveur, but I don’t think any outlet has adequately explained how Kat Craddock bought the magazine. It just seems so unprecedented: an employee just one day saying, “Me and an investor will just buy the place from you, corporate bosses.” Has that ever happened before?
The snow crab situation in Alaska is super creepy. Like aliens in the ocean/some secret agent detonated a nuke underwater-type creepy. (Of course it’s probably just “climate change is going to kill us all” creepy.)
Did the salmon industry write this salmon health guide for the Times? “Which salmon is healthiest?” “Yes.”
Not sure why I find “restaurant plating trends” interesting, since I rarely go to these kinds of restaurants and do a haphazard job of presenting food as a rule, but I do!
Iced lemon tea is taking Hong Kong by storm.
Can’t eat dog in Korea anymore.
Paging Italians Mad at Food: “Luckily, Giada de Laurentiis, a celebrity chef renowned for her Italian home cooking, has a seasoning tip to elevate pasta lovers' dreams even further: Add in cinnamon for a subtle warmth and sweetness.” Also didn’t realize Chowhound is now… back? Or is it a zombie-Chowhound? Seems like it’s now based in Indiana?
This piece on pomegranates and TikTok ends on a completely ridiculous note!
But beyond the outsize mountain of symbolism piling up, there’s a glaring problem: Pomegranates do not taste good. They’re a pain in the ass to eat, as any of the lengthy preparation videos behind those TikTok poems can tell you. They’re way too tart, and their seeds have an unsettling texture that rests, somehow, between crunchy and soggy. They’re an absolute mess and they stain everything — something that some might frame as glamorous and feminine but that I would argue is just a major threat to the sanctity of my couch cushions. They’re not even that good for you…
I freaking love pomegranates! They taste exactly as they should, which is “amazing.”
Ghost writers gathering. (I would like to be a ghost writer!)
Gluten-Free Chicken Karaage
Chicken karaage (basically Japanese fried chicken) consists of marinated chicken dredged in a flour/starch mix and fried. You’ve probably had it before; most Japanese restaurants have some version of it on their menu. What distinguishes it from other Asian/East Asian chicken is the relatively higher proportion of native starch to flour in the dredge, which means the crust is less substantial and less browned, since the dredge doesn’t contain as much protein as the one used for something like Southern fried chicken.
Making a gluten-free version might sound like an exercise in futility, much as a gluten-free version of buttermilk brined fried chicken would pale in comparison to the original, literally and figuratively. However, karaage can be made without flour at all; in fact, my mother used to make karaage with just cornstarch, and it was pretty good.
For a long while, I used a mix of cake flour, potato starch, and corn starch for karaage, but recently my wife has had to adopt a gluten-free diet. I knew I could make a decent karaage without wheat flour; the main question was whether a karaage made with tamari instead of shoyu would be close enough to the original so as not to be distracting. And … it is!
But in the process, I stumbled upon a flour mix that is perhaps even better than a wheat flour one. Instead of using my mother’s straight-starch dredge, I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour blend, and it worked extremely well. And I think it has to do with the chickpea and fava bean flour it contains. Both have ample protein, and they have a kind of savory, beany flavor that I imagine is distracting in pastry, but complements the savory chicken. The crust is reminiscent of pakora (which often uses besan—chickpea flour), but it’s a little lighter thanks to all the native starch (potato and tapioca starch).
The method here is very close to what I imagine is standard procedure for “Shake and Bake.” (I have never used a Shake and Bake … recipe? product? Not even sure what it is, and yet the phrase has set up camp in my mind.) You marinate the chicken in a bag for 15-30 minutes (and no longer), dump the flour into the bag, seal it, and smush and shake everything around until a floury paste coats all the chicken, then toss them into a hot-ish fryer. Will you get better results if you put the flour in a bowl and dredge the marinated chicken pieces through it, covering them entirely? Yes.
I snapped how I split chicken thighs and legs for this, too, since I like the way the muscle groups either are grouped or end up being separated; I also like having the tendons in the leg are severed and exposed so they cook well past the 165 F that people claim to like. (At 165, the tendons are still rubber bands!) If you are temping the chicken to try to get it really nicely cooked, I suggest a temp of 170-180 F. They’ll still be plenty juicy, but the connective tissue will be softened. (If they cook to 200 F, they’ll still be fine, too.)
One note: I did not use as much flour as I could’ve. If you add more flour, so that every piece is a little powdery on the exterior, the crust will be more substantial—it will be better.
Someone on Instagram asked if I could do a cauliflower version, and while I think that may be a futile effort, I’ll give it a try.
Ingredients
486 g Boneless chicken thighs and legs, cut into 1-inch pieces
9 g Ginger, (1-inch piece) peeled and grated
10 g Garlic, (2 cloves) grated
30 ml Tamari (2 tablespoons)
20 ml Mirin (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
10 ml Fish sauce (2 teaspoons)
Pinch of white pepper
Neutral oil, for frying
110 g Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all-purpose flour blend
Place chicken in a zip-top bag. Combine ginger, garlic, tamari, mirin, fish sauce, and white pepper in a small ramekin or bowl and stir to combine. Transfer marinade to bag with chicken, seal bag, and squish the contents around to distribute marinade. Let sit at least 15 and no more than 30 minutes.
Set a wire rack in a 1/4 sheet pan; set aside. In a carbon steel wok or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat until an instant-read thermometer registers 350 F.
Add gluten-free all-purpose flour blend to the bag, seal bag, and do the shake and bake thing (??). Working in 3 batches to avoid overcrowding the oil, add chicken to hot oil and cook, adjusting heat to maintain oil temperature of 300-325 F, flipping pieces occasionally, until browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken pieces reads at least 170 F, 3-4 minutes. Transfer to prepared cooling rack and repeat with remaining chicken.
Looks even more beefy than you describe. I'm so behind the times that I didn't realize you took the Chef Step along w Brother Marx. Muy Mazel Tof to you both 🌝🌝