Chicken katsu can change your life.
Also: pie crust round-up, pitter-patter lets get at'er, and how to eat a bowl of ramen.
Begin with some skinless, boneless (heh heh) chicken thighs, eggs, bread flour, panko, vegetable oil and about a decade of disappointing interactions on a variety of dating platforms.
Pound the chicken with a meat mallet. Take care not to view the flattened chicken as a metaphor for your delicate emotional state and season generously with salt and pepper.
Set up a batter station — one square pan with flour, one pan with beaten egg, one pan with bread crumbs — and dredge your chicken in the flour, tapping off the excess, then dip into the egg, followed by the panko, and set aside, in the same way that you’ve taken your own lowered expectations and dredged them in a mixture of doubt, self-recrimination and horniness.
Heat a large, high-walled dutch oven or large heavy saute pan filled with about a 1/2-3/4” of vegetable oil to 350°F.
Meet a smart, sweet librarian who, much like these chicken cutlets when fried in hot oil for 2-3 minutes a side, turns your humble mess of a brain and heart into something golden brown and delicious.
Realize that all the years spent making good and bad choices brought you here, to this kitchen, to this person, and don’t regret that time. And enjoy the people you’ve become, and the love you’ve improbably found.
Drain chicken on paper towels. Serve chicken to the person you love alongside freshly made rice or quinoa, a small salad of shredded cabbage and Russian dressing, and a glass or two of sparkling wine, with which you can toast your hopes for the future.
— Theo
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Food you should make:
Rachel sent me this recipe for a tremendous-looking fall salad featuring butternut squash, pomegranate and pepitas, and it looks like one of those rare vegetarian dishes you could serve to your degenerate carnivore family at Thanksgiving, and they’d eat more of it than the potatoes or stuffing. Thanks, Rachel!
You try to tell yourself “how much more shakshuka can I really eat?” and then Deb posts a new recipe to smitten kitchen featuring chickpeas and kale and you realize you don’t have enough eggs in the house.
Pie crusts are notoriously tough, but with a little care (and making sure your fat is ICE-FORKING-COLD) you can get tender, tasty results. (Hey. I helped judge an apple pie contest for seven years. I know what I’m talking about. Kinda.)
Here’s an all-butter recipe from the illustrious Hoosier Mama herself, Paula Haney.
Carla Lalli Music’s kinda weird but extremely flaky crust is a ten-minute affair, but it does require frozen butter — so plan ahead. [video]
This build is similar to CLM’s, but won’t produce the big sheets of flakes in your dough — it can be made using a food processor, however.
Food news:
Soup dumplings are hard to make — but tasty and worth the trouble. Of course, if you just can’t be bothered — Trader Joe’s has your back.
Pitter patter, lets get at’er – Letterkenny’s seventh season is premiering soon. A six-pack of Puppers might make for a fine TV-watching beverage experience, if you can locate any.
Everyone who eats, cooks or shops for potatoes should read at least one potato primer (on the characteristics and best kinds of recipes for different kinds of taters) and it might as well be this one.
You guys know about Better Than Bouillon, right? The incredibly flavorful stock concentrate? IF NOT, buddy, I can’t think of a better way to introduce yourself to it than by roasting some veggies with it.
Fans of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler and/or automats may appreciate this Eater piece about how the writer’s love of the former created a yearning to explore a New York that’s disappeared, and enjoy the coin-slot-convenience of a Horn & Hardart.
There’s a bakery in NYC that will make a Hidden Valley Ranch themed cake, complete with dessert celery and chicken wings. It looks wonderfully strange and tasty. (Thanks, Rachel)
Things to watch:
Another trailer for David Chang’s new food show, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, looks like a lot of fun.
You don’t always have to be excessively precious or reverent when eating delicious food, but if someone’s trying to feed you something truly special, try to listen to them when they tell you how to have the best time with it.
I get the feeling you’re gonna be seeing a lot of Maangchi videos on this newsletter. Like everything she makes, her video for Tteokguk (떡국) is a tasty, simple winner.