Kansai & Osaka · Starter
Kushikatsu (Shinsekai Rules)
- Intermediate
- 35 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 250 g beef sirloin or top round
- 1 large onion
- 150 g lotus root
- 8 shiitake mushrooms
- 100 g plain flour
- 1 egg
- 150 ml cold water
- 200 g panko
- 1.5 L neutral frying oil
- 150 ml thin Japanese Worcestershire style sauce
- 1 wedge white cabbage, raw
Equipment
Rolling pin
The skills inside
Deep fryingThe coat before the fry: dredge, crumb, batterDraining fried food: a rack, never paper
The words inside
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · egg · fish
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Cut the beef into 25 g cubes and the onion into layered wedges, keeping each ingredient on its own skewer with the last 3 cm left bare as a handle.
- Crush the panko under a rolling pin to the texture of coarse sand, and whisk the flour, egg and cold water to a batter that runs off a skewer in a thin sheet.
- Dip, let the excess drain back into the bowl, then roll in the crumb and pat it on; the coat should be about 2 mm and you should still read the shape underneath.
- Fry at 170C to 180C (340F to 355F) in small batches until the bubbling quietens and the crust is pale gold, about 90 seconds for beef and a little longer for the vegetables.
- Stand them upright to drain and serve with one communal pot of sauce and the raw cabbage alongside.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Draining fried food: a rack, never paper 77 recipes
- The rack was in place before the first thing went into the oil, not fetched afterwards while food waited in a spider over the pot.
- It lands on a rack with air moving underneath it. Anything set down on paper or a flat plate traps its own steam against its base.
- Salted within seconds of landing, while it is still hot enough to take seasoning.
- A minute later the underside is still as crisp as the top: no soft flat patch where it has been sitting.
- Nothing is stacked or piled while hot, however tempting it is to keep it together. A pile steams itself soft from the inside out.
Where it goes wrong It was drained on paper, or piled up to keep warm. Steam leaving the food has nowhere to go but back into the crust, so the underside softens within a minute: the crispness the frying just bought is gone before the plate reaches the table.
The coat before the fry: dredge, crumb, batter 80 recipes
- The coat is continuous before it goes anywhere near the fat: held up to the light, no bare patch of food shows through anywhere, seams and thin edges included.
- It is bonded rather than resting on top: a gentle shake sheds loose dust only, and the coat does not slide off as a sheet when the piece is handled.
- It bubbles hard and steadily from the moment it enters the fat, and the bubbling visibly slows as it finishes; those bubbles are the surface water leaving, and a quiet entry means the fat is too cool.
- Out and drained, it is an even gold-brown all over and it is still crisp several minutes later on a rack; a coat that softens within a minute of coming out never lost its water.
- Broken open, there is no paste of raw flour under the crust and no hollow gap where the coat has lifted away from the food.
Where it goes wrong The fat was below temperature or the pan was crowded, so the coat drank fat instead of sealing against it: it comes out pale and heavy, greasy to the fingers, and slumps off the food as it cools.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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