this shit rocks no. 67: black sesame-panko chicken cutlets with cabbage slaw!
Plus, cocoa truffle bars and a community dye bath!
I’m back in LA and it feels good, baby! I’ve spent most of this past week getting my life back on track and adjusting to a world where I don’t have constant, immediate access to a perfectly soft boiled egg. It’s been tough to acclimate but I’m doing my best.
Aside from beating the bitchiest jet lag of all time and being reunited with my sweet, sweet Pepper, the greatest thing to happen to me this past week (and maybe the last few months) was watching Jury Duty. I honestly can’t remember a TV show that made me cry-laugh as hard as this one did. Like, I started to worry that my neighbors could hear me and would think that I was in imminent danger. Everything’s fine, I’m just hyperventilating because of Todd’s chair pants.
Anyway, please don’t speak to me until you’ve watched this series in full so that we can discuss. In the meantime, here are some other things I’ve been loving.
Suay Sew Shop Community Dye Bath
I have been wanting to do this for the longest time, and I finally DID. I must say, the results far exceeded my expectations. The key is finding items in your closet that you don’t hate enough to get rid of completely, but don’t love enough that if things were to go south, you wouldn’t be too disappointed.
It was an especially useful way to give new life to some of my neglected clothes that were once a crisp white color and are now a murky beige because I refuse to separate my whites and colors when I do laundry. I sent in an old-ish pair of (what were once) white Levi’s, and now they’re BRIGHT PINK (one of March’s color swatches was called “bougainvillea”), and I’m in love with them all over again. Turns out some of the best purchases are the ones you already own?!
If you don’t live in LA, you can opt to send in your clothes and have them shipped back to you.
Honey Mama’s
I’m feeling a little insecure about this one because clearly I’m the LAST person to know about these. I posted them in my stories earlier this week and apparently everyone already knows these bars well and can recite their top three favorite flavors.
WELL, I am entering the chat and I’m here to say that these bars are exactly what I want to eat for my nightly sweet snack (no days off). The coffee crunch is my favorite flavor, with tahini tangerine and chocolate cake very close behind. It has also been brought to my attention that their is a limited edition carrot cake flavor, so I will need to get my hands on that ASAP.
Use code “SARATANE” for $10 off the 9-pack variety pack so you can try ‘em all!
Crispy Black Sesame-Panko Cutlets with Cabbage Slaw
Serves: 4
Active time: 25 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Two of my favorite ingredients that I ate a ton of in Japan were black sesame and cabbage. So, I thought a fun recipe to make upon returning from my trip would be these crispy chicken cutlets, which marry these two delightful foods together.
The chicken is breaded in Panko and black sesame seeds for a crispy, nutty coating. I served them with a very simple cabbage slaw dressed in a mixture of sesame oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, and more sesame seeds. It all comes together in less than an hour, and who doesn’t love a crispy cutlet?!
Instead of chicken, you could sub thinly pounded pork loin (like tonkatsu!) or thin tofu planks. I’d recommend buying toasted black sesame seeds (most black sesame seeds sold at Asian grocery stores are already toasted). Black sesame seeds have a stronger flavor and slightly more crunch than white sesame seeds, so while you certainly can use white sesame seeds, I’d recommend black.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to This Shit Rocks to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.