Crispy golden crust and juicy tender meat served with a sweet savoury Tonkatsu sauce. This much loved dish is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Alternatively make a quick curry sauce from Japanese curry cubes and you have yourself a Katsu Curry.
Difficult: Medium
Time: 25min prep, 30min cooking
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 2 pieces boneless pork loin chops
- 1/2 cup plain flour
- 1/2 tbsp oil
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup Panko crumbs
- 3 cups oil (for deep frying)
Tonkatsu Sauce
- Tonkatsu sauce*
- 2 tbsp white sesame toasted
Salad
- 2 cups finely sliced cabbage
- 1 tomato cut into wedges
- 2 lemon wedges
Carrot Ginger Salad Dressing
- 1/2 carrot chopped
- 1/8 onion chopped
- 1cm knob of ginger chopped
- 3/4 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tbsp miso
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 1/8 cup grapeseed oil
- salt
- pepper
Rice
- 1 cup Japanese rice
- 2 cups water
* This is available at most Japanese groceries, or you can make your own by mixing the following together in portion for the amount you want: 1 tbsp tomato sauce, 2 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 ½ tsp oyster sauce and 1 tsp sugar.
Method
1. Start by washing the rice thoroughly before adding it to the rice cooker with 2 cups of rice. Set it to cook.
2. Make the salad dressing by blending the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Set aside for later.
3. Sprinkle the Panko crumbs with water lightly on a plate to bring some moisture to it and leave for 15 minutes. Mix the egg with oil and pour it on separate plate. Finally tip the flour onto a third plate.
4. Tenderise the pork loin with a meat pounder or the handle of your knife. Shape it back to it's original shape with your hands and season generously with salt and pepper. Coat the pork loin generously with flour, then dip it in the egg mixture ensuring it's well coated, before coating it with the Panko crumbs.
5. Heat oil over medium high heat to approximately 180 degrees, shallow fry the pork for 1 minute on each side. Take it out and let it rest for 4 minutes on a wire rack.
6. Return the pork loin to the oil and fry again for 1 minute on each side. This is to ensure that the crust is golden and crunchy. The pork is cooked if the juice runs clear when you poke a chopstick inside.
7. Cut up the pork loin and serve with cabbage and tomato salad dressed with the carrot and ginger dressing. Enjoy the pork dipped in Tonkatsu sauce with freshly grinded sesame paste*.
* Toasted sesame is normally grinded fresh at the table with the special Japanese pestle and mortar shown in the top right corner of the photo. You can also pre grind it in a normal pestle and mortar or skip it.
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