It's no surprise I was raised with mostly Chinese and Taiwanese food, but actually, Japanese food also plays a big role in our food culture! Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years, and most of our grandparents speak fluent Japanese. Although I may not be an expert on Japanese food, I definitely have some great recipes of Japanese comfort food. Katsudon is one of them! Especially when this is also one of my kids' fav, I have to master it, right?! The truth is, when you get some crunchy fried pork cutlet with some yummy sauce on top, nothing in this world can bring your down! Adults sure enjoy this dish, but kids ... they devour it. So, why don't we just cut the crap and get cooking?!!
Ingredients: (Serving for 4) For the Katsu
- 1" thick Pork Cutlets x 4
- Salt x 4tsp
- Ground White Pepper x 2 tsp
- Flour x 1 cup
- Eggs x 1
- Panko Bread Crumb x 3 cups
For the sauce
- Green Onions x 2
- Onions x ½
- Dried Shiitake Mushroom x 2 (soak in 1 cup of hot water to rehydrate)
- Water x 3 cups
- Mirin x ½ cup
- Hondashi 2-3 tsp ( Bonito Soup Stock )
- Salt x 3-4 tsp
- Eggs x 4
- Cooked rice
Recipe: For the Katsu
- Tenderize each cutlet . ( Watch video for a good tip to minimize the mess)
- Make a little cut at 4 corners of the cutlet. (Watch video for this tip)
- Season each cutlet with 1tsp of salt and ½ tsp of ground white pepper. Let them sit for 15 mins.
- Set up the " Cutlet Spa".
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- - Using a dish with a little depth to beat an egg in.
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- - Using a dish with a little depth for flour.
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- - Using a dish with a little depth for panko bread crumb.
- Heat up the oil to 375 degree for deep frying.
- While the oil is heating, bread each cutlet in the order of "Flour-Egg-Panko".
- Deep fry the breaded cutlets till golden brown.
- Take them out and let them rest on a cooling rack for 3 mins, then cut each cutlet into strips.
For the sauce
- In a bigger sauce pan, sautee onions, mushrooms, and green onions till softened.
- Add in water, Mirin, Hondashi and salt to taste, then bring to boil.
- Prepare a plate with desired amount of rice in it.
- Beat one egg in a bowl.
- In a smaller sauce pan, heat up sauce one serving at a time. Bring to boil vigorously.
- While the sauce is boiling vigorously, drop the beaten egg in, right away turn the heat off. Move the pan around to swirl cook the egg in the pan with remaining heat.
- When the egg is 70% cooked and set, pour the hot sauce on top of the rice.
- Place one pork cutlet on top and voila!! YUM!!!
If you like my recipe, don’t forget to FOLLOW me, and be the first to know when more yummy dishes are coming! Also, stay tuned! We will be making some amazing videos to share how to cook authentic Chinese, as well as fun stories about our bi-cultural life!!!
Mirin (Japanese Sweet Rice Wine)
Hondashi (Bonito Soup Stock)
