Sunday, February 17, 2008

Katsudon


While I never grew up eating this, there's something about a donburi that's so delicious and comforting. I've had my fair share of donburi while living in the South Bay Area, but I've never met a donburi that ever called me to come back for more, until eating at Ikenohana in Beaverton, Oregon. While I may be crazy for the katsudon and the sukiyaki, and the nabeyaki udon, sometimes the service and the wait doesn't make me crazy enough. So I resorted to trying to duplicate the dish at home, which became a success with Mr. G.

Katsu (fried pork cutlet)
2 servings

4 pork cutlets (i like a thinner cut)
1 egg
Japanese panko breadcrumbs, flour, salt pepper
oil for frying

1.) Prepare your breading station. one plate with flour, salt, pepper. one plate with a beaten egg. another for the panko breadcrumbs.



2.) Rinse and dry your beautiful pork cutlets. I'm so proud of these cutlets because I found it in the meat clearance for 50% off, which came out to $2.25 per 4-pack. super awesome.
3.) Coat pork cutlet with flour, lightly dusting off excess



4.) dip floured cutlet in egg bath



5.) coat egg batter into panko breadcrumbs (isn't it funny how you need to stick something to something else to something else, on top of something else in order to get what you want?)



6.) cover cutlets with plastic wrap, refrigerate for at least 2 hours for breading to harden, or freeze for 30 minutes if your in a hurry. I usually do this the night before and let it set overnight since I'm impatient when I'm awake.

7.) after hardening process, take the cutlets out for about 30 minutes. In the mean time heat your oil in a frying pan, or your deep fryer. In this case I used a frying pan since 4 cutlets isn't enough to take out my FryDaddy.

8.) I'll be honest and tell you that I don't know what temperature my oil goes up to, I just test the oil with a wooden chopstick, or throw in something fry-able to determine if the oil is ready or not. Anyway, fry up these bad boys, but do not over crowd the pan. I fried two at a time and wait until golden brown, flipping cutlet may be needed.

9.) end result



I rarely deep fry, but when I do, I start looking for random things to fry. In this case, I found my package of banh phong tom (shrimp chips) and leftover breaded zucchini sticks I prepared one football sunday.



Ok so I got the katsu part out of the way, now on to the donburi.


Simmering Sauce consists of:

1/4 c. soy sauce (I use Yamasa)
1 3/4 c. dashi stock
2 tbsp. Mirin Simmering Sauce
2 tbsp. Brown sugar
1/2 Regular onion cut in small wedges
1-2 stalks of green onion sliced on a 1 in. diagonal

1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups of rice (my bowl is big)

Again this is approximately. I tend to add and reduce according to my taste. I like it stronger with fish stock and slightly sweeter.

I make the whole batch in a regular pan and transfer half of the sauce in a smaller frying pan, one that has the same width as the finishing bowl. Simmer the sauce on med to med-low for about 10 minutes, or until the onions are softened and the sauce has reduced. Transfer half of the sauce to a smaller pan.


*cut katsu by width and lay in the simmering sauce.

Pour egg mixture into pan. simmer for about 5 minutes, until set.


I find myself using the broiler to cook the top of my egg mixture.


Use a rubber spatula to loosen the edges for easier transfer.

Mr. G decided to throw on the green onion for the picture, but its normally garnished with pickled ginger.

Awhile back I made katsu-curry over rice. When I eat Japanese curry at a restaurant, I never receive thick chunks of potato or carrots, but I'm used to Vietnamese-style curry with chunky ingredients so, I adjusted to my own liking.



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