Tonkatsu

When I was in Japan as far as I remember it was back in 2001, I have noticed restaurants and fast foods have this specific dish on their menu and do you know what it is? Yes, it is Tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a very popular dish in Japan and as popular as Sushi, Maki and Gyudon. Tonakatsu is a dish consist of pork cutlets deep fried in a breaded coating. It is originated in 19th century and is serve as a main dish which has 2 types, the hire and rosu and is served with cabbage. Before, this typical dish is named katsuretsu or cutlets and was usually beef until the pork dish was invented in 1899 by a restaurant in Tokyo named Rengatai and later coined Tonkatsu or Pork Katsu in 1930's. There are lots of variation for this dish including sandwich filling katsu, katsudon which is served in a bowl of rice with an egg, ka-re katsu or curry katsu, Chicken Katsu, and a lot more. So if you want to have a taste of this crunchy and yummylicious Japanese dish, just follow this recipe and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Ingredients we will be needing:

Pork:
6 Pork escalopes, around .5mm thick and weighing 130-150g each
120g plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
200g dried breadcrumbs
oil for deep frying

To Serve:

shredded cabbage
boiled rice
Hot English Mustard or Japanese Mustard
(prepackaged hot English mustard)
Tonkatsu sauce or mixture of 50/50
Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce

Using a mallet or meat tenderiser flatten out the pork fillets evenly.
Season the flour with salt and pepper in a bowl.

Place the beaten eggs and breadcrumbs on separate plates or bowls.
Coat the pork in the flour then eggs and finely the breadcrumbs shaking off any excess crumbs.
Set aside until ready to cook.

Heat some oil in a deep fryer or wok to 180-190E C.
Cook 1 or 2 fillets at a time in the hot oil for around 5 minutes until they are golden brown.
Remove them from the heat and drain them on kitchen paper and keep warm while you cook the
remaining fillets.

Place a bed of cabbage on each plate.
Slice the pork fillets into 6-8 slices and place them on the cabbage.
Accompany each serving of pork with a bowl of rice, mustard and Tonkatsu sauce or a mixture
of Worcestershire sauce.