Katsu Crazy

Hey All,

Last night was a Japanese food night for us. I thought it was pretty tasty and, for those who end up trying these recipes, I hope it turns out the same. So, here was the menu:

Tonkatsu:
Japanese breaded pork cutlet. I looked online in a search for a recipe, but didn't really follow anyone too strongly. I just followed the general trend and tested for doneness and it came out fine. This dish was slightly more pricy/lb as we bought the special pork cutlet for tonkatsu from a Japanese supermarket. I think next time I'm just going to cut my own meat from a boneless pork loin to make it cheaper. It ended up running around $7 for 6 cutlets in the end. Here's how it was done:

• 6 Pork Cutlets
• 6 Large Eggs
• 1 bag Panko (bread crumbs)
• Vegetable Oil
• 1/4 Large Head Cabbage

In a bowl beat an egg with chopsticks. Dip the pork cutlet into the beaten egg and then into a second bowl with a good amount of panko inside. Since I didn't think it was breaded enough at this point, dip the the cutlet back into the egg bowl to soak up more egg and then again into the panko to bread it more. Heat about 1/2 inch oil in a saucepan. Place the cutlet into the pan. Flip after 2 minutes. Flip a total of 3 times. The cutlet should be brown at this time. Check for doneness by cutting off a slice and making sure the meat is no longer red or gelatenous. Pat down with paper towels to remove the grease and cut into strips to serve over shredded cabbage. Do the same for the other 5 cutlets. Goes well with tonkatsu (bulldog) sauce and/or Japanese mayonaise.

Curry (for Katsu Curry):
It's hard to go wrong with curry, and this time was no exception. We basically just followed the directions on the back of the curry mix box (we used Golden Curry). Katsu curry seems to be more watery than regular curry from my own experience and that was the consistency that was obtained. Since it was just a vegetable curry, it ended up pretty cheap, around $3 (cost coming mostly from the curry packet). Anyways, here's how we did it:

• 1 Carrot
• 2 Potatoes
• 1 Onion
• 5 cloves Garlic
• 1 packet (Golden) Curry Mix
• Water
• Oil

Peal and cube the vegetables. Mince the garlic. In a pot or large pan, cook the vegetables and garlic in a little oil until browning. Add enough water to cover the vegetables and bring to boil. Add curry mix and stir. Bring off heat to thicken. Add water to gain the consistency wanted (watery in our case). Serve over rice and tonkatsu.

Katsudon:
I've been craving katsudon, so I found a recipe from here (1) and followed it. I followed it loosely however as I was only making one serving of katsudon and was too lazy to calculate the conversion I needed to use tablespoons. It ended up a little bit salty but still good (I'll add more sugar next time). Here's approximately how it went (I did it by eye, so approximately is the best I can do):

• 1/4 cup Mirin (Cooking Rice Wine)
• ~1/6 cup Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Green Onion (green part only cut into long pieces)
• ~1 tsp Brown Sugar
• 1 Large Egg

On low heat, bring all ingredients but the egg to boil in a small saucepan. Beat the egg and add it to the middle of the sauce without mixing. When the egg is pretty much cooked, pour everything over a bowl of rice containing cut tonkatsu on top.

Miso Soup:
With Japanese food, miso soup is a must! This one was a rather simple soup as we didn't have many other ingredients appropriate to through in. For a total of 6 servings, the soup came out to be around $2 at most. Anyhow, here's the recipe:

• 6 cups Water
• ~1/3 cup Miso Paste (more if wanted)
• 1 package Firm Tofu
• 2 Green Onions
• Cilantro

Bring the water to boil in a pot. Remove some water and added it to some of the miso paste to be added and mix and then mix it into the pot (this helps prevent clumping). Do this until all the miso paste wanted to be added is added (taste it to make sure!). Drain the tofu and then cut it into small cubes (easiest in box). Add to the soup. After another minute, bring the soup off heat. Add chopped green onions and minced cilantro.

On top of this, we had white (short grain) rice, japanese pickles (bought from a Japanese supermarket), and fruit for dessert. Together this was enough for 4 college students for dinner and 2 ervings of lunch the next day with a bit more curry left over. For around $12-13 dollars, this was a lot of food. Hope you enjoy making these dishes as I did.

Cheers,
---Chris

Cite:
(1) http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/414/Pork-Katsudon/