Tonkatsu

Japan is renown for it's healthy food. Rice, vegetables, lots and lots of fish and certainly not the huge (but essential :P) desserts we have in NZ and in other Western nations. But that doesn't mean that Japan doesn't like a bit of deep frying here and there. In fact quite a few popular Japanese dishes are deep fried. A few include: Tempura, kara age (deep fried chicken) and tonkatsu. Tonkatsu is a pretty simple creation: simply a deep fried piece of pork which is covered in Japanese bread crumbs (panko). And tonkatsu was my creation for tonight.

Whenever I've had tonkatsu in Japan or in Japanese restaurants, the pork is always fairly big and thin. Since I couldn't really find such a thing in the supermarket, I bought a butterfly steak and had a great time flattening it with a pot. Seriously, Vanessa and Bex were surprised at just how much fun I was having. So you get your pork, wham it a bit. Then cut some light slits in it (apparently so it doesn't shrink), salt and pepper each side. Then do your coatings: First flour, second egg and lastly Japanese breadcrumbs. Japanese breadcrumbs are supposed to be different than 'normal' breadcrumbs. I'm not really sure how although I've read that they're coarser? Anyway, then you deep fry it until delicious. I mean, what isn't delicious once it's been fried in a nice hot pot of oil? Because I didn't really have the right ingredients and I didn't want to use a whole bottle of oil for one measly piece of pork, I only shallow fried it. But yeah, then you put tonkatsu sauce on top. Lucky for me, I have some so I was all set! I have a recipe for the sauce if you really want it though, so just let me know :)

And this was my dinner:



But not just this, I also had a bowl of rice and some coleslaw which I made out of cabbage, mayonnaise and some toasted sesame seeds.

That's my creation for the day. I'm quite impressed at my diligence with these Japanese recipes actually. It's a lot of fun!

Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday and then it's finally Thursday. So as you can imagine, I am one giant ball of excitement at the moment!