hello! Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to Japanese classics with a Japanese breaded and fried pork cutlet, or “tonkatsu.” For those following along, not too long ago we did a pretty similar dish known as chicken katsu, which as you might guess, is the same dish, but made using a flattened and breaded chicken breast, in lieu of the pork cutlet. For our version today though, I thought I’d use our tonkatsu as an excuse to take a shot at this fun cucumber salad that’s been floating around the internet, made using Persian cucumbers.
It is for the most part a pretty straight forward cucumber salad with one unique attribute in the way that the cucumber is chopped, where a set of chopsticks are employed as a guide to create these fun cumber…accordion shapes? Then finally we’ll aslo be using a tried and katsu recipe to make these perfectly golden brown pork cutlets, amplified by my favorite secret ingredient, which is a pinch of dashi powder. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4-5 pork cutlets
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
1/4 head cabbage
4 Persian cucumbers
1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup panko breadcrumb
2 eggs
kosher salt
64oz fryer oil
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp red vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp dashi powder
INGREDIENTS (tonkatsu sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp ketchup
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SLICE the cabbage, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
REMOVE the root and stem ends of the cucumbers, then place in-between two chopsticks, slice into strips, flip and repeat on the opposite side
ADD the cucumbers to a bowl and season with kosher salt, then let marinate for 10 minutes, and remove any excess water
COMBINE cucumbers with all marinade ingredients and set aside
TRIM the fat from the pork cutlets, then score and flatten with a mallet
WHISK the eggs, then place the panko and AP flour in separate bowls
DREDGE the cutlets in AP flour first, followed by egg, then panko
ON THE STOVE
HEAT the fryer oil to 350F, then fry the cutlets until golden brown
REMOVE the fryer oil, reheat the wok as hot as possible, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the garlic and ginger, then bloom for 15 seconds until fragrant
ADD the sauce mixture and reduce over low heat for about 4-5 minutes until thickened
SLICE the tonkatsu cutlets into strips, then place on a bed of cabbage with a side of rice and cucumber salad