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.

This recipe is sponsored by TokyoTreat Japanese subscription snack boxes. Check out the link to learn more.

 

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

 

tagged with pork tonkatsu, japanese pork cutlet, japanese fried pork, katsu, japanese cooking, japanese food, japanese recipe, spiral cucumber salad, persian cucumber,chopsticks, woo can cook