Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Japanese classics with a shot at a katsu (or sometimes, "tonkatsu") curry. For those unfamiliar, a katsu curry consists of a savory, slow simmered Japanese curry with potatoes and carrots, then topped with, you guessed it, a breaded and fried pork cutlet known as tonkatsu. Those following along with this channel may recognize that we have independently done multiple versions now of both a Japanese curry, as well as a fried katsu cutlet (some may recall the white miso curry that we did a while back, as well as the chicken katsu and pork tonkatsu cutlets that we did more recently as well). 

So! This means we'll be more than a little familiar with how to cook each of the elements in our dish today, which is...great. Because, I love making things that I actually know how to make, cause its, way less stressful, y'all. In any case, a Japanese curry as you might imagine, leans heavily on the use of curry powder, which, since it is a spice blend, leaves a whole bunch of room for fluidity, because every curry powder blend is a little bit different. So we'll be diving into a few supplemental spices that I like to add to mine, for my personal tastes. Then of course for our tonkatsu pork cutlets, we've got these gorgeous pork cutlets courtesy of Taylor's sausage in Oakland, as well as a closer look into how to properly use panko breadcrumb so that it doesn't immediately fall off in the fryer, which, let's face it, we've all done at least once in our lives, right? Hope you try it.

 

Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) fine minced ginger

  • 3 green onions

  • 1/2 medium white onion

  • 4 russet potatoes

  • 4 carrots

  • 3 pork cutlets

  • corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)

  • fryer oil

  • peanut oil

  • kosher salt

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 2 tbsp mirin

  • 2 tbsp sake

  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce

  • 1 tbsp white miso paste

INGREDIENTS (breading)

  • 2 eggs

  • 1/2 cup AP flour

  • 1 cup panko breadcrumb

INGREDIENTS (spices)

  • 2 tbsp curry powder

  • 1/2 tsp turmeric

  • 1/2 tsp cumin

  • 1/2 tsp garam masala

PREP

  • CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside

  • FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside

  • SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice thinly, set aside

  • MEDIUM DICE the onion, set aside

  • LARGE DICE the potatoes, set aside

  • LARGE DICE the carrots, set aside

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside

  • REMOVE excess fat from the pork cutlets, then score against the grain and set aside

  • ADD the breading ingredients into three separate bowls, then coat the cutlets in AP flour first, then egg, then panko

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the garlic, ginger and whites of the green onions, then saute for 15 seconds until fragrant

  • ADD the potatoes and carrots, then toss to combine

  • ADD the sauce mixture plus 1/2 cup water and toss to combine

  • ADD all spice ingredients, then toss to combine and simmer for 30 minutes, or ideally 3 hours

  • ADD the onions to the wok at 10 minutes prior to serving

  • ADD the corn starch slurry and toss to combine and season with kosher salt to taste

  • HEAT the fryer oil to 350F, then add the cutlets 1 piece at a time and fry for 2-3 minutes before turning and frying for an additional 2-3 minutes until golden brown

  • SLICE the pork cutlets into strips, then serve the curry over rice, topped with the katsu and greens of green onions

 

tagged with japanese food, japanese curry, japanese pork cutlet, tonkatsu, katsu cutlet, katsu curry, japanese katsu curry, japanese recipe, japanese cooking, curry recipe, woo can cook