Pork Katsudon
This matters to me because...
The YouTube Channel "Cooking With Dog" has a video made 13 years ago that show exactly how you would make this dish. I have followed this channel since high school, and it felt fitting to include this dish in this list of 31 dishes. That Francis and the Cooking With Dog team--you never fail to brighten my day.
Also, this was my first time ever deep-frying anything--definitely need to have some kind of challenge in it.
Ingredients
- Pork loin chop
- Salt
- Flour
- Egg
- Panko break crumbs
- Vegetable Oil
- White rice
- Dashi powder
- Mirin
- Onion
- Soy sauce
- Sugar
- Scallion
2 Comments
- The pork loin chops I got were cut a bit too think--roughly 1 inches. I spent a substantial amount of time tenderizing the meat, but I was slightly concerned that I may have under-cooked the pork. Luckily I had an instant-read thermometer, and with an internal temperature of 145-degrees fahrenheit, I was confident that it wasn't raw.
- I was surprised by how flavorful the pork katsu was, despite the little amount of salt I added to the loin pre-dredge and post-frying. Perhaps it was the panko bread crumbs. Maybe that's just the magic of deep-frying food.
2 Learnings
- For all of these rice bowls that have the classic dashi-soy sauce-mirin sauce base, I should have more liquid when I pour the beatened-egg over the pan. I should also lower the heat when I pour the egg. I noticed that it immediately cooked when it touched the pan, whereas I thought it would slowly cook and still have a runny consistency when I pour it on top of the rice
- I noticed that the center section of the pork loin wasn't getting as much coloring as the sides. It makes sense, since there is more surface area on the side. Yet, I wonder if there's a way to make it so that the frying is more uniform. A subsequent thought is that when I place the fried pork cutlet on the cooling rack, I noticed the center side was a bit soggy--or at least not as crunchy. I tried tilting it on its side to decant some of oil, but to no avail.