Katsudon

This is one of my favourite Japanese dishes; I often order it in restaurants because it's the sort of thing I figure would be fiddly to make at home. But after buying the deep-fat-fryer, I wanted to give it a try! I followed this helpful youtube video, and made a couple of slight changes for my kitchen and tastes. Also I served it with some stir-fried pak choi with garlic and sesame oil, so that I would have some greens with it. Still very much a treat of a recipe, I'd balloon if I ate it every night :)

Ingredients

• 300g pork fillet or loin, cut into two big pieces, or two deboned pork chops 
• plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 fat slice of bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs
• white rice
• half a white onion
• 300ml hot water
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube
• 2 tbsp mirin or cooking wine
• 1 tsp raw or demerara sugar

Set your white rice cooking according to its packet instructions. Lay the pork out on a breadboard and cover with a plastic bag. Beat with a rolling pin until 1cm thick or less all over. Put a few tbsp of flour on a plate, put the breadcrumbs on another one, and break an egg onto a final one, whisking gently with a fork to break up. Dip the pork in the flour, then the egg, then finally the breadcrumbs, shaking off any excess at each stage. Deep-fry at 180 C for 8-10 minutes, until the breadcrumbs are golden and the pork is just pink in the middle.

Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the onion into half-moons. Break the remaining egg into a small bowl. Put the rest of the ingredients in saucepan and bring to a simmer, then add the onion. Cook for ten minutes, until the onion is soft and the pork has finished deep-frying. Take the pork out of the deep-fryer and lay it out on a (clean!) breadboard. Slice it thickly, diagonally, then use a spatula to transfer the whole thing to the saucepan with the stock and onions. Drizzle over the egg and immediately cover. Simmer for one minute, then use a big spatula or slotted spoon to serve the whole thing atop a mound of freshly cooked white rice. Pour over the onion and egg sauce. YUM!