Recipe Gallery

Japanese Tonkatsu Schnitzel

Tonkatsu is one of those dishes you’d never guess to be Japanese! It’s a pork schnitzel, served with a good dollop of Japanese mustard and a delicious sweetish tonkatsu sauce.

The inspiration for this recipe came from visiting Tonki restaurant in Tokyo with my friend Masu in my Anne’s Asian Adventures show. It’s the oldest tonkatsu restaurant in the Japanese capital, and they serve their schnitzel with a huge mount of shredded cabbage. I’ve been dreaming of going back to Tonki ever since, but until that day comes, I’ll recreate the recipe at home.

This is a recipe from my cookbook ‘Flavours of Home’.

This recipe was created as part of my “Staycation” show for RTL, inspiring people with recipes from my travels that they can recreate at home.

Ingredients

SERVES 4

4 pork fillets
50g flour
1 egg
panko breadcrumbs
sesame seeds
sunflower oil, to fry
1 tbsp sesame oil
salt and pepper
For the Japanese cabbage:
¼ white cabbage
80ml Japanese rice vinegar
10g sugar
3 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sesame oil
15g ginger paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ketchup

For the tonkatsu sauce:
60ml Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp ketchup
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
1 tbsp mirin
1 garlic clove, crushed

To serve:
Dijon mustard
lemon wedges

Method

Start with the cabbage: Finely slice the cabbage, put in a bowl and massage with your hands to soften it.

Put all the remaining ingredients in a little bowl and stir to combine.

Pour over the cabbage and leave to marinate while making the sauce and schnitzel.

For the tonkatsu sauce: Put all the ingredients in a little saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes until it has reduced and you have a sticky sauce.

Meanwhile, prepare the meat: If necessary, flatten the pork fillets with a meat mallet until 1 cm thick.

Put the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Beat the egg in a second plate and put some panko breadcrumbs on a third plate.

Dip each pork fillet in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the panko breadcrumbs, so that they are evenly coated.

Cover the bottom of a frying pan generously with vegetable oil, then add the sesame oil. Put the pan over a medium heat and fry the schnitzels for 3 minutes on each side. Take out of the pan and drain on a plate lined
with kitchen paper.

Drizzle the schnitzels with tonkatsu sauce and serve with a dollop of mustard, lemon wedges and cabbage on the side.