What the heck!!!

Tonkatsu is the famous, and usually most beloved by foreigners, Japanese fried pork cutlet. It is a fatty part of pork, further rolled in panko and deep fried. It’s heavy, fatty and honestly the rice and the shredded cabbage on the side cannot help pumping the fat!!! We never eat it. But there exist slightly better version of it: hirekatsu – ヒレカツ (filet katsu…). Instead of the fatty cutlet it is the most meager part of pork: filet. That makes thing more bearable and not without reminding me the veal escalope my grandmother was making. My father and A. are big fans of it and I would usually (before it closed) buy hirekatsu at Genji in Isumi, and we would have it altogether. So about once a year or so!! Another option would be Saboten, a chain store in Tokyo that prepares on the spot a variety of fried meat and fish and croquettes.

With the travel ban, my parents didn’t come in March and so A. didn’t have had much a chance to eat hirekatsu in the past year… so the now that it is rainy and chilly, I could venture in making some richer food, and just had a nice piece of pork filet from Isumi. All set!! Of course I don’t deep fry, so it is a panfried version, but it works as well… and here is my recipe, but really you don’t need one for making this!!!

Pan fried hirekatsu

• A piece of pork filet
• 1 egg
• Panko
• Frying oil

Cut the pork filet in 5mm~1cm slices (count 4 slices per person). Break the egg in a bowl and make and egg batter. Set the panko in a plate. Heat sufficient oil in a fry pan at high heat. Dip one pork slice in the egg batter the in the panko until fully covered and fry in the pan. Continue until all done. Turn the piece on all side until golden. There’s really nothing special about that preparation in fact!!!

Serve with some shredded cabbage for Japanese style, or anything else if you prefer: I served with steamed carrots.