Japanese Pork Katsu with Sweet Miso Sauce
Ingredients
Pork katsu
2 pieces pork loin steaks or chops
boneless
a little salt and pepper
plain flour
for coating
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
panko breadcrumbs
for coating
vegetable oil
for shallow-frying
Miso sauce
80 g red miso
60 ml water
2 tbsp raw sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp cooking sake
2 tbsp mirin
To serve
as needed shredded cabbage
2 servings hot Japanese rice
optional Japanese mustard or hot English mustard
Instructions
- 1
Make the miso sauce
Add the red miso to a bowl. Add the water a little at a time, stirring well each time to loosen the miso before adding more. Once the miso is smooth, add the raw sugar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, cooking sake and mirin, and mix well. Transfer the well-mixed miso sauce base to a small saucepan. Place it over medium heat and keep stirring as it starts to bubble gently, because miso sauce can catch easily. Simmer until the sauce becomes thick and glossy. When you scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula, the bottom should show for a moment like a line. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Tip: Adding the water gradually makes it easier to dissolve the miso smoothly.
- 2
Prepare the pork
Make a few small cuts through the fat and connective tissue around the edge of each pork piece. Lightly tap the fatty side with the flat side of a knife or a meat mallet. The fat takes a little longer to cook, so this helps the pork cook more evenly. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
- 3
Prepare the coating
Add the egg and milk to a bowl and mix well, breaking up the egg white as you stir. If the egg white stays stringy, some parts may not coat the pork evenly, so mix it well. Put the plain flour in one tray and the panko breadcrumbs in another.
- 4
Crumb the pork
Coat the pork in this order: plain flour, egg mixture, plain flour again, egg mixture again, then panko breadcrumbs. After the second dip in egg mixture, move straight to the panko. Cover the pork evenly and press the breadcrumbs on firmly so the coating sticks well.
- 5
Shallow-fry the katsu
Heat about 2 cm of vegetable oil in a frying pan to 170 C. Add the pork and leave it without touching for about the first minute, until the coating starts to set and feel firm. Once the coating has set, turn the pork over and fry for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a rack or tray and let the residual heat finish the pork. Rest for 1 to 2 minutes before slicing, because the crumb can come away more easily if you cut it straight after frying.
- 6
Serve
Arrange finely shredded cabbage on the plate. If you have a slicer, slice the cabbage very finely and pile it up lightly so it feels fluffy. You can also cut the cabbage earlier and chill it in the fridge until serving. Slice the pork katsu, spoon the warm miso sauce over the top and serve with hot Japanese rice. Add a little mustard if you like.
Useful for this recipe
Worcestershire sauce/Red miso/Mirin/Sake/Soy sauce/Panko breadcrumbs
Tomoka's Note
Miso katsu is especially known in Nagoya, where a rich red miso sauce is served with crisp pork katsu. The sauce is sweet, savoury and quite strong, so I like serving it with plenty of shredded cabbage and hot rice. I learned this double-coating method from a Japanese cook's recipe. It was my first time coating the pork with flour and egg twice before adding panko, and it helped the crumb stay on nicely. For this recipe, I would use red miso if possible. White miso will make the sauce much milder, so I would keep this recipe to red miso for that deeper miso katsu flavour.
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FAQ
How long does miso katsu sauce keep?
Store leftover miso sauce in a clean container in the fridge. It should keep for about 2 weeks. Warm it gently before using, and stir in a small splash of water if it has become too thick.