Cooking: Katsudon

I've been waiting a long time to make some katsudon for Justyn. It's his favorite comfort dish and it doesn't seem all that complicated to make. (Just wait...)

I got the recipe from chubbyhubby.net. His recipes always look so professionally executed and delicious so I wouldn't settle for anything else. I'll post a link to his recipe on the bottom of this post.

I started out with some pork loins and marinated them in soy and mirin. I deviated from ChubbyHubby's recipe by added some of the white parts of the green onion and some peeled and thinly sliced ginger. This marinated for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I cooked the rice and prepped the green and yellow onion.

I also made a breading station. From left to right, cornstarch, 2 beaten eggs & panko breadcrumbs. I also laid some foil down for when I was done with breading the pork.

After I prepped the breading station, I prepared the katsudon "sauce" which consists of a bottle of dashi, light and dark soy sauce, sugar and mirin. ChubbyHubby's recipe is for 2 people but I found that the recipe made A LOT of sauce. I would seriously cut down on the measurements. At most, you will only need 3/4 cup of sauce for 2 people. The sauce is also very salty so I recommend watering it down. I also added sugar which is not in his recipe.

Once the pork was done marinating, I patted them dry with some paper towels and added some pepper.

They went through the breading station...

And into some vegetable oil (340 degrees) for 4-6 minutes on each side. In retrospect, I should've turned the heat on my stove down a touch.

Because... this looks kinda burnt. Luckily, Justyn likes eating overly carmelized (burnt) food.

I recommend using a separate pan for the egg topping just because it's a pain in the ass to pour HOT oil down a sink and having to wash the pan to reuse. I had Justyn dispose the oil and beat about 5 eggs for me.

I heated up some veg oil in the pan and a sliced onion. Once they become translucent, I added the katsudon sauce and some green onions. Once that comes to a simmer, you add the beaten eggs, swirl it around and let it set up. It will be runny on the surface but by the time you serve it, it should be medium rare.

I put some Japanese sticky rice on the bottom, added the fried pork and then topped it with the egg mixture. As garnish, I added some pickled radish. I also had some shredded nori but I forgot to put it on.

Now that I've tried this recipe out, there are definitely some things that I would change. Less sauce (add more sugar and water to thin it out) and DON'T make this on a weeknight. I was wrong in saying that this recipe was easy. It's very time consuming especially if it's your first time. Also, it would help a lot more if you make the egg topping in a non-stick pan... or an authentic donburi pan as ChubbyHubby recommends.