Japanese pork Tonkatsu with curry sauce

10 mins preparation | 22 mins cooking | serves 4

When you think of curry, Japan might not be the first thing that springs to mind. It’s unique in the world of curries, made quite unlike anything any other curry that you know of. While Japanese curry has it’s origins in India, it doesn’t hail directly from India through to Japan. It came via England through the British Navy. So when you have have Japanese curry, it’s as far removed from Indian curries as you can imagine.

It starts with making a roux, part of the French style except it has curry flavourings in it . Japanese curry is mild, rich and slightly sweet. In this dish, the curry is served as a thick sauce which is served over a golden crumbed pork cutlet (Tonkatsu) as is the popular way in all of Japan’s major cities. It’s a hefty and unctuous dish and perfect comfort food on cold or chilly evenings.

INGREDIENTS

TONKATSU

4 boneless pork chops 2 cm thick

Plain flour for dusting

2 eggs beaten

100g (2 cups) panko bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Steamed rice and shredded daikon for serving

CURRY SAUCE

2 Tbsp plain flour

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 Tbsp curry powder*

500 ml vegetable stock

1 Tbsp tomato ketchup

1/3 cup apple sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

QUICK PICKLED RADISH

4 red radish, thinly sliced

2 tsp salt

2 tsp castor sugar

2 tsp white vinegar

2 tsp water

METHOD

1. Start by preparing the quick pickled radish. Simply compline the sliced radish, salt, castor sugar, white vinegar and water in a small bowl and set aside.

2. For the curry sauce, melt butter in saucepan. Add curry powder and plain flour. Stir constantly until the ingredients form a paste. Cook out the paste for one minute**. Slowly add vegetable stock and whisk vigorously, until the ingredients form a thick sauce (4 - 6 minutes). Season the sauce with apple sauce, tomato ketchup, dark and light soy sauces and sugar.

3. Dust pork in four, shaking of any excess, then dip in egg and coat in bread crumbs. Heat 2 cm of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Fry pork until golden (3-4 minutes each side).

4. Spoon curry sauce on top of the pork chop. Serve with steamed rice, steamed beans green vegetables - I prefer steamed edamame beans, snow peas and sugar peas, grated daikon and quick pickled radish. Green tea or Japanese beer are perfect beverages to accompany this dish.

* In Australia, S&B Golden curry blocks or Keens curry powder is widely available in supermarkets and Asian grocery stores.

**For a more convenient option, you can skip making the roux and use S&B Golden curry blocks instead.