Here's how to make katsu sand by Tim Anderson, MasterChef winner and owner of Nanban restaurant in Brixton.
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00:00Hi everybody, I'm Tim Anderson. I'm the executive chef and owner of Nanban, and author of Nanban the Cookbook.
00:07It's a restaurant in Brixton, we do what's called Japanese soul food,
00:11and today we're going to make a Japanese soul food classic, katsu sando, tonkatsu sandwiches.
00:21So a katsu sando has to have a lot of texture.
00:25So obviously you've got the crispy, juicy, breaded pork, and the lovely soft white bread,
00:30but then I always like to have a lot of fresh crunch from cabbage.
00:33So this is a hispy or sweetheart cabbage.
00:36If you can get the flat, round cabbage you sometimes see in Asian supermarkets, that's even better.
00:41But this is really good, really sweet.
00:43We want to slice this as thinly as you can.
00:46If you've got a mandolin at home, you can use that.
00:48Otherwise, just a nice, sharp knife.
00:51If you're really lazy, or you have to prepare a lot of katsu sandos,
00:56you can also run this through a food processor with a slicing attachment.
01:00And actually you can use kind of whatever cabbage you like.
01:02I like hispy because it's so sweet and fresh.
01:05Red cabbage is fine too, not traditional, but really nice, really peppery.
01:11Alright, that's our cabbage done.
01:14Alright, so we've got our cabbage sliced up, ready to go.
01:17Now obviously we have to turn to the pork itself.
01:19So there's a lot of different cuts actually that work for this, but I really like loin.
01:24It's a really sort of good balance of fat and lean meat.
01:27It's tender enough that you can bite right through it in the sandwich.
01:30And it's the perfect size as well. It fits within slices of bread just about perfectly.
01:34Now ordinarily when I'm making tonkatsu, I like a nice big, thick pork chop
01:38because that way it stays a bit pink and juicy in the middle actually.
01:41But with a sandwich, you want to get something a little bit thinner.
01:43Now if you've ever made schnitzel before, they always tell you to bash out the pork,
01:46make it really, really thin, or if it's chicken, to butterfly it and then bash it out.
01:50But I think that almost always just results in overcooked, dry pork.
01:54I never understood why they do that.
01:55So these are about right, these are just over sort of a centimeter and a half thick,
02:01which is thick enough that they'll be easy to cook through,
02:03but not so thin that they will dry out.
02:06So these are perfect.
02:07Now we're going to season these well with salt.
02:11And white pepper.
02:16And also this. This is meat tenderizer powder.
02:20Obviously because you want to be able to bite through the pork in the sandwich,
02:24you don't want to have to chew or struggle with it at all.
02:26It has to be as tender as possible.
02:27I tried different marinades to achieve this,
02:29but what I didn't like is that the marinades tended to impart too much flavor.
02:32I really just wanted this to taste like pork.
02:34So a friend of mine recommended this.
02:35It's a little bit thicker than a tonkatsu.
02:38So a friend of mine recommended this.
02:40It's derived from papaya, has an enzyme in it called papain,
02:44which is the same thing you get in kiwi fruit or pineapple,
02:46which sometimes makes your tongue go tingly.
02:48That's actually the tenderizer effect happening on your tongue.
02:52So it actually starts to break down the meat and it works really, really well.
02:55It's very effective and doesn't impart any other flavor.
02:58You should use it very sparingly because actually if you use too much,
03:02it can make the meat kind of mushy, kind of too soft actually.
03:06So we'll just sprinkle that on like you would salt on both sides.
03:16Okay, so these are nice and seasoned.
03:18We want to put these in the fridge for about an hour for that tenderizer
03:22to work its magic on these.
03:25All right, so we've got our pork,
03:27which has been in the fridge tenderizing for about an hour.
03:30And now we're going to move on to the next step,
03:31which is to pan-eat, breadcrumb the tonkatsu.
03:34So tonkatsu sandwiches, katsusando,
03:36they're always delicious because it's deep-fried pork in a sandwich.
03:39So what's not to like?
03:40But there are a few tricks,
03:42a few little things you can do to make it amazing and not just really good.
03:45Obviously, the meat tenderizer powder is one of those little tricks.
03:48Good quality pork is important as well.
03:50But then how you breadcrumb and a few things that go into that
03:53is also going to make a really amazing katsusando.
03:56So we're going to move on to that now.
03:58I'm going to start by beating a couple of eggs.
04:07And to these, we're going to add a little bit of vegetable oil.
04:11The oil is obviously water-impermeable.
04:16So when you mix this into the eggs,
04:18it creates a kind of barrier around the pork.
04:20It kind of seals in the water and the juice from the pork itself.
04:24It won't evaporate off as much, which does two things.
04:26First, it keeps the meat juicier.
04:27And secondly, it keeps the water from seeping out into the breadcrumb after it's cooked,
04:31so the breadcrumb itself stays crunchier.
04:34All right, nice and smooth.
04:36Then what you need is some flour.
04:40So I found for some reason that there's a food science question that's beyond me.
04:46Strong white bread flour works best in a katsusando.
04:49It is a better adhesive somehow.
04:51And also, I feel like it helps with the crunch a bit.
04:54So I'm going to add a little bit of flour.
04:56And then I'm going to add a little bit of water.
04:59It is a better adhesive somehow.
05:01And also, I feel like it helps with the crunch a bit.
05:03Something about the gluten in it.
05:05And then finally, we have panko.
05:07Panko breadcrumbs, Japanese-style breadcrumbs.
05:10More like shavings of bread than actual bits of bread.
05:15And we just do egg, flour, breadcrumbs.
05:22When you're panning, also, it's a good idea to have one wet hand,
05:26which you're using to deal with the eggs, and then one dry.
05:31So nice and well-coated into the flour.
05:37Back into the egg again.
05:45And that double dipping in the egg forms a really nice kind of glue.
05:51All right, so I'm just going to pat that in.
05:56As you're putting the panko on the chops,
05:58you can actually kind of press it down and flatten it out a bit.
06:02Make it nice and wide so it fills the bread when we make the sandwiches.
06:09All right, so that's all panned.
06:11They already look good, actually.
06:12And you can make these ahead of time, by the way.
06:14These will be fine in the fridge for up to a day, actually.
06:16So you can make them the day before.
06:18And all you have to do is drop them in oil to fry them,
06:20which is what we're going to do next.
06:21Okay, so we've got our lovely pork chops all coated in crunchy panko.
06:25Now it's time to deep fry.
06:26So, safety first with deep frying.
06:28You want to use a big pot,
06:30where the sides come up several inches above the surface of the oil,
06:33so in case it does bubble up, it doesn't overflow.
06:36Especially with a gas hob with an open flame, that's a big fire risk.
06:39So use a big pot for your deep frying.
06:41Use a neutral vegetable oil with a high smoke point.
06:44This is sunflower, but rapeseed is good, too, or peanut.
06:47And you want to get the oil to 180 degrees for these chops.
06:50So buy a thermometer if you don't have one.
06:52Every kitchen should have a thermometer.
06:54They're very, very useful, especially for things like meat cookery, for example.
06:58But in the case of deep frying, just a normal jam thermometer will do.
07:02So this is at about 190, which is fine for these chops.
07:07But if your chops are thicker, you want to use a lower temperature.
07:11So around 160, 170 is sort of a good, safe temperature for most pork chops.
07:16Because you want it to form that lovely, rich, golden brown crust
07:19at the same time that it cooks through.
07:21A little bit of pink in the pork is fine, but you don't really want rare pork.
07:26I mean, I don't mind it, but it puts a lot of people off.
07:28And also, it's a bit chewier that way.
07:30And of course, you want this to be nice and as tender and soft as possible
07:34in the sandwich form.
07:36So 180 will do for us.
07:41So we'll lay the chops in the hot oil.
07:46And because these aren't that big, they'll only cook for about five or six minutes.
07:59All right, so these chops are looking beautiful and golden brown.
08:03Look at that. Oh, my God.
08:06So they're ready to come out.
08:08So drain them well.
08:10You can use a rack or just paper towel on a tray.
08:16And just like any meat, you want to let them rest a bit
08:21before you cut into them or bite into them.
08:27And what that does is, as the meat cools, it sort of evens out the cooking.
08:33And it also makes the liquid inside less volatile,
08:37so it doesn't come gushing out when you cut into it.
08:40So it keeps the juices in the meat, basically.
08:42So let those rest for about five minutes, and then we can construct our sandwiches.
08:47Okay, so we've got everything we need now to make an awesome katsu sando.
08:52We've got our katsu, so we're just going to put it in a sando.
08:55We've got our cabbage as well, and a few special condiments.
08:58So it's not really a tonkatsu sando without tonkatsu sauce.
09:02So katsu sauce is kind of like a Japanese brown sauce.
09:05You can buy it at any Asian supermarket.
09:07Some big supermarkets, normal supermarkets, have it these days.
09:10You can make it yourself as well, but it's kind of like making your own ketchup.
09:13It's kind of a faff, and it's not going to be as good as the store-bought stuff.
09:17So you should just buy some tonkatsu sauce.
09:19Really, really lovely, and sort of an essential flavor in a tonkatsu sandwich.
09:24We also have Kewpie mayo.
09:26Kewpie mayo is a Japanese brand of mayonnaise.
09:28It's very highly seasoned. It uses malt vinegar and whole egg yolks.
09:32So it's a richer, slightly sweeter flavored mayonnaise.
09:35Really delicious.
09:36You can also, by the way, kind of make your own Kewpie mayo at home.
09:39There are recipes online, but you can also buy this just about anywhere these days as well.
09:44So you may as well get some. It's delicious.
09:46So, supermarket white bread.
09:49This is the standard katsu sando bread.
09:53I think it's really important to have this kind of bread for katsu sando.
09:56You can use really whatever bread you like, though.
09:58But I think that the texture and the flavor of this is sort of nostalgic for me with these sandwiches.
10:03You don't want to get the cheapest white bread you can find, because it's too flimsy.
10:07It'll sort of fall apart and squish down to become too thin.
10:10So you've got to get something that's got some substance to it.
10:12All right.
10:13So, bread. Kewpie mayo on one side.
10:17Be generous with it.
10:22Then, a lot of cabbage.
10:29Then, katsu sauce straight on the cabbage.
10:33The cabbage basically will help to catch that sauce.
10:36So it doesn't get too onto the bread, which will make the bread really soft.
10:42Then, our lovely tonkatsu.
10:47A little bit more sauce on there.
10:50Just in a big ring.
10:53A little bit more cabbage as well.
10:58Another piece of bread.
11:01Give it a good squish, and then we slice and enjoy.
11:07Oh yes.
11:10Look at that.
11:11Lovely, juicy, delicious pork katsu sando.
11:15Full of cabbage, full of sauce, full of kewpie mayo.
11:19Delicious soft white bread.
11:22And it's simple, and it's quick.
11:24There's really nothing stopping you from making this right now.