Katsudon

Ingredients

• 4 pork loin steaks, about 120 g each and 1.5 cm thick
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 2 eggs, beaten, for coating
• 120 g panko breadcrumbs
• 1 litre vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
• 300 ml dashi
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• 1.5 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 large onion, sliced 5 mm thick
• 6 eggs, for the topping
• 800 g hot cooked short-grain rice
• A small handful of mitsuba or 2 spring onions, roughly chopped
• Shichimi togarashi, to serve

Before you cook

• Snip through the fat and sinew around the edge of each pork steak at 2 cm intervals so it cannot curl in the pan.
• Bash the steaks lightly with the flat of a heavy knife until they are an even 1 cm thick.
• Season both sides of the pork with the salt and white pepper.
• Set out three shallow dishes holding the flour, the two beaten eggs and the panko.
• Coat each steak in flour, then egg, then panko, pressing the crumbs on firmly.
• Slice the onion 5 mm thick.
• Beat the six topping eggs in a bowl with chopsticks just four or five times, leaving obvious streaks of white and yolk.
• Mix the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar together in a jug.

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170C, or until a panko crumb sizzles steadily and floats within 3 seconds.
2. Lower two cutlets into the oil and fry for 5 to 6 minutes, turning once, until deep golden.
3. Lift the cutlets onto a rack to drain and fry the remaining two the same way.
4. Rest the cutlets on the rack for 2 minutes, then cut each one across into six strips, keeping the shape together.
5. Pour a quarter of the dashi mixture into a small frying pan about 18 cm across.
6. Add a quarter of the sliced onion, spread it out, and simmer for 3 minutes until soft and translucent.
7. Lay one sliced cutlet on top of the onion, crumb side up.
8. Pour two thirds of a portion of the beaten egg over the cutlet and around the edge of the pan.
9. Cover and cook for 45 seconds, until the egg is just beginning to set.
10. Drizzle the remaining egg over the top and cover for another 20 seconds, so the last layer stays glossy and barely set.
11. Fill a warmed bowl with 200 g of hot rice.
12. Slide the cutlet and egg out of the pan onto the rice in one piece, using the pan lid to guide it.
13. Spoon a little of the pan broth over the rice.
14. Repeat the whole process for the remaining three bowls.
15. Scatter each bowl with mitsuba and serve with shichimi togarashi.