Here's how to make katsu sand by Tim Anderson, MasterChef winner and owner of Nanban restaurant in Brixton.
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00:00 Hi everybody, I'm Tim Anderson. I'm the executive chef and owner of Nanban,
00:05 and author of Nanban the Cookbook.
00:07 It's a restaurant in Brixton, we do what's called Japanese soul food.
00:11 And today we're going to make a Japanese soul food classic,
00:14 katsu sandō, tonkatsu sandwiches.
00:17 So a katsu sandō has to have a lot of texture.
00:25 So obviously you've got the crispy, juicy, breaded pork, and the lovely soft white bread.
00:30 But then I always like to have a lot of fresh crunch from cabbage.
00:33 So this is a hispy or sweetheart cabbage.
00:36 If you can get the flat, round cabbage that you sometimes see in Asian supermarkets,
00:40 that's even better. But this is really good, really sweet.
00:43 And we want to slice this as thinly as you can.
00:46 If you've got a mandolin at home, you can use that.
00:48 Otherwise just a nice, sharp knife.
00:51 If you're really lazy, or you have to prepare a lot of katsu sandōs,
00:56 you can also run this through a food processor with a slicing attachment.
01:00 And actually you can use kind of whatever cabbage you like.
01:02 I like hispy because it's so sweet and fresh. Red cabbage is fine too.
01:06 Not traditional, but really nice, really peppery.
01:10 Alright, that's our cabbage done.
01:14 Alright, so we've got our cabbage sliced up, ready to go.
01:17 Now obviously we have to turn to the pork itself.
01:19 So there's a lot of different cuts actually that work for this, but I really like loin.
01:24 It's a really sort of good balance of fat and lean meat.
01:27 It's tender enough that you can bite right through it in the sandwich.
01:30 And it's the perfect size as well. It fits within slices of bread just about perfectly.
01:34 Now ordinarily when I'm making tonkatsu, I like a nice big, thick pork chop
01:38 because that way it stays a bit pink and juicy in the middle actually.
01:41 But with a sandwich, you want to get something a little bit thinner.
01:43 Now if you've ever made schnitzel before, they always tell you to bash out the pork,
01:46 make it really, really thin, or if it's chicken, to butterfly it and then bash it out.
01:50 But I think that almost always just results in overcooked, dry pork.
01:54 I never understood why they do that.
01:55 So these are about right. These are just over sort of a centimeter and a half thick,
02:01 which is thick enough that they'll be easy to cook through,
02:03 but not so thin that they will dry out. So these are perfect.
02:07 Now we're going to season these well with salt.
02:16 And white pepper.
02:20 And also this. This is meat tenderizer powder.
02:24 Obviously because you want to be able to bite through the pork in the sandwich,
02:28 you don't want to have to chew or struggle with it at all.
02:30 It has to be as tender as possible. I tried different marinades to achieve this,
02:34 but what I didn't like is that the marinades tended to impart too much flavor.
02:37 I really just wanted this to taste like pork.
02:39 So a friend of mine recommended this. It's derived from papaya.
02:42 Papaya has an enzyme in it called papain, which is the same thing you get in kiwi fruit or pineapple,
02:46 which sometimes makes your tongue go tingly.
02:48 That's actually the tenderizer effect happening on your tongue.
02:52 So it actually starts to break down the meat, and it works really, really well.
02:56 It's very effective and doesn't impart any other flavor.
02:58 You should use it very sparingly, because actually if you use too much,
03:02 it can make the meat kind of mushy, kind of too soft, actually.
03:06 So just sprinkle that on like you would salt on both sides.
03:11 Okay, so these are nice and seasoned.
03:18 We want to put these in the fridge for about an hour for that tenderizer to work its magic on these.
03:24 All right, so we've got our pork, which has been in the fridge tenderizing for about an hour.
03:29 And now we're going to move on to the next step, which is to pané, to breadcrumb the tonkatsu.
03:34 Tonkatsu sandwiches, katsusando, they're always delicious because it's deep-fried pork in a sandwich,
03:38 so what's not to like?
03:40 But there are a few tricks, a few little things you can do to make it amazing, not just really good.
03:45 Obviously the meat tenderizer powder is one of those little tricks.
03:48 Good quality pork is important as well.
03:50 But then how you breadcrumb and a few things that go into that is also going to make a really amazing katsusando.
03:56 So we're going to move on to that now.
03:58 I'm going to start by beating a couple of eggs.
04:02 [Beating eggs]
04:08 And to these, we're going to add a little bit of vegetable oil.
04:12 The oil is obviously water impermeable.
04:17 So when you mix this into the eggs, it creates a kind of barrier around the pork.
04:22 It kind of seals in the water and the juice from the pork itself.
04:25 It won't evaporate off as much, which does two things.
04:28 First, it keeps the meat juicier, and secondly, it keeps the water from seeping out into the breadcrumb after it's cooked,
04:33 so the breadcrumb itself stays crunchier.
04:35 [Beating breadcrumbs]
04:44 All right, nice and smooth.
04:46 Then what you need is some flour.
04:49 So I found for some reason that it is a food science question that's beyond me.
04:55 Strong white bread flour works best in a katsusando.
04:58 It is a better adhesive somehow, and also I feel like it helps with the crunch a bit, something about the gluten in it.
05:04 And then finally we have panko.
05:06 Panko breadcrumbs, Japanese-style breadcrumbs, more like shavings of bread than actual bits of bread.
05:15 And we just do egg, flour, breadcrumbs.
05:18 [Beating breadcrumbs]
05:22 When you're panning, also it's a good idea to have one wet hand, which you're using to deal with the eggs, and then one dry.
05:31 So nice and well coated into the flour.
05:37 Back into the egg again.
05:39 [Beating breadcrumbs]
05:44 And that double dipping in the egg forms a really nice kind of glue.
05:52 All right, so I'm just going to pat that in.
05:56 As you're putting the panko on the chops, you can actually kind of press it down and flatten it out a bit.
06:02 Make it nice and wide so it fills the bread when we make the sandwiches.
06:06 [Beating breadcrumbs]
06:09 All right, so that's all panned.
06:11 They already look good, actually.
06:12 And you can make these ahead of time, by the way.
06:14 These will be fine in the fridge for up to a day, actually.
06:16 So you can make them the day before, and then all you have to do is drop them in oil to fry them.
06:19 Which is what we're going to do next.
06:21 Okay, so we've got our lovely pork chops all coated in crunchy panko.
06:25 Now it's time to deep fry.
06:26 So, safety first with deep frying.
06:28 You want to use a big pot where the sides come up several inches above the surface of the oil, so in case it does bubble up, it doesn't overflow.
06:35 Especially with a gas hob with an open flame, that's a big fire risk.
06:39 So use a big pot for your deep frying.
06:41 Use a neutral vegetable oil with a high smoke point.
06:44 This is sunflower, but rapeseed is good too, or peanut.
06:47 And you want to get the oil to 180 degrees for these chops.
06:50 So buy a thermometer if you don't have one.
06:52 Every kitchen should have a thermometer.
06:53 They're very, very useful, especially for things like meat cookery, for example.
06:58 But in the case of deep frying, just a normal jam thermometer will do.
07:02 So this is at about 190, which is fine for these chops.
07:06 But if your chops are thicker, you want to use a lower temperature.
07:11 So around 160, 170 is sort of a good safe temperature for most pork chops.
07:16 Because you want it to form that lovely, rich, golden brown crust at the same time that it cooks through.
07:21 A little bit of pink in the pork is fine, but you don't really want rare pork.
07:26 I mean, I don't mind it, but it puts a lot of people off.
07:28 And also, it's a bit chewier that way.
07:30 And of course, you want this to be nice and as tender and soft as possible in the sandwich form.
07:35 So 180 will do for us.
07:37 So we'll lay the chops in the hot oil.
07:44 And because these aren't that big, they'll only cook for about five or six minutes.
07:58 All right, so these chops are looking beautiful and golden brown.
08:03 Look at that. Oh my God.
08:06 So they're ready to come out.
08:08 So drain them well.
08:10 You can use a rack or just paper towel on a tray.
08:15 And just like any meat, you want to let them rest a bit before you cut into them or bite into them.
08:23 And what that does is, as the meat cools, it sort of evens out the cooking.
08:32 And it also makes the liquid inside less volatile, so it doesn't come gushing out when you cut into it.
08:39 So it keeps the juices in the meat, basically.
08:41 So let those rest for about five minutes, and then we can construct our sandwiches.
08:45 Okay, so we've got everything we need now to make an awesome katsu sandwich.
08:51 We've got our katsu, so we're just going to put it in a sandwich.
08:54 We've got our cabbage as well, and a few special condiments.
08:57 So it's not really a tonkatsu sandwich without tonkatsu sauce.
09:01 So katsu sauce is kind of like a Japanese brown sauce.
09:04 You can buy it at any Asian supermarket.
09:07 Some big supermarkets, normal supermarkets have it these days.
09:10 You can make it yourself as well, but it's kind of like making your own ketchup.
09:13 Like it's kind of a faff, and it's not going to be as good as the store-bought stuff.
09:17 So you should just buy some tonkatsu sauce.
09:19 Really, really lovely and sort of an essential flavor in a tonkatsu sandwich.
09:24 We also have Kewpie mayo.
09:26 Kewpie mayo is a Japanese brand of mayonnaise.
09:28 It's very highly seasoned. It uses malt vinegar and whole egg yolks.
09:32 So it's a richer, slightly sweeter flavored mayonnaise. Really delicious.
09:36 You can also, by the way, kind of make your own Kewpie mayo at home.
09:40 There are recipes online, but you can also buy this just about anywhere these days as well.
09:43 So you may as well get some. It's delicious.
09:46 So, supermarket white bread.
09:49 This is the standard katsu sando bread.
09:53 I think it's really important to have this kind of bread for katsu sando.
09:56 You can use really whatever bread you like, though.
09:58 But I think that the texture and the flavor of this is sort of nostalgic for me with these sandwiches.
10:03 You don't want to get the cheapest white bread you can find, because it's too flimsy.
10:06 It'll sort of fall apart and squish down to become too thin.
10:09 So you've got to get something that's got some substance to it.
10:12 Alright, so, bread. Kewpie mayo on one side.
10:16 Be generous with it.
10:18 Then, a lot of cabbage.
10:26 Then, katsu sauce. Straight on the cabbage.
10:31 The cabbage basically will help to catch that sauce, so it doesn't get too onto the bread, which will make the bread really soft.
10:41 Then, our lovely tonkatsu.
10:46 A little bit more sauce on there.
10:50 Just in a big ring.
10:52 A little bit more cabbage as well.
10:55 Another piece of bread.
11:00 Give it a good squish, then we slice and enjoy.
11:05 Oh yes.
11:10 Look at that.
11:11 Lovely, juicy, delicious pork katsu sando.
11:16 Full of cabbage, full of sauce, full of kewpie mayo.
11:19 Delicious, soft, white bread.
11:22 And it's simple, and it's quick.
11:24 There's really nothing stopping you from making this right now.
11:29 [Closing music]