Crispy Japanese Pork Katsu

 

Ingredients: 

• 10 pieces of pork loin (Ba tao)
• 2 cups of panko / breadcrumbs 
• 1-2 beaten egg 
• 1 cup of corn flour  

Marination: 

• 1 tbsp mirin 
• 1 tsp salt 
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp cooking wine /Sake
• 1 tbsp corn flour 
• 1 tsp light soya sauce 
• A dash of pepper 

Method: 

1) Rinse and pat dry Pork loin with kitchen towel. Use a mallet or back of a chopper to hit hard on Pork loin on both sides so as to tenderize it. Marinate Pork loin with marination above (at least 4 hours for better taste). 

2) Prepare 3 plates, 1 with corn flour, 1 with beaten egg and last plate with panko/breadcrumbs. First, coat pork loin all over with corn flour. Then dip in beaten egg and lastly coat with panko/ breadcrumbs. Press the panko into pork loin to ensure it coats well. 

3) Deep fry pork at high heat. To test the oil, dip chopsticks into oil and once you can see many bubbles around chopsticks, the oil is ready. Fry 1/2 pieces of pork loin at one time. Try not to crowd the pot so as to ensure even frying. Remove once pork turns golden brown. Serve it as a whole or sliced into pieces. 

Kong Ba Bao (扣肉包)

 Ingredients: 

• 600-700g pork belly
• 6 cloves of garlic 
• 4 cloves of small red onion 
• 1 big cinnamon stick 
• 2 star anise 
• 3-4 white part of spring onion 
• 2 stalks of coriander (separate coriander leaves from coriander roots) 
• 2 slices of ginger (2cm thickness) 
• 2 tbsps of Light Soy sauce
• 3/4 cups of dark soya sauce (da Hua brand) 
• 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce (guang xiang tai brand) 
• 2 tsp of five spice powder 
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil 
• 2 tbsp of oil 
• 1 tbsp of mini rock sugar (adjust to ur preferred sweetness)
• 500ml of  water
• 10 plain Kong Ba buns (I used store-bought buns and steam before serve)

Steps:

1. Blanch the pork belly by boiling in a pot for about 8mins. Remove and rinse clean. When pork belly cools down, sliced into about half inch thick. 
2. Marinate sliced pork belly with light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, five spice powder and sesame oil. Make sure pork belly slices are well coated with seasoning. Leave it for 4 hours or overnight. 
3. Heat up a wok and add oil to sautéed the onions and garlic. Add in marinated pork belly by slices and lay flat in the wok. Let it panfry for few mins, to get it caramelized. 
4. Add 500ml of water to remaining marinate and add into pork belly. Also add in mini rock sugar. Bring it to a boil. 
5. Add in the coriander roots, spring onion, ginger, star anise and cinnamon stick. Once boiling, lower down the fire and let it simmer cook for an hour till pork is soft and tender. (At this step, I like to use a thermal pot. Once it boils, transfer to inner pot, continue to simmer for 30mins and transfer to outer pot to let it continue to cook for 6hours.) 
6. Once the pork belly is done, off heat. Steamed bao for 8mins and serve hot together with pork belly and lettuce. Enjoy! 😊