1. Ingredients: Pork (usually tenderloin - at the Korean/Japanese markets it's labeled for tonkatsu), panko (Japanese bread crumbs), eggs, flour, salt, oil.
2. First, you have to pound the pork to flatten them. The thinner they are, the quicker they cook. But you don't want them super thin because that's just silly. So like that recipe you read, maybe pound the pork to about a half inch thick. Then lightly season each piece with salt on both sides.
3. Next get your coating ready. First comes the flour dredge, then the egg wash, then the panko. What, you say? The flour and egg help to make the panko crust nice and crispy, duh. For my recipe, I used 3 pieces of pork. So for the coating, I used about a half cup of flour, 2 eggs (beaten and seasoned with salt and pepper), and 2 cups of panko. Use more or less depending on how many piece of pork you intend to cook.
4. Put the pork in the flour and coat evenly on both sides.
5. Then put the pork in the egg wash and coat evenly on both sides.
6. Then put the pork in panko and make sure it's completely and evenly coated.
7. Heat up the oil. Use vegetable or canola oil or some other oil that is flavorless, not olive oil. Put about a half inch of oil in the pan on medium heat. You asked me how I know the oil is hot enough. Well, let it heat up for like 7-8 minutes then drop a little bit of the panko in the pan. It should fry up immediately and brown within a minute. If it does, you know the oil is hot enough! The oil needs to be hot or your tonkatsu will taste greasy. Blech.
8. You only need to cook the tonkatsu a couple of minutes on each side. You'll notice the sides start to brown so that's when you need to flip. It's done when it's browned and crispy.
9. Take the tonkatsu out of the oil and drain on a paper towel if you want. Then enjoy when hot! Good luck!
Your cousin just made this, this week. Yum.
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