Kare Katsu (Japanese Curry with Pork Chop) 日本咖喱猪扒饭

Japanese curry is one of my favourite because of the tangy gravy which goes very well with any ingredients and most importantly white rice. There are choices of mild, medium and hot (or extra hot on some brands) for the curry cubes. I always go for mild or medium because Japanese curry is not meant to be hot in my opinion. You can add any vegetable into the curry and that will create a nutritious meal! I like it with tonkatsu (fried pork chop) too! When the crispiness of the pork chop meets the marvellous thick curry sauce, mmm...you will only know how it feels when you eat it. 

Fried Pork Chop

Ingredients: (serves 2)

2 Pork loin (1-1.5cm thick)

2tbsp Plain flour

1 egg

4-5 tbsp bread crumbs (Nama panko)

salt and pepper for seasoning

3 tbsp cooking oil

Steps:

1. Remove the thick fat at the edge of the pork loins. If your loin is too thick you can cut horizontally from the non-fat side and stop before the fat edge to form a butterfly chop. Make a few cuts on the meat and pound it for 30 times to make a tender texture. Season the meat with some salt and pepper on both sides.

2. Prepare three dry plates. Add plain flour on one plate, one beaten egg on the second plate, and bread crumbs on the third plate. 

• Place the meat in the flour and make a thin layer of flour covering both sides of the meat. 
• Dunk it into the egg and flip over to cover the other side with egg. 
• Transfer the meat to the third plate and make sure both sides of the meat are covered with bread crumbs.

3. Heat a pan and add in the cooking oil. Add in the pork chop and fry on a medium heat for about 2 minutes on one side or check and flip when it is golden brown. Fry until both sides are golden and place it on kitchen towel to remove excessive oil. Do the same to the rest of the meat.

Japanese Curry

Ingredients: (serves 2)

50g Chicken breast (diced)

1 Potato (diced)

1/2 Carrot (diced)

1 Onion (diced)

1 clove Garlic (minced)

2 cubes Japanese Curry cubes (I used S&B medium hot curry cubes)

200ml water

1/2 tsp Oyster sauce

1 tbsp cooking oil

soy sauce and sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Heat a pot at medium heat and add the cooking oil. Add the onion and garlic. Fry until fragrance and add the chicken. Stir fry until the meat turns white. 

2. Add the carrot, potato and oyster sauce. Stir well.

3. Pour in all the water and bring to boil. 

4. Add the curry cubes into the stew and stir gently until the cube is completely melted to form the sauce. 

5. Continue simmering until the vegetables are all soften and you get the thickness of gravy you like. 

6. Add some soy sauce and sugar to taste. 

7. Prepare some of hot steamed rice on a plate, place the fried pork chop (cut into strips) at one side, scoop some curry and pour over the rice and pork chop. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake) 日式烧饼

Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) is one of our favourite food. This bring memories back to London again because London is not only a shopping heaven. It is also a cosmopolitan city gathered with people from around the world so basically you can find anything (authentic or fusion) you like in London. Japanese is one of the cuisines we like the most among all. There are many nice restaurants (family size or fine dining) hidden around London and the most famous places to find nice Japanese food would always be Golders Green, Swiss Cottage and city centre like Soho and the back streets in Oxford Circus. 

Okonomiyaki is made using a mixture of vegetables, meat or seafood and batter. In the restaurants you can normally find the choice of toppings like pork, shrimps, crab sticks etc. When we make it at home we would just see what we have in the refrigerator. Like this time we only have some mushroom frankfurters and fishcakes so we have them in our pancakes. No matter what fillings you have, it works perfectly with the sauces and trust me you will have an awesome satisfaction after eating this ^^ I always cannot resist to eat more lol

Ingredients: (makes 2 large pancakes serve 4-6)

1 bowl cabbage (finely sliced)

1 bowl onion (finely diced)

1 bowl plain flour (150g)

1 bowl water

2 frankfurter sausages (sliced)

2 pcs fishcakes (sliced)

1 egg

4 tbsp cooking oil (2 tbsp for each pancake)

1 tsp dashimoto (bonito powder)

1 tsp mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine)

1 tsp sake (Japanese cooking wine)

1/2 tsp salt

some white pepper to taste

Dressing:

Mayonnaise

Okonomiyaki Sauce

Aonori (seaweed powder)

Bonito flakes

1. In a large bowl, add flour, water dashimoto, mirin and sake, stir until well mixed and no lumps. Add cabbage, onion, egg, sausage and fishcake slices into the batter and stir to make sure all the ingredients are coated with batter.

2. Heat a pan at medium heat and add in 2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Add in half of the mixture and fry until golden brown on one side. 

3. Flip the pancake over and fry the other side until golden brown. (This step is normally done by my husband who normally toss the pancake over easily. If you cannot toss it, transfer the pancake onto a plate and overturn it into the pan ^^)

4. Serve the pancake onto a plate. Squeeze the mayonnaise over the pancake in zig zag line and followed by the okonomiyaki sauce (follow the mayonnaise line). 

5.Sprinkle some seaweed powder on top of it and finish it up with loads of bonito flakes. 

Done and serve hot!