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The inspiration for Rach's Pork Katsu Sandos comes from a classic Japanese comfort food of fried breaded pork cutlets served with Tonkatsu Sauce.

Ingredients

For the Japanese Pickled Cucumbers:
  • About ½ pound seedless cucumber or Persian cucumber, very thinly sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 ½ teaspoons superfine sugar
  • 1 teaspoon plus about 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 shallot, quartered and very thinly sliced
  • A small handful of shiso or cilantro, thinly sliced
  • 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
For the Pork Katsu (Japanese Fried Pork):
  • 4 center-cut boneless pork loin chops, 1 ½ pounds total, trimmed of fat and pounded ⅛-inch thick
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons Worcestershire
  • 1 tablespoon sundried tomato or tomato paste
  • 1 ½ cups panko
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
  • 1 teaspoon granulated onion
  • ½ cup flour
  • ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds
For the Tonkatsu Sauce:
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon pourable light-brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon mirin
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
  • 1 inch ginger, grated or minced
  • Safflower or canola frying oil
To Build the Pork Katsu Sandos:
  • 1 loaf milk bread or good-quality white bread, sliced and crusts trimmed
  • Dijon mustard
  • 2 cups shredded Napa or cabbage

Yield

Serves: 4

Preparation

For the pickled cucumbers, combine cucumbers with 1 teaspoon each salt and sugar and strain 30 minutes, pat dry and dress with ½ teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar and toss with shallots and shiso or cilantro and 1 teaspoon sesame oil.

For the pork katsu, season the pork cutlets with salt and pepper.

In a shallow dish, whisk up eggs with 2 tablespoons Worcestershire and the sundried tomato paste or tomato paste.  

In a second shallow dish, combine panko, ginger, granulated garlic, granulated onion, flour and sesame seeds. 

Fill a large skillet with ½ inch frying oil and heat over medium to medium-high heat. Coat pork with eggs then press into panko coating. Fry pork about 3 minutes on each side. Drain on rack.

For the tonkatsu sauce, combine about ½ cup ketchup, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, the light brown sugar, mirin, remaining 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, minced garlic and ginger and remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil, then place in squirt bottle, optional.  

To build the sandos: Layer bread, Dijon, cabbage, pickled cucumbers, pork katsu, tonkatsu sauce, bread. Cut sandos corner to corner and serve.