Cooking With Energygod5: Today's Dish, Tonkatsu

Hello, and welcome to my cooking instructable. My name is energygod5. For reasons which I hope you as the readers also understand, I will not include my real name. Today I will be making a traditional Japanese dish called Tonkatsu. I have learned how to cook this dish thanks to my mother, and she learned it at a Japanese restaurant special cooking class. Today I will be teaching you how to cook it using the steps my mother has taught me. I will be using some specific cooking tools to help create this dish. Specifically, I will be using a traditional Japanese cutter which is usually used to cut thin strips of fish or meat. I will use this tool to cut the cabage for the dish. You can cook this dish by yourself, but you will be able to cook it quicker if one person takes care of all the meat and the other person takes care of the rice and cabbage. I say this, because the preparing of the meat can take a good 20 minutes depending on how much meat is being used.

Step 1: Step 1: Wash Your Hands

Even though this step might sound ridiculous to some people, you must do it every time before cooking. You must also wash your hands after handling raw meat. In order to wash your hands, you will need a sink and some soap. The soap will get rid of all bacteria which can harm you. Please do remember to wash your hands, because there are many people who do not.

Step 2: Step 2: the Ingredients and Tools.

In order to make Tonkatsu, you will need to have all the ingredients. You will need pork, eggs, cabbage, rice, flour, bread crumbs, and oil. The tools which you will need in order to cook tonkatsu is a working stove, a pan, a cutting board, 3 separate bowls, and a plate with some paper towels on it.

Step 3: Step 3: Preparing the Rice

The first step to making Tonkatsu, is to prepare the rice. This is the first step, because you want the rice to soak in the water before actually cooking it. This way you can prepare the meat and the cabbage, and during this time, the rice cooker is running. In order to use the rice cooker, you need to take the bowl out of it. As you can see from the above pictures, you will have a bag of rice, or you might have packaged rice. You can add as much rice as you, but it will most likely be too much for you to eat by yourself. You usually only want to put one cup full of rice per person. Once you have the right amount of rice, you will pour water into it from the sink. In order to tell if you have the right amount of water to cook the rice, you will put your hand into the bowl and press against the rice. If the water reaches your knuckles or is a little above the knuckles, then you have the correct amount of water for the amount of rice you're using. If you don't have the correct amount of water, then you will have to add more or drain some. After you have finished this, you can put the bowl back into the rice cooker. You may plug it in and already start the cooking of the rice. I usually leave it for a while before cooking it, because it tastes better.

Step 4: Step 4: Preparing the Cut Cabbage.

You want to take the cabbage that you have bought and cut it into 4 pieces of the same size. If you do not like the bottom of the cabbage, you can cut it off if you like. As you can see in one of the pictures, I am using a japanese tool in order to help cut the cabbage. In order to minimize the mess, put a bowl underneath the cutting tool. You will have to push the cabbage towards the blade, and after you have cut a bit of it, you will pick it up lightly and move it towards the start again. You can ask a family member to do this for you, because it takes a very long time to cut all the cabbage.

Step 5: Step 5: Cutting the Meat.

You might have a different shaped pork while cooking this. Due to a lack of the pork I wanted to use, I decided to use this pork. Cutting smaller pieces will make it easier for you are preparing it for the stove. If you already have thin slices, or have relatively small chunks, you will not have to cut it. Otherwise if you are unlucky like me, you will cut the meat. After cutting the meat, you should leave it on the cutting board.

Step 6: Step 6: Preparing the Stations for the Meat.

You will put flour in one of the bowls which you have prepared. In the next bowl you should have eggs in them which are thoroughly mixed. You can use a egg beater, a fork, but I prefer to use chopsticks. The last station will be the one containing the bread crumbs.

Step 7: Step 7: Preparing the Meat.

Once you have the steps finished, you should place them next to each other. At the end of the stations you should provide a large plate where all the meat will be placed on. You will first place the meat in the flour, and make sure that it is completely covered. Next you should dunk it into the eggs, and finally you should place it into the bread crumbs. After you have placed it in the bread crumbs, you try and cover it as much as possible with the bread crumbs. It will stick onto the meat thanks to the flour and the eggs. After you have finished covering it with bread crumbs you will place it on the plate and then continue with the rest of the meat. If you have leftover eggs, you can take one of the prepared meats, and dunk it into to the eggs and then the bread crumbs. This way you will have to not waste any eggs.

Step 8: Step 8: Cooking the Meat.

You can put the pan on the stove, and you can turn it to the highest setting. You will have to put oil onto the pan to make sure that the tonkatsu meat won't stick. You will have to stay by the pan watching the meat and flipping it over. There is no specific time you need to keep it on the stove. Make sure that the bread crumbs don't burn, and when you believe a piece is finished, then you can cut it and check to see if the meat is finished.

Step 9: Step 9: Finished Rice.

Once the rice has finished cooking, you should remove the lid from the pot, and stir the rice around to make sure that it doesn't stick to the bowl. Once you have done this, the rice is finished.

Step 10: Step 10: Enjoy Your Food.

Once all the food is finished, you can place some of the meat on a plate, add some cabbage and rice. This dish is enjoyed while eating alone or with family or friends. It always taste good, even if some of the bread crumbs are burnt or aren't there. Practice makes perfect after all. Remember that after you have finished cooking and eating, you will have to clean up the kitchen. Making this dish can make a mess sometimes, so it might take a while to clean all the stations and the pan.