🥪 Beef katsu sando

4 servings · prep 45 min · cook 1 h 20

Ingredients

• 4 striploin or ribeye pieces, 120 g each, 4 cm thick
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg beaten with 3 tbsp water
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• Neutral oil for frying
• Salt, pepper
• Japanese milk bread (shokupan) or thick-sliced white bread
• Unsalted butter for the bread
• Tonkatsu sauce: 1 apple grated, 1/2 onion grated, 2 garlic cloves grated, 15 g ginger grated
• 125 ml soy sauce, 60 ml mirin, 60 ml rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp ketchup, 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Method

1. Tonkatsu sauce: simmer all the ingredients gently in a small pan for about 45 min until reduced. Blend, strain through a fine sieve and cool: it thickens as it sits.
2. Trim the beef into clean squares 4 to 5 cm thick. Season just before breading.
3. Set up three bowls: flour, egg beaten with water, panko. Coat each piece in flour, then egg, then panko, pressing lightly without compacting: the crust should stay airy.
4. Heat the oil to 160 °C. Fry the beef, turning often, for 3 to 4 min, until the crust is pale gold and the centre reaches 52 °C.
5. Rest on a rack for 5 min: the temperature climbs a few more degrees.
6. Cut the bread into 2.5 cm slices — day-old bread holds better. Butter one side and toast it in a pan over medium-low heat, keeping the other side soft.
7. Spread a thin layer of tonkatsu sauce on the toasted side of one slice. Add the cutlet and close with the second slice, toasted side in.
8. Trim the crusts flush with the cutlet for a clean square, then cut the sandwich into four, wiping the blade between each cut. Serve at once.

Adapted from Nick's Kitchen (YouTube)

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