Tonkatsu and Menchi katsu

Another very late post :D This was actually from all the way back in February 2020, pre-covid... my friend Daniel had sent over a jaw-droppingly high-production-value video of a tonkatsu recipe, so we agreed to schedule a tonkatsu-making day sometime to recreate it. Since menchi katsu (breaded and deep-fried ground beef patties) had also been on my to-cook list for a while, I decided to add it to the menu as well. Daniel and his sister Joyce came over to help with the cooking, and one of my roommates helped us deep-fry all the things, and it was a blast :)

The verdict on the food: Both were very straightforward to make, and very delicious :) and... very rich haha, because I had gotten the "roast" cut¹ for the tonkatsu (which has a strip of fat on one side), and I think mixed ground beef/pork² for the menchi katsu. Might consider using the leaner fillet cut³ and/or inviting even more people the next time we plan on deep-frying this much meat haha. One pro-tip we learned, though, was to use toothpicks (or a fork) for transferring the meat between the flour, egg and panko. But maybe only for the tonkatsu lol; I think we used tongs for the menchi katsu.

Thanks friends for helping make this a reality (and Daniel for the first photo)! :)

(tonkatsu recipe from Adam Liaw)
(menchi katsu recipe from Just One Cookbook)
(bonus: interesting guide to Japanese cutlets!)

¹ ロース, rōsu

² 合い挽き肉, aibiki niku

³ ヒレ, hire