Fans of Japanese cuisine must have heard about such a dish - tonkatsu, and maybe even tried it. The dish is a specially cooked pork chop, which is served without fail with finely chopped cabbage and thick fruit and vegetable sauce, which is also called tonkatsu. Initially, the tonkatsu sauce was prepared much easier than it is now, and included a minimum of ingredients. Its sweetish-salty-sour taste best harmonized with the taste of roast pork. He was so fond of local cooks that they tried to improve it, and they succeeded: today tonkatsu sauce is prepared from a large number of ingredients, including vegetables and fruits, and its taste is absolutely unique. If you belong to adherents of Asian cuisine, you should learn this Japanese sauce at home, especially since you can serve it not only with pork.
Cooking Features
It is not difficult to prepare the tonkatsu sauce, but you should follow the instructions exactly, trying not to disturb the proportions of the products and the technology of preparation in the slightest. To cope with the task will help knowledge of several small secrets:
- For tonkatsu sauce, ready-made ketchup is usually used. It is better to choose the one whose taste is closest to the taste of the original tomato sauce, which does not contain any additives, spices and seasonings with a pronounced taste and aroma. If you can't find one in the store, you can use tomato paste diluted with water to the consistency of ketchup, lightly seasoned with black or red pepper.
- Tonkatsu sauce can be made cold or hot. Traditional technology involves the second option, although the sauce is served anyway cold. Sauce, cooked in a cold way, you need to eat on the same day, the maximum - the next. If it is prepared according to traditional technology that involves heat treatment, then it can be stored in a refrigerator in a glass container for up to two weeks. The taste of cold cooked sauce is different from the traditional one.
- Many products that make up the sauce can be replaced by similar ones, more affordable in your area. However, in this case, the taste is identical to the original, you do not get - just like. Therefore, it is better to apply the ingredients specified in the recipe.
Tonkatsu classic sauce is made from a large number of ingredients, so the process takes a lot of time. If you want to finish quickly, you can use simplified recipes, but then the taste of the sauce will, of course, be somewhat different.
Classic Tonkatsu Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- ketchup - 125 ml;
- soy sauce - 20 ml;
- Worcestershire sauce - 20 ml;
- rice vinegar - 20 ml;
- sake - 20 ml;
- brown sugar - 10 g;
- yellow mustard - 10 g;
- sesame seeds - 10 g;
- dried granulated garlic - 2-3 g;
- ground cloves - at the tip of a knife;
- cinnamon - at the tip of a knife;
- dried chopped ginger - a pinch;
- nutmeg - a pinch;
- apple - 20 g;
- onions - 20 g;
- carrots - 20 g.
Method of preparation:
- Ketchup mix with soy sauce. Whisk with a whisk to get a homogeneous mass.
- Add the Worcestershire sauce to the ketchup. Stir once more.
- Peel an apple, cut a piece weighing about 20 g and rub it.
- Peel the carrots, chop a small piece of it in a grater with small holes, mix with apple sauce.
- Free the onions from the husk, separate the piece of a suitable size. Grate it or grind with a blender. Mix onion puree with apple and carrot.
- Mix fruit and vegetable puree with ketchup. Pour the sauce into a saucepan with a thick bottom of a small size, put it on a low heat.
- Fry the sesame seeds in a separate pan.
- Warm the sauce on the stove for 5 minutes without letting it boil. Pour in vinegar and sake, add sugar and mix. Warm up for another three minutes or a little longer, until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Add spices and sesame seeds. Stir. Hold the sauce on the stove, stirring, for another 2 minutes. All this time you need to try to warm up the sauce, but not boil.
The prepared sauce should be left at room temperature for some time, then poured into a saucepan and refrigerated. Tonkatsu sauce can be used only after it has cooled. It is served not only to pork, but also to fish, seafood, rice. The sauce has a complex taste and aroma, difficult to describe. Therefore, it is better to try it yourself.
Simple Tonkatsu Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- ketchup - 100 ml;
- soy sauce - 10 ml;
- Worcestershire sauce - 10 ml;
- sherry - 10 ml;
- sugar - 10 g;
- ginger powder - pinch;
- garlic powder - a pinch.
Method of preparation:
- Mix all ingredients. Place in a container suitable for use in a microwave oven.
- Microwave, turn it on at maximum power for one minute.
The finished sauce must be allowed to infuse. This will take about an hour.
Tonkatsu Sauce Recipe
Composition:
- sugar - 50 g;
- grated apple - 50 g;
- grated carrots - 25 g;
- grated onions - 25 g;
- water - 100 ml;
- soy sauce - 50 ml;
- dry red wine - 25 ml;
- tomato juice - 100 ml;
- lemon juice - 10 ml;
- apple cider vinegar (6 percent) - 10 ml;
- corn starch - 5 g.
Method of preparation:
- Wash, peel and chop vegetables and an apple. Mix vegetables and applesauce.
- Mix the sugar with 50 ml of water and cook until the mixture smokes, then dissolve it with boiling water without removing from the heat.
- Add fruit and vegetable puree to caramel syrup, cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add tomato juice. Boil it all together for another 10 minutes.
- Enter the rest of the ingredients except starch, vinegar, lemon juice and wine. Boil for 20 minutes.
- When the mixture has cooled slightly, strain the sauce. Add vinegar, lemon juice and starch diluted in wine. Put on a low heat and cook until the sauce thickens.
The sauce prepared according to this recipe can be frozen. Then it can be stored for a month. In the main compartment of the refrigerator it can be stored no more than two weeks.
Tonkatsu sauce is one of the most famous sauces of Asian cuisine. Initially, it was served to fried pork chop, breaded and deep-fried, but today they are served with a variety of dishes.
