Katsudon (Pork Cutlet Rice Bowl)

When I’m at home though, I’m all about simple, nourishing meals that titillate the tastebuds without much effort in the kitchen. This explains why I’m such a sucker for donburi. What’s a donburi you ask? Literally, a donburi is a large ceramic bowl, the kind of vessel you might serve a bowl of noodle soup in. But it’s also the name of a rice dish that’s served in its eponymous tableware. If you imagine a meat dish, a vegetable stir-fry and an omelette colliding over a bowl of rice into a delicious mess, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what most donburis are all about.

Although they can be made with any meat, seafood or vegetable, one of my favorites is katsudon. The “katsu” is short for tonkatsu and “don” (pronounced like “don’t” without the “t”) is an abbreviation for donburi. It’s a popular lunchtime meal in Japan and the best part is that it can be made with leftover tonkatsu from the night before.

The panko coating on the pork cutlets absorb the sweet and savory sauce while sautéed onions add big flavor to the dish. The egg not only binds everything together, it also absorbs the flavors in the sauce before percolating them into the rice below. Eaten together, katsudon is luscious, meaty, savory and sweet and has the remarkable ability to satisfy a handful of cravings in one bite.

Like any comfort food, I don’t stray too far from the standard preparation but I do employ a few small tricks to make the standard katsudon even better. The first thing is to add a bit of potato starch to the sauce, it lends a barely perceptible viscosity that helps the sauce cling to the tonkatsu and rice rather than running straight to the bottom of the bowl. The second thing is to flip the tonkatsu after you add the sauce. This ensures the tonkatsu is well seasoned both top and bottom. Lastly, I usually cook the egg until it’s just a bit less done than I want it to be as it will continue to cook as you assemble the rice bowl and carry it to the table.