Pork tonkatsu sando – fried breaded pork cutlet in a sandwich – is something I love cooking when I get home late at night. It’s a bit naughty, but after serving up pork tomahawk tonkatsu all night at my restaurant, I start to crave it and then nothing else will do. This dish takes me back to Japan, eating the finest breeds of pork at Butagumi in Tokyo – you choose your breed and cut. They manage to make some of the fattiest cuts of pork into the lightest, melt in the mouth, crispy tonkatsu imaginable. Put between two slices of white bread, it reminds me of the sandwiches you get at the 24-hour convenience stores throughout Japan – places you always end up visiting after a night of drinking sake and singing karaoke, to help soak up all the alcohol. For a quick snack or dinner, this is super tasty and so easy. For a more sophisticated dinner, serve the pork with some rice and the shredded cabbage with a light sesame dressing on the side.

Serves 1
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes

For the pork
1 piece of pork loin
Seasoned flour
1 egg, beaten
Handful of panko breadcrumbs
Sea salt
For the sando
2 slices of white bread
White cabbage, shredded
Kewpie mayonnaise
Bulldog sauce
1 tsp togarashi spice mix

Method

Dip the pork in the flour, then the egg wash and then the breadcrumbs. Shallow fry in vegetable oil until golden brown, then place on a cake rack in an oven preheated to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 for 5-6 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it rest on the cake rack for another 4 minutes. Salt the pork liberally before slapping between the sliced bread. Add the shredded cabbage, kewpie mayo (we make our own in the restaurant, but I always have a bottle of the commercial stuff in my fridge at home for late-night emergencies), Bulldog sauce, a sprinkling of togarashi and voilà ... you have the best post-shift meal possible.

Natalie Lee-Joe is co-founder of Jidori.