Dining with the Chef

Authentic Japanese Cooking: Ground Meat Cutlet (Menchi Katsu)

Our theme this episode is deep frying. We'll be making menchi katsu, a western-style dish born in Japan. Chef Saito’s family recipe for menchi katsu adds shiitake mushrooms to the standard onion, for a healthy blend of meat and vegetables in the filling. We'll learn how to cook the filling through, yet keep it juicy. For our side dish, we'll be making grilled onigiri rice balls. In this case, though, rather than balls, they'll be the traditional triangular shape, and we'll learn how to shape them that way. Chef Saito will show us how to make his miso sauce for them, and then it's a matter of simply grilling them in the toaster oven until they're ready to serve.