Ginger pork cutlet 豚肉のショウガ味カツレツ

This is a hybrid between ginger pork and pork cutlet. 　I just came up with this dish thinking it  would go well with a drink.  This could be a main dish if you serve a larger amount with veggies and a starch. This dish is also perfect for bentou 弁当 or Japanese lunch box.

I used the trimmings from a pork tenderloin which was pounded very thin. I marinated it with sake and soy sauce (3 tbs each or 1:1 ratio) and grated ginger (1 tsp). I purposely did not make the marinade sweet at all but you could replace half the amount of sake with mirin if you like slightly sweet. I coated the individual pieces with the marinade and then put them in a sealable container and let them marinade in the refrigerator for several hours. 

I could have sauteed the pork in the classic "sougayaki" 生姜焼き style but, at the very last moment, I decided to make it sightly different. After I removed the excess marinade from the pork using paper towels, I dredged it with potato starch or katakuriko 片栗粉. I added light olive oil (slightly more than for sauteing) in a frying pan on medium heat, and fried the pork (1-2 minutes per side) until both sides were crisp and brown. I added more oil as needed to cook all the pieces in small batches.

The resulting dish had a nice crispy crust with bright ginger and soy sauce flavor. Since it is highly seasoned, no need for any sauce. This turned out to be exactly how I intended; a cross between shouga-yaki and pork cutlet. Any drink will go with this. We had this with Casali di Bibbiano Argante Toscana Rosso Red Blend 2006 (This was our last bottle of this wine). If you are a white wine drinker, Chardonnay would be a good choice. Of course, beer and sake would be nice as well.