Seitan Tonkatsu

Finally made the tonkatsu that I'd been wanting to try for the past month! It was delicious! It's a bit more labour-intensive than most seitan, but it was well worth it.

Basically, you mix up your seitan (2 cups gluten flour, 2 cups water, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp nutritional yeast, 3 garlic cloves or garlic powder and some black pepper), knead for a few minutes, form into um... 6 "cutlets", flatten, pan fry on both sides until well browned and then slowly simmer in water for about 30 minutes. It seems that pan frying it before simmering prevents it from expanding too much and keeps it nice and firm.

But wait, we're not done.

Then after it's simmered and firm you need to dredge in flour, soymilk and then panko breadcrumbs and deep fry. Then slice it up and drizzle (or pour) store bought tonkatsu sauce.

Whew. It was good though and worth the effort if you liked tonkatsu pre-vegan. This is only the second time I've had vegan tonkatsu. The first was "donkatsu" at Alice n' Friends in Chicago a few years back. I must say theirs is better from what I remember but this was still pretty damn good.

The recipe is from Japanese Cooking - Contemporary & Traditional by Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner.