Who’s ever watched Spirited Away and not walked away wanting to eat all the food!? Well, I couldn’t resist, I had to try making a vegan version feast! Problem is, there’s no recipes for most of the food in the film. Certainly not vegan either! This is part of a series of recipes I’m developing to make a vegan Spirited Away feast! Here’s my experience creating one of the recipes:
Pork katsu is just not one of those things I thought I’d still be able to enjoy being vegan. That is, until I developed this recipe! It blew my socks off! And, these crispy, succulent tenders were the favorite at the party (probably because it was extra crunchy and fried, but hey!) The wet sauce ingredients in particular really helped to dial in on the pork flavor. And if you use GF panko/soy sauce, you’ve got yourself a yummy gluten-free dish, too! If you experiment with other “flavors” of katsu, please let me know how it went in the comments!
Ingredients
1 block extra firm high protein tofu, pressed
Cooking oil for frying
Dredge
1/4 cup cornstarch
Wet sauce
1 and 3/4 tbsp GF soy sauce
4 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp vegenaise
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
1/8 tsp smoked salt
1 tsp maple syrup
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutritional yeast
Dry coating
1/2 cup GF panko
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
Instructions
Set out 3 large bowls: one each for dredging, wet sauce, and dry coating.
Add cornstarch to the first bowl for dredging, set aside. In the second bowl, combine wet sauce ingredients by stirring them together with a whisk until smooth, then set aside. For the third bowl, combine dry coating ingredients with clean hands or a whisk, and set aside.
Cut tofu into two thinner/flatter cutlets, then divide into a few smaller strips. Lightly score the surface (you can set chopsticks down on either side to make sure the knife doesn’t go past a certain point) to help the tofu accept the wet sauce later.
Set a skillet to heat some oil for light frying on high. (Move off heat briefly if it starts smoking while you work the cutlets). You need enough oil to have the cutlets be semi submerged, usually about 1/8″ deep or so.
Dredge a tofu cutlet in cornstarch. Dust off excess corn starch, then move to second bowl and press into the wet sauce, making sure both sides have been dipped and slathered. Then move it to the third bowl and toss/roll it around to coat it with breadcrumbs. Once it’s covered, pick it up and shake slightly to loosen any straggling crumbs before putting the cutlet in the hot oil to fry. Repeat with other cutlets.
Note: do not crowd cutlets in skillet. Set aside pieces ready to be fried to the side if needed. And once they’re finished cooking, set cutlets on a rack to avoid losing their crunch.
Serve hot and crispy with sweet chili sauce or your other favorite dips! They reheat nicely in an air fryer or oven, too.
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