pork tonkatsu with cucumber salad and valencia rice

you can never escape the rule of threes. ingredients below with some of the method, salad got a little complex but overall pretty straightforward spring/summer flavor profile.

By Campbell Lomel

Instructions

1. whole pork loin, cut into 3/4in cuts and briefly tenderized w/ fist, marinated in buttermilk and breaded in panko.
2. valencia rice cooked and cooled overnight, then refried with leek tops that i cooked down significantly. you can see volume in last pic, basically cooked until reduced to under a pint volume, slightly browned.
3. cucumber and squash sliced on bias w/ mandolin, leeks into thin strips (should have gone thinner honestly), sliced avocado mixed in with lemon juice and “dressing” described in step 4
4. wanted to make a green oil to plate with, so i blended wasabi and 1:1 sesame/corn oil, wasn’t green enough so i blanched some mint and basil and blended that in, strained it and ended up with very small yield of herb oil (still not very green lol, probably blender weakness) and much larger yield of wasabi/mint/basil paste. decided to dress the salad with the paste and drizzle oil on the plate though the oil didn’t add much and could be omitted.