Miso Butter Kotlet Schabowy
My babcia would be confused by the miso butter. But she'd eat three of these. I'm certain of it, because babcia could always sense when food was good, regardless of how foreign the ingredients were. She once tried kimchi at a Korean restaurant, made a face, and then quietly asked for more. Babcia's palate was adventurous even when her vocabulary for Asian food was limited. The miso butter pork cutlet is what happens when her schabowy tradition meets Japanese katsu technique meets umami-rich miso butter. Three cuisines. One plate. My favourite recipe on the entire blog.
Ingredients
For the Pork Cutlet
- 4 boneless pork loin chops, pounded to 1/2 inch thick
- 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1.5 cups panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram the Polish signature
- Salt and pepper
- Vegetable oil for frying
For the Miso Butter Sauce
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons white miso paste
- 1 tablespoon mirin or rice vinegar + 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 clove garlic, minced
Method
Pound and Bread
- Place pork chops between plastic wrap and pound to 1/2 inch thickness using a meat mallet. This is pure schabowy technique — the pounding tenderises the meat and creates a uniform thickness for even cooking. Season with salt, pepper, and marjoram. Set up the three-station breading: flour, beaten eggs, panko. The same station I've used for schabowy my entire life, for katsu since discovering Japanese food, for bang bang shrimp, and now for this fusion. Coat each cutlet: flour, egg, panko. Press the panko firmly.
Fry
- Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the cutlets. Cook 3-4 minutes per side until deep golden and crispy. The panko should be audibly crunchy when you tap it. Drain on paper towels. The cutlet at this stage is essentially a schabowy made with panko instead of regular breadcrumbs — lighter, crunchier, and with that distinctive Japanese flakiness.
Make the Miso Butter Sauce
- In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic — 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Whisk in miso paste (removing from heat prevents the miso from cooking at too high a temperature, which would kill its complex flavour). Add mirin, soy sauce, and honey. Whisk until smooth and glossy. The sauce should be savoury, slightly sweet, and deeply umami — the kind of flavour that makes you pause and try to identify all the layers.
Serve
- Slice the cutlet into strips (katsu style). Drizzle the miso butter sauce over the top. Serve with steamed rice and a simple salad, or — for the full cross-cultural experience — with kopytka and mizeria. The kopytka catch the miso butter sauce in their little potato-dumpling surfaces, and the mizeria provides the tangy coolness that balances the richness. Poland, Japan, and the American Midwest all at one table. This is what Polish Mom cooking looks like.