Ebi Katsu Don Recipe

Ebi Katsu Don is a seafood Japanese rice bowl perfect for lunch or dinner. You'll love the crunchy texture of the panko!

Ebi Katsu Don is a variation of rice bowl dishes commonly served in Japan. Topped with Panko-breaded Prawn and half cooked egg and onions, it’s simmered in a sweet soy sauce base.

The rice bowl dish called Katsu don is usually topped with panko-breaded pork, and it became a very popular ritual for Japanese students who are undertaking university entrance exams to enjoy the night before.

“Katsu” is a homophone of ‘win’ and ‘cutlet’. It’s used for anything with Katsu such as ‘Katsu Don’, or a ‘Katsu sando’ (sandwich).

I personally prefer Ebi katsu to Pork Katsu. There is a popular Japanese take away shop in Brisbane and they used to have both Ebi and Pork, but now they have only pork.

So I have decided to make and share the recipe for Ebi Katsu Don, because I had to start making it for myself.

Japanese people eat a lot of seafood and there are always fresh prawns and other shellfish available. I found it difficult to find sashimi grade fish here, but there are plenty of prawns in Australia.

I recommend using Japanese Panko crumb. Japanese Panko is different from the breadcrumb commonly used in western cooking.

‘Pan-ko’ means bread flour, ‘pan’ means bread and ‘ko’ means flour.

Japanese panko is made out of white bread without any crust. That’s why Japanese panko has a whitish light colour.

The Japanese panko’s bread is processed into more flakes, unlike the finely crumbed western style breadcrumb.

Also, because Japanese panko use only light and fluffy Japanese bread, it makes it really crispy when it is deep-fried.

It is really delicious when the airy and crispy deep fried Ebi absolves delicious sweet soy sauce base.

To serve this dish, there is a special donburi ‘pan’ in Japan. It is very shallow and it only makes one serving.

When all ingredients are cooked, it is placed onto the steamed plain rice in the bowl.

Of course, for people living outside of Japan, it is hard to get special ‘pan’. You can cook it in a small frying pan.

Hope you enjoy this authentic Japanese donburi recipe. 

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