- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sake (rice wine)
- 1 tablespoon ginger juice
- 1 pound pork shoulder, cut into twelve 3-by-5-by-¼-inch slices
- 2 tablespoons mamemiso (soybean miso)
- 2 tablespoons mirin (sweet cooking wine)
- 15 to 20 shiso, preferably, or basil leaves
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 2 to 3 cups panko breadcrumbs
- Vegetable oil, for frying
- Lemon wedges (optional)
- Plain cooked white or brown rice (optional)
- Tonkatsu sauce (optional; see Notes)
- Soak four bamboo skewers, each about 6 inches long (you can cut longer skewers with a cleaver or kitchen scissors), in water for 30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, combine the salt, sake, and ginger juice. Marinate the pork in this mixture for 20 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine the miso and mirin, stirring with a spoon until smooth.
- Spread a thin layer of the miso paste over one pork slice, and place three to four shiso or basil leaves on the paste. Cover with another pork slice, and spread a thin layer of miso paste over the top slice of pork. Roll the pork tightly into a 3-inch cylinder.
- Make four or five more rolls with the remaining pork and miso paste. Cut each pork roll into four disks.
- Thread three disks onto each skewer, securing the ends of the rolls with the skewer.
- Put the flour, beaten eggs, and panko breadcrumbs into three separate pans that are long enough to hold the skewers. Dredge the skewered pork with the flour and then the egg. Dredge the pork again with the flour, then with the egg, and finally with the panko bread-crumbs. Gently press the rolls so that the breadcrumbs adhere well.
- Heat 1½ inches oil in a wide, deep skillet to 330 degrees F. Fry the pork on the skewers over low heat, two or three at a time, until the outside is golden and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain the pork on a rack.
- Serve the pork on the skewers with lemon wedges, or off the skewers on top of plain cooked white or brown rice and drizzled with tonkatsu sauce.