Tonkatsu bento box with homemade tonkatsu sauce

Slice the pork loin into roughly two inch rounds. Score any tough membranes, then pound the meat out thin.

Season the cutlets well with salt and set aside.

Roughly cut the carrot, apple, tomato, white onion and prunes.

Simmer the fruit and vegetables in a medium saucepan until they start to soften.

Add the soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar and Worcestershire sauce and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until soft.

Blend smooth with an immersion blender, then press through a sieve. Adjust: more vinegar if too sweet, more Worcestershire if it needs it.

Blitz milk bread or shokupan roughly in a food processor into fresh breadcrumbs, not too fine.

Crack the eggs. Dust the cutlets with flour and pat off the excess, dip in egg, then press on a thick coat of fresh breadcrumbs. Rest on a rack about 5 minutes so the coating adheres.

Slice the cabbage as thinly as possible into shreds. Cut a couple of slices of pickled radish.

Heat the oil to 350F and fry each cutlet 5 to 7 minutes until golden brown. Season with salt immediately and rest.

Put cooked rice in the bottom of the bento box, then a layer of sliced cabbage.

Slice the tonkatsu about three quarters of an inch thick and lay it over the cabbage.

Spoon sauce over about half the cutlet, letting it drip down. Garnish with sliced scallions; put the radish and an umeboshi in the corner.