Melon Katsudon

I started the day frying melon and it was good.  I was then drawn to other Japanese preparations of fried ingredients.  Initially, I planned on making melon tonkatsu, which is really just tempura melon confit served with our variation on a ketchup based sauced used for fried Japanese pork loin.  (Yes that is a bit wordy, but heck it's my train of ideas.)  As I thought of the tempura melon, I became inspired by another traditional dish which features tonkatsu but also includes rice, an egg, and scallions.  The dish is katsudon and while traditionally made with pork I figured our extrapolation of ingredients would work well.  So, we steamed some brown rice which I seasoned with truffle puree and truffle oil.  We made a hot spring egg to sit in the truffled rice nest.  I made a  scallion and jalapeno relish to adorn the dish and finally I fried a large fillet of melon confit.  The final additions to the dish included shiso leaves and a sauce made with ginger ketchup, ponzu sauce and sesame oil.  While I am not a big fan of frying foods, (rather cleaning up the mess) I foresee several dishes incorporating tempura melon in our evolving repertoire.