Friday 9 March - Katsu Curry

So, the lovely beef stew and the pork and beans were enjoyed - but not by me as a hideous stomach bug hit me for the latter part of the week - not a good way to lose a couple of pounds!

Tonight, chicken and rice, as surely I'd be able to eat this, and some curry sauce for those that fancied it (turns out that I did - I may pay for this later)

Essential ingredients - I've googled for Katsu curry sauce, and all I can find is that you should buy a chinese curry paste - so this was purchased from Akrams on a previous visit - just add water. It's kind of vile in a special way that nothing else will do in its place. Panko breadcrumbs are also the only thing that will do in this dish

I serve with steamed rice - I boil thai jasmine rice for a couple of minutes, then run cold water over to chill, return to the pan over boiling water sitting in a sieve, and steam for about 10-15 minutes

Chicken breasts are trimmed, bashed out a bit, then dipped in egg and the breadcrumbs twice. I used to fry these, but tonight they were baked with a touch of spray oil, and it worked perfectly.

Other thing I serve with anything oriental is cucumber salad - sliced cucumber is marinaded for as long as possible with ginger (I used some out of a tube), sugar, salt, and rice wine vinegar. Then it's drained and drizzled with a touch of sesame oil. I sometimes garnish with sesame seed and chilli, but couldn't be bothered to do this tonight.

To serve, the chicken is sliced, and served with the rice, cucumber salad and sauce