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Katsu Curry and The Great British Bake Off

Winning Bake Off has given me untold joy and as a confidence builder nothing could surpass it. I always felt like I was a bit of an underdog. And as much as I loved being a stay at home Mum I always wished "secretly" that I could achieve something, for me. 

As I've said before, at school I massively under achieved and I would shy away from people I didn't know because I thought they would 'suss me out'. The computer wasn't my friend because I thought if I touched it, it would puff up in a cloud of smoke and everyone would lose valuable information like homework etc. I'd ask my lot to show me but they would just 'do it' so I never learnt. 

So when I had to do it to submit recipes, little by little I became confident and I started my blog. I'd read and re-read 18 times, I found that writing gives me such joy. Anyhow the other wonderful thing is the people I get to meet, people who i'd never have crossed paths with. I adore people, hearing about people's lives and stories. It gives me such pleasure to share my baking with so many people who feel the same. 

My Katsu Curry is inspired by one of those people. I first met Lisa Faulkner at The Good Food Show, her love of food is so apparent. She is a joy to watch on the stage and if you don't have her book already it is full of fab homely easy to follow recipes. Here is my take on Lisa's recipe.

Katsu Curry
For the katsu most recipes I looked at said to use a tsp of curry powder but I wanted to make my own. It's so simple and then you can store in a clean jam jar for months.

For the curry powder
Place a tsp each of Cinnamon, ground coriander, Cumin, chilli flakes, and 2 tsp Turmeric into a pestle and mortar and pound.

Now for the rest of the sauce
2 tbsp Oil (sunflower or non virgin olive oil)
2 small Onions diced
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1-2 tsp ginger paste of a piece of fresh ginger grated
1 chicken stock cube
200ml boiling water
1 tbsp soy
1 tbsp of cornflour mixed with some water to make a milk like paste

In a large frying pan gently fry the onions in the oil until soft, add a tsp of your curry powder, the garlic, ginger and turmeric, gently fry out for a few minutes, at this stage you may need to add a couple of tbsp of the water. 

Once your onions are looking nicely coloured and beautifully fragrant, mix your stock cube with the boiling water once dissolved add the soy and the cornflour and stir into the pan, cook for about 5 minutes then pour into a food processor and blend, set aside. 

For the chicken
2-3 slices of 2 day old bread blitzed in the food processor
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp flour
a pinch of salt & black pepper
a glug oil 
A pat butter
4 chicken breasts

Bash the meat fillet to flatten, in 3 bowls put the flour, egg and breadcrumbs, with the flour mix a pinch of salt and pepper, dip the meat escalope into the beaten egg, then dip into the flour, back into the egg.

Then into the breadcrumbs, pop onto a tray and chill for at least half an hour in the fridge, heat some oil in a shallow pan and add some butter, when the butter is bubbling add the meat and cook for a few minutes until golden, then flip over and cook until golden brown. 

For the rice
2 cups of easy cook rice
4 cups of boiling water

In a large pan bring the water and rice to the boil, cook for 8 minutes, turn off the heat cover with a lid until all of the water has been absorbed. 

To serve
Reheat the curry sauce then pour over the rice, slice the chicken on a diagonal place on the rice, then I like to top with some dry fried cashews or peanuts. 

This also is great served with breaded prawns for an alternative to the chicken.