Recreating a Wagamama favourite

the last time we visited Wagamama we were seated next to a White British couple who were very ignorant about food in general - the man said (to his partner), "some people try and recreate the flavours of the food at home - that's just stupid!", which really peeved both Josh and i. in fact, i think recreating flavours at home is a brilliant idea simply because one cannot afford to dine out everyday and when you have perfected the flavours, you can have your favourite dish anytime and have more of your preferred elements of the dish.

as you know, i've moved out of Coventry and to Josh's place in Birmingham. moving is a good thing - because it makes you consolidate your belongings and instills a sense of realisation of how much stuff (read: junk) you have. this is my corner of asian groceries (1 crate, 2 covered plastic boxes, 1 postpac + extras), not to mention 2 cupboards of bottles of sauces, cans and spices. ridiculous! AND this is after 1 week of me cooking dishes with the intention of clearing some of it (especially ingredients that Josh wont use because he doesnt cook any dishes that will require them).

since i had half a bag of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs - they are a lot crispier!) and a box of Japanese curry paste (courtesy of Michael - in fact, a portion of my stash is inherited stuff from Lynn and Michael since they didnt want them and i would be able to at least use SOME), i decided to do katsu curry for lunch yesterday. katsu curry at Wagamama comes in 2 forms - chicken katsu curry and yasai katsu curry (vegetarian - with aubergine, sweet potato and butternut squash instead of chicken). since we liked both, recreating this dish at home is perfect as we can have both chicken and vegetables on one plate!

i used this box of curry paste - the recipe on the back of the box serves 12 (!!) and all i wanted was to make a curry sauce to go over my katsu so i didnt want any of the meat and vegetables that the recipe called for. instead, i tweaked it to yield enough curry sauce for 2 to 3 portions.

Japanese curry sauce
1) mince (or finely chop) 1 onion
2) heat some oil in a saucepan and sweat the onions, being careful not to brown them too much
3) add 430ml of beef stock (sorry for the strange amount - i actually added slightly more than 3/4 pint so i'm guessing it's about 430ml)
*i used 2 cubes of OXO beef stock and added water to achieve the 430ml amount
4) drop in 2 1/2 cubes of curry paste (working with any S&B Golden curry packs) and stir till it dissolves. the mixture will thicken considerably. once it bubbles, take it off the heat and serve over the katsu.

for the chicken: i used breast meat even though i am not a big fan of it as it tends to be very dry when used in cooking. thus it was/is very important to marinate the meat well before cooking so that it is moist. i cut the pieces rather thinly and using the side of the knife, pounded it so that it would be as thin as possible. as i didnt have mirin, i substituted with chinese rice wine, and also used soy sauce and black pepper, then let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hrs. (i think it was Gordon Ramsay who said that a good chef is never afraid to season? so yes, dont be afraid to lay on the salt and pepper!). for the aubergine: just slice it ring-wise (so that the skin will hold it together, rather than you ending up with very limp katsu)

simply coat in egg and roll the chicken and aubergine in panko and deep fry, draining the oil on a kitchen towel before slicing and serving. i served this with a side salad, dressed simply with olive oil, worchestershire sauce (which is more Japanese in flavour than balsamic vinegar, and it also lends richness) and black pepper.
on a side note - it feels really like home living in a neighbourhood where on the weekends you can hear every family mowing their lawns.

this, however, is what we have to contend with because the landlord couldnt be bothered to do anything to the grass after Josh and Paul contacted him about the house (story is that his previous tenants had moved out only a few days before Josh and Paul viewed the house and expressed interest) and Josh was away in Cambridge for several weeks after he moved in so the backyard has be left to reach this state.
what we ended up doing was borrowing one of those hand-held grasscutters from a friend, chopping off as much grass as possible (because we tried using the mower directly and it couldnt cope with the long grass) then mowing over (and letting the vacuum in the mower suck up the excess grass). doing 1/3 of the backyard took an hour. next it's going to be Paul's turn...