Sweet Potato and Aubergine Katsu Curry

Over the last 2 weeks I've been house/pug sitting for my mum's friend. It was like a dream because 1. I got to pretend to be a housewife 2. I got to look after Bentely the pug aka the cutest and most mischievous dog ever 3. She is a lovely, lovely lady who filled the fridge with vegetarian food for me! I was pretty excited about this fridge of food and what I could cook from it, but there was also something in there that I've never cooked with before, an aubergine. I know what you're thinking, Hef, you're a vegetarian, how have you never cooked an aubergine before. Well, I used to think they were a bit gross, bordering on mushroom territory (ewwww). So I wasn't really sure what to do with it. I thought about when I've eaten it in other meals and the one that stuck out was Katsu curry. I freaking love kastu curry, I could eat it all day every day and I've been wanting to make it from scratch for a while so I decided this was the perfect opportunity. I based the sauce on Gizzi Erskines recpie, but made it vegetarian and added some more veggies (why not, eh?). I tried making it twice this week, once frying the vegetables and once baking. I prefer them baked, so that's what I'm going with. Sorry for the not so great quality of the picture, Mr Hef told me to 'stop taking pictures and eat your dinner' and like a good housewife, I did (haha).

Serves 2

For the sauce

A bit of olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tbsp curry powder
300ml vegetable stock
1 tsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce
1 bay leaf
A large pinch of garam masala

For the vegetables

Olive oil spray
1 free range egg, beaten
100g seasoned plain flour
200g panko breadcrumbs (this is an estimation, I am extremely messy and get them stuck every where so you may need more or less)
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced in to thin circly shapes
1 aubergine, chopped to the same width as the sweet potato

And some sticky white rice to serve!

1. Start by pre heating the oven to 180 degrees and setting up your egg, seasoned flour and panko breadcrumbs in separate bowls then pop to one side
2. Heat a little olive oil in a sauce pan, then add the onion and garlic and sweat on a low heat for 2 minutes. 
3. Then add the carrot, pop the lid on and leave to soften, stirring occasionally. 
4. While the carrot is cooking away, prepare a large baking tray by spraying with olive oil, then take your slices of sweet potato, first coating them in the breaded flour, then dipping them in egg, then covering them in the panko bread crumbs.
5. Place each one on to the baking tray and spray well with the oil and pop in to the oven for around 30 minutes.
6. Go back to your sauce and add the flour and curry powder and mix in well. 
7. Slowly pour in the vegetable stock, bit by bit and stir well to avoid any lumps occurring. 
8. Add the soy sauce, bay leaf and honey, bring to the boil and simmer for around 20 minutes. 
9. After 20 minutes, remove the bay leaf from the sauce and add the garam masala, then pop in in to a blender and give it a good whizz so that there's no lumps left. 
10. Remove the vegetables from the oven (they should be lovely and golden brown) and pop on to your plate with some sticky white rice, cover it all with the sauce and enjoy! 

Posted in: vegetarian