Japanese style curry

There's an oriental supermarket in Sheffield, which I went to on Thursday for some panko break crumbs (which you can't get in the mainstream supermarkets in either Sheffield or Chesterfield). Since I was last there, they have expanded and reorganised - so, of course, I had a proper look around.

They now sell a variety of curry sauces and pastes, including curry pastes from Japan. I like Japanese curry. I am not a big fan of chilli and you can get Japanese curries that are pretty much chilli-free but with a nice, spicy flavour. So I bought a packet of Vermont mild Apple and Honey curry paste.

I have to admit that I ignored the cooking instructions, pretty much. I took some chicken stock and dissolved half of the paste in it, then simmered it gently for about half an hour until it had thickened and was nice and glossy. When it was almost ready I stir fried a packet of mixed stir fry vegetables and then added them to the sauce for a few minutes. I served it poured over Japanese style rice and sliced crumbed chicken fillets (so pretty much a chicken katsu). The Builder, who is a big fan of chilli, had his with some hot chilli sauce drizzled over it. I had mine unadorned.

It was extremely delicious. And would be very easy to make vegetarian. The Builder had the left over sauce and rice heated in the oven for lunch on Friday. There was no left over chicken so he had it on its own and said it was more than satisfactory. Would have been just as easy to make the sauce with vegetable stock for any passing vegetarians.

I'm going to go back and get some of the other sauces on offer. Might even go really rash and buy a medium curry paste and see how I get on with that. And there is, of course, the remaining half of the apple and honey curry paste left to play with