Breaded Butternut Squash with Katsu Curry Sauce

First, my apologies for the fact that this picture makes this dish look unappetizing, I swear to you it tasted awesome, it just is not a very photogenic dish. Please don't let this stop you from making it, because it was great. I first had this dish at Wagamama a few weeks ago and loved it so much that I ran back to my computer after lunch and googled the dish and found the recipe for the sauce on line. The original dish I had had eggplant and butternut squash covered in panko bread crumbs and deep fried. I didn't have panko bread crumbs, so I used regular, and I wanted to keep the dish as low fat as possible, so I opted to bake the squash in the oven (I omitted the eggplant because I had a lot of squash to use up). I will let you know in advance that the recipe that I followed for the sauce make enough to feed a small army, so half the recipe if you don't want to end up freezing 32 ounces of it like I did.

Here Goes

Katsu Curry Sauce (Wagamama)
2 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped
half large onion, chopped
3 Granny Smith apples, chopped
2¼ pints water
2 bananas, chopped
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp ground turmeric
½ tbsp hot curry powder
2 tbsp ketchup
15 fl oz chicken stock (I used vegetable stock)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp ground black pepper

In a large saucepan, heat together the butter, garlic, onion and apple, mix together and fry briefly. Add in 1¼ pints water, then the banana, honey, turmeric, Madras powder and ketchup. Bring to the boil. Add in the stock. Mix together the remaining water with the cornflour. Add to the curry mixture with the salt and black pepper.

At this point I took the sauce cooled it a little bit and put it in a blender to mix up the bits of apple and banana that had not broken down (be very careful when doing this - hot liquid in blender = big mess if not done right)

For the Butternut Squash: I simply peeled the squash and cut it onto round disks about 1/4 inch thick. I sprayed each side of the disk with canola spray then dredged it in whole wheat flour, then into an egg/milk bath, then into the bread crumbs. I put the butternut squash on a cookie sheet that I had sprayed with canola oil and baked at 350 for 20 minutes, flipping the discs over after ten minutes.

I served the discs over a bed of white rice and then topped them with the curry sauce.

Rating = So Damn Good