Our family obsession with chicken katsu curry continues apace. I’m back to buying sushi (short grain white) rice by the sack, and panko by the kilo. Honestly, if panko came in a 5kg bag, I’d be totally fine with that.

To maximize the crispy exterior to juicy interior, I cheat and slice before frying, not after. Usually it’s the classic golden curry, but we’re experimenting with condiments at the moment too.

My latest wee gadget is a soy sauce bottle, for perfect dotting or puddling, as is your taste. I’ve been after one of these for ages. I buy soy sauce by the litre. Little bottles are about €3 for 200ml in the supermarket. Big bottles of Kikkoman are about €7 a litre, and we get through about one every two years, so it’s a great deal.

The wee bottle will save me accidentally flooding my rice bowl, as happens at least once every few weeks. Huzzah!

This stuff has become an obsession. It’s a chilli crisp, which is basically chillies, oil, sesame seeds and salt in a jar. Different versions have different seasonings. This one is made in Dublin and is ridiculously good. I will admit, I add about a quarter teaspoon of salt to the jar when I first open as I like this on plain rice and it’s not quite salty enough for that for me.

So my bowl tonight was crispy chicken with tonkatsu sauce, not enough rice (misjudged that entirely today!) and my lovely peanut rayu. Pure comfort food at its best.