Crispy golden panko fried scampi in pillowy soft bao buns, slathered in katsu sauce!
These bao buns are the perfect canape or impressive party food for when you have guests round. You can make the katsu sauce ahead so its as simple as frying the scampi until golden and stuffing the bao buns with all the goods. I made these in celebration of Amity Fish Company's wholetail scampi winning a star in Guild Of Fine Food! Their delicious wholetail scampi is their best selling product and I love it. Try it out for yourself with my discount code - REBECCATEN for 10% off. I have linked the panko scampi in the ingredients list below to take you directly to the website.
I am now obsessed with the ready made bao buns from Marks & Spencer! Throw them into the microwave for seconds and they are perfect. Side note - the sauce recipe makes a lot of sauce but any leftover sauce can be frozen and I thought better to have more than not enough sauce :)
Total Cooking Time
30 Minutes
Ingredients (makes 6 buns)
1 Six pack of M&S bao buns (link)
200g Amity Panko Breaded Wholetail Scampi (link)
Vegetable oil for shallow frying
Sauce;
2 tbsp Vegetable oil
1 Bay leaf
1 Onion (diced finely)
2 Carrots (diced finely)
2 Garlic cloves (minced)
1 Red chilli (sliced & deseeded)
1tbsp Plain Flour
2 tbsp Medium curry powder
1/2 tbsp Garam Masala
300ml Chicken stock
1 tsp Honey
1 tbsp Light soy sauce
Method
1. Start by making the katsu sauce, add the vegetable oil to a large sauce pan on a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, bay leaf and seasoning and fry for a few minutes.
2. Now add the garlic & red chilli and continue cooking until the vegetables are completely softened. Make sure you cut the carrots into small chunks to ensure they cook through.
3. Remove the bay leaf and add the plain flour and cook for 1 minute. Now add the curry powder and garam masala and mix well to combine the spices.
4. Now add the chicken stock, honey, soy sauce and mix well. You can either transfer everything into a food processor or use a hand blender to blend together into a smooth sauce.
5. Keep the sauce on a low heat while you fry the scampi. Add enough vegetable oil to a large frying pan to shallow fry the scampi. Please be very careful with the hot oil! If you have a thermometer you can use this to ensure the oil is at temperature before adding the scampi, 180 degrees is the perfect frying temperature.
6. Once the oil is hot add the scampi to the oil and fry for four minutes until crispy and golden. I usually cook in batches to ensure the oil doesn't drop in temperature too much. When the scampi is golden and cooked through remove from the pan and set aside on some kitchen roll.
7. Now the scampi is ready, add the katsu sauce to the bao buns and stuff with the panko scampi. I garnished with some grated carrot, sesame seeds and coriander, enjoy!
