Japanese Curry FAQ

[Lord_Leperman]

Farewell 1337ness.

A lot of people have been asking me questions about Japanese Curry, how to cook, where to buy, what ingredients to include in the recipe and such. So its prolly best to make a thread where I can answer all your questions regarding the matter.

Q. How do you cook Japanese Curry?

A. You'll need the following for the most basic recipe:

(note the pictures I'm doing is for 1/2 the amount of ingredients listed below, mostly because I was cooking for myself this time and I was cooking Cream Stew, which has a similar cooking procedure except that... its Cream Stew. I'm also cooking using the roux, not the type of Japanese curry that one makes from scratch, since it makes things a whole lot easier.):

The amount of ingredients listed below are for one tray of Japanese curry roux, each box has 2 trays inside.



1 whole carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped
2 pieces of chicken breast, chopped (you can use pork or beef, or deep fried breaded pork id you want Katsu-Kare)
3 cups of water (depending on the brand)

Optional stuff: Garlic, Bell Peppers, Apples. etc. Japanese curry is a very flexible recipe that can accommodate almost any kind of meat or vegetable. Salt and pepper to taste.

How to cook
1. Prepare the ingredients beforehand.





2. Place a little oil in a sauce pan on low heat.
3. Add onions (and garlic if you prefer) and let it cook until the tips of the onions are browned:



4. Add your choice of meat, and cook until thoroughly tender:



5. Add your vegetables (usually carrots and potatoes). Let it cook for around 10 minutes:



6. Add 3 cups of water, and let it boil for at least 10 minutes.



7. After letting it boil for 10 minutes, add the curry roux (in this case, cream stew roux):



8. Mix the stew, and watch it turn into something tasty:



9. Serve with rice and enjoy! (I enjoy mine on the side, so the rice can't be seen in the pic)



(Pictures are a lie! They're Cream Stew and they only consist of half the ingredients listed!)

Q. Where do you buy your Curry?

A. Depends where. SM Supermarkets has them in their Asian/oriental/Japanese section of their supermarkets. However the prices are extremely expensive, going as high as PHP175.00 per box.

Some Japanese restaurants with small stores in them might sell Japanese Curry roux as well, though their prices vary widely from PHP150-PHP175 per box.

Japan Home doesn't sell them anymore.

By far, the best place to get them is from Choto Stop along Chino Roses avenue, right behind Creekside mall. They sell the curry roux in single tray (75 pesos) and double tray (125 pesos) form.

Q. What's the number scale in each box of curry?

A. Its the level of spiciness of the curry. Level 1 is the slightly sweet, and almost no spiciness variant. As the number goes higher, the spiciness level increases. For reference, the one served in Tagaytay was a mixture of level 3 and 5, giving it around a level 4 spiciness. The one I brought to DT's place during SJA and the one in Alabang recently in Nix's house was around level 3.

Level 5 curry is not that spicy, its fairly mild compared most of the typical "Hot & Spicy" foods you find.

Q. What kind of stuff can you put in curry?

A. A lot, but I follow this guideline: "Whatever you can put on a pizza as a topping, you can put it in curry". There's a lot of room for variety, and if you're the adventurous type, you can experiment with more exotic stuff. You can't really go wrong with the taste in my experience.

Q. What curry brands are good?

A. All seem to be good, but I like S&B the best, followed by House, and Glico in no particular order.

Q. I added a little too much water and now my curry seems too thin, what should I do?

A. Mix a small amount of flour and water (just a few teaspoons worth) in a cup until it forms a slightly thick liquid and mix into the curry. The sauce should thicken after stirring in the mixture. If you just add flour to the stew, there is a possibility that tasteless lumps might form, and you wouldn't want that.

Q. I want my curry to be spicier, what can I do?

A. Adding chili flakes while mixing the roux seems to work for me, other than that adding some Tabasco sauce to the whole thing after cooking works just as well.

Feel free to post if you have any questions.

[NiX]

AWESOME post, Rick.

Much appreciated. XD

[Doom Trigger]

can't thank you enough, your the man...

[Grim]

Nice.

Now I'm hungry.

[Shintetsu]

Oh-kayy.. I'm gonna cook some for meh mimiw~.. Thanks for this very informative post, sir Rick!

[Mjting]

omg.................rick.....you ARE the MESSIAH!!!!!

[Sforza]

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/06/21/cur...y-and.html

^ Curry helps vs. Obesity and Diabetes (in mice)

[Shintetsu]

Cool. Now, cook moar, Messiah! rofl

[Grim]

[zantblade]

cool.....master rick ur the greatest.....must have curry ......
curry our elixer to imortalyty....heheh juzt joking.....

[Lord_Leperman]

This variation of Japanese Curry Rice uses the roux to coat each grain of rice with curry flavors instead of normally mixing it in water to create a thick broth. It is less messy and easier to make than standard Curry Rice since one does not have to worry about having to boil water and make sure the ingredients do not overcook. I got the idea after eating at Pepper Lunch and enjoying their Curry Rice special and so I thought maybe I can do it at home. After some trial and error, I think I have come to the perfect recipe for Japanese Beef Curried Rice.

Ingredients (Note that the picture shows only 1/3 the amount of the ingredients listed):

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3 strips of sukiyaki style cut beef (Or any thinly sliced beef, preferably a little thicker than paper thin. More into this later)
3 Tbsp Corn oil (any cooking oil will do as well)
Optional: 1/4 chopped onion, 1/4 chopped carrot, and 1/4 chopped potatoes
Curry Roux (Just break off ? from a small tray)
2 cups of cooked rice
Optional: 1 tsp Curry Powder
3 Tbsp shredded corn
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chopped green onion (for garnishing)
Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: Cook the sliced beef in a non-stick pan or skillet until browned.

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Preferably one would like to use the thinnest slices of beef possible to get a soft texture that easily mixes well with the rice after cooking. That is why I suggested a sukiyaki cut meat, which is slightly thinner than what they use in Yakiniku restaurants, though Yakiniku style cuts are also good. The thing is, local beef tends to be tough, and unless you?re planning on using imported beef (Australia and US beef are good alternatives), the chances are that the meat you get will be quite hard to chew if it has a thick cut.

Step 2: Remove the beef from the pan. Then add the corn oil and curry roux and let it dissolve in the oil. Optional: Add whatever vegetables you want to stir-fry with the dish. Cook the vegetables until they are tender.

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I wanted to use corn oil because it gives a better yellow hue when mixed with the rice and adds that corn aroma that goes well with Japanese Curry.

Step 3: Add the cooked rice and make sure to keep stirring as much as possible to get an even coat of curry on the rice. Add the curry powder at this point if you have it.

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Step 4: Add shredded corn, soy sauce, cooked beef, and chopped green onions into the pan and keep stirring. The soy sauce is supposed to enhance the flavor and the color of the dish, so adding salt is not necessary. The corn goes well with the taste and adds a bit of color to the dish while the green onions provide a color contrast to the overall yellow color. Add salt pepper to taste.

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Serve and eat. The beauty of this dish compared to regular Japanese Curry Rice is you do not need to make large batches at a time. One can simply make enough for as many people as they wish, from 1 person to 10 people by simply multiplying the ingredients. My rule of thumb is 1/4 a tray for 1 cup of rice, but thats just me. You can try to experiment on the curry to rice ratio for yourself and find your preferred curry-to-rice ratio.

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Done and done. I hope this inspires you to make this easy to do curry dish and share it with your friends and family.

Updated curry FAQ BTW.

[Fox]

Just the perfect thing to read on an empty stomach. Thanks for this one, Leperdude!

To the kitchen!