La petite biscotte

“Indian curry is really the best!”

“Nah, I love the curry they make at the Chinese restaurant not far from here…”

“Personally, I prefer Japanese curry ”

“What??!!? Japanese don’t make curry!”

As a matter of fact Japanese do have a curry dish :p It’s actually one of the most popular dishes over there. According to some recent surveys the average Japanese family eats curry about 2-3 times a week. If right now you think “probably some variation of Indian curry, boring -_-”… you couldn’t be further from the truth. Japanese curry has a completely different taste. The texture, while thicker than other curry types, is much lighter and has a sweet distinct flavour that hits the taste buds when you eat it for the first time and you just go like “wow, I like!”. Surprisingly though, Japanese style curry is the least known over here.

Approximately 2 years ago, I ate my first curry. It was one of those premade curries from house that you heat up in the microwave and then just pour over freshly cooked rice. I found out later that the taste of that curry was far from what you can produce yourself, but still, I liked it so much that I started cooking curry every week. Bit by bit I improved and I managed to get it just right. The perfect curry!

I can say, without exaggarating, that Japanese curry is my favourite dish. By far. Even though I grow tired of just about any food if I eat it too often, I can’t get enough of this one. If you’ve never eaten Japanese curry before, I can only urge you to try it out. You are missing out on a piece of heaven on a plate!

To make Japanese curry, you need very simple ingredients. However there is one thing, that might be a little difficult to get: the curry roux. Curry roux is a sauce mix (mostly in the form of a dried block) which gives the dish its particular flavour and which thickens the sauce at the same time. Of course you can make this yourself (click here for a recipe) but let me tell you from experience: it’s tedious, takes long, requires a lot of trial and error and the final result will be far from what you can make with curry roux cubes. You can find curry roux from two different brands: S&B Foods Inc. and House Foods Coorp. Both offer good sauce mixes which you can buy in about any Japanese/Asian supermarket.

You can choose among three different levels of “heat”: hot, medium and mild. In America S&B’s Golden Curry seems to be more popular, whereas Japanese seem to like House’s Vermont Curry better. The choice is up to you, personally I like both equally. If you have troubles finding Japanese ingredients, please check out this post.

Japanese curry is actually always eaten with rice. The sauce, once done, is poured over one side of the plate while the rice is on the other side. I’ve found out that this way the rice actually doesn’t get mushy from the sauce and stays firm until you are done eating. You can use any type of western style rice, but I highly recommend you to eat this with authentic Japanese rice. It simply mixes perfectly.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of uncooked Japonica rice
• 1 box of curry roux (the one that yields 6 portions, however sizes differ so check the manufacturer’s instructions)
• 2 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• two pieces of chicken breast (you can use beef, veal or shrimp if you prefer)
• water
• oil

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1. Wash the rice and cook it according to these instructions.
2. Cut the onion.
3. Cut the meat in bite sized pieces.
4. Heat up the oil in a pot at medium-high heat.
5. Cut the potatoes and carrots in bite sized pieces.
6. Once the oil is piping hot, put the onions in the pan and cook them while stirring. It is very important that you do not put the onions or the meat in the pot before the oil is hot. If the temperature is too low (aka if you don’t hear a psssssshhht when you drop the meat in the pot) the meat will turn to rubber.
7. Add the meat and continue to stir everything. Cook the meat with the onions until they get a nice brown color.
8. Add the potatoes and carrots. Cook those along with the rest for about a minute while stirring.
9. Now fill up the pot with water. The amount is specified by the manufacturer on the package of the curry roux. Cover the pot with a lid and let simmer for 20-30 minutes (again check package).
10. Finish the curry sauce according to instructions on the package. (Because Golden Curry cooking method differs from Vermont Curry… etc.)

Serves 6. Enjoy!