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NEW VERSION:
I’m leaving this up for archival purposes, but as of 12/22/2019, I have an improved version (not that this was bad) of my Japanese Curry From Scratch up. Please check the link above for the latest version, which is easier, healthier, and tastes closer to the boxed roux.
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In this episode, we make a Japanese curry rice (カレーライス) from scratch and cover techniques such as making a roux, caramelizing onions and cutting carrots so they cook evenly.
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Hi I'm mark Matsumoto and today we're Going to be making Japanese curry now You probably either know exactly what I'm talking about where you're Scratching your head and thinking huh Japanese curry I thought that was in you Curry is not traditionally a Japanese Dish but it's something that's been Eaten there for the last eight years It's much milder than an Indian curry And the two main differences are one That it's much thicker than Indian curry Because it uses a roux to thicken it the Second thing is that it's much sweeter And it's typically sweetened with honey Or fruits like apples both castle's These days just use instant mixes they Come in little packages and blocks you May have seen them before but while they Taste great I think it's so much better To make foods from scratch and in that Way you don't have a lot of those Ingredients if you can't pronounce all Right let's go check out I'll be out in The fridge so one of the key flavor Elements in any curry is that you first Want to start out with a great base of Aromatics specifically onions I like to Use a lot of money so let's say we've Got three small onions here we're going To get these nice and caramelized to Give the curry the sweetness and flavor Those people we're also going a lot of Protein so in this case some chick
Boneless skinless chicken thighs here And we want some substance so we've got Some potatoes here these are Yukon Gold I love these because you don't the peel Them and let's throw in some carrots and We're also going to throw in some frozen Peas here will be the throw in it that Will give our curry some nice color and Some contrast alright let's get cooking So these onions are wearing this the Curry is going to get its nice sweet Flavor from so we're going to want to Get the onions cut as thinly as possible So they caramelize quickly and we're not Having dinner at Miz Okay the pans nice and hot we've got our Onions chopped and so I'm going to add a Bit of oil to the pan maybe a tablespoon Or two and we are going to go ahead and Put the onions in and you want to do This over a medium to medium low heat Because we want to cook them for a long Time and get them caramelized without Burning them so it's going to take about 20 minutes you want to sit and watch it All the time but you want to stir it Around every once in a while so it Browns evenly all on these Brown I'm Going to go ahead and chop up some of Our other vegetables and our meat so you Can probably use any kind of meat beef Poultry I've got some chicken thighs Here which I love because you can cook Them for a while they get tender and
Soft without getting dried out like with The chicken breast so these have been Washed and trimmed of any excess fat and We're just going to cut these into Bite-sized pieces you don't want them Too small But you don't want them too large either Okay and then we're going to chop up Some carrots now because we're going to Be cooking these for a while we don't Want to cut them too small and have them Disintegrate on us so I'm going to go Ahead and chop the ends off and then I'm Going to give it kind of a cross cut so Basically you want to come at it at an Angle and then make one cut turn it 3/4 Of the way hit make another cut turn it Cut turn it turn it and so on and so Forth so cutting it like this gives you Nice even cut each of the carrot is Tapered differently now Logging's are Going to take awhile to brown but while We have that going we're going to go Ahead and make the room now this is a Combination of butter and flour and it's What makes the curry nice and thick so We have a pan here over medium low heat We're going About 1/4 cup of butter and about 1/4 Cup of and we're going to want to stir This around constantly so it doesn't Burn until it gets to a nice medium Brown color okay so our Roos been going For about 15-20 minutes now it's
Beautiful medium brown color it smells Amazing like baking bread and caramel And what we're going to do is put our Spices directly in here and what that's Going to do is help roast Flip the spices and get some of that Flavor out so here I have some garam Masala powder and you can pick this up At any Indian grocery or even some Supermarkets out if you can't find it You can use curry powder I'm going to Add about two tablespoons of this into The roof and just let that toast for About a minute it won't take very long You'll see it bubbling up and it'll be Sizzling a little bit okay that should Be good now we're going to go ahead and Turn this off and once it's off the heat We're going to add about three Tablespoons of sauce sometimes it's Called tonkatsu sauce and it's made with Fruit and vinegar and a lot of spices if You can't find it you can use Worcestershire sauce you'll get a Similar effect so about three Tablespoons of that and we're going to Add two tablespoons of ketchup And just mix that up keep it from Burning and this is our base for the Curry if you want your curry a little Spicier you can add some cayenne pepper We'll give it a little bit of a kick all Right let's go check on our onions the Onions are nice brown color now and
They've caramelized nice we get this Great sweet aroma coming out and they're A nice deep brown color so I hope we're Ready to add the meat okay now just trim The heat up a little bit and push the Onion out to the side of the pot and We're going to go ahead and just take Our meat and go right into the center And spread it out as best you can and We're going to go ahead and let the meat Brown on one side flip it over and then We're going to add everything else our Meats nice and brown and the kitchen is Just filled with wonderful smells of the Onions of the meat now we just have to Add our carrots in and we want to give The character a little bit of a heck of A head start over the potatoes because They're going to take a little longer to Cook so the carrots are in we're going To add about four cups of water to the Pot and I actually like to add a little Bit of black cardamom because it gives It a nice earthy smoky flavor now we're Just going to put a lid on this and Bring it to a rolling boil now what That's going to do is bring all the Impurities and stuff especially if You're using a redder kind of meat like Beef and it just brings it up is kind of Like foam on the top and you can just Give it off and get rid of the mask Stuff okay well that's coming to a boil Let's go ahead and cut up our potatoes
So you don't want to cut these up these Small it's kind of like a stew so I'm Just gonna these potatoes are kind of Trouble to begin with so I'm just going To cut them up into quarters okay our Chickens out of oil now and if you look At the surface here you'll notice that There's some foam accumulating on the Top if not a lot because this is chicken But if you had beef you're really gonna Want to do this so I'm just going to use This little steamer to take off that Foam and some of the excess fat off the Surface of the stock great that looks Just about it and I'm gonna go ahead and Turn the heat down cover this up with The ribbon and let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes to give the carrots a Head start okay This has been simmering for about 15 Minutes now and I've got my potatoes That I'm going to add in as I mentioned Before one of the key features of Japanese curry is that it tends to be a Little bit sweeter than a typical Indian Curry the way we get that is by adding Some fruit so I have an apple here that I cored and peeled and I'm just going to Grate this straight into our curry and Then I'm also going to add about another Tbsp of garam masala straight into here So we can get a nice flavor to the meat And then I'm going to add some salt now You don't want to over salt it at the
Beginning but we want to add a little Bit in there so it gets some flavor into The meat and the vegetables so I've got About a tablespoon of kosher salt maybe A little bit more we'll add about 2 Tablespoons if you're using regular salt You want to cut back and use about half That and make sure you've got a light Simmer going on cover it up and we're Gonna let this cook until the potatoes And carrots are softened alright be back With you in about 40 minutes Okay our Curry's been simmering for About an hour the apartment smells Amazing and I think our potatoes and our Character them so let's take a look oh That's great okay So we have our roux and we want to make Sure the heats not up too high otherwise It's going to burn to the pan and we're Just going to add that into the curry And use a spatula to break it out to fix It in being careful not to crush the Potatoes or the carrots okay and now the Taste test we just want to make sure our Salt and our sweetness are all where we Want it to be mmm that's perfect now We're just going to add some ease for Color I've got probably about 3/4 of a Cup cup that's going to give it a nice Bright green color we're going to want To serve it on top of some rice and We'll have a fantastic meal with lots of Leftovers mmm delicious
Sweet smoky thick but not too thick has A very different taste from an Indian Curry I hope you enjoy
