In a country where you can get everything from hamburgers to underwear out of a vending machine, it’s no surprise that home cooks have many instant options that make “cooking” a meal as simple as slice and bake cookies.
For some dishes like mapo tofu, it’s become the accepted norm to combine a packet of sauce with some meat and veggies, and preparing them from scratch is almost unheard of. Curry is another such dish.
Like many foods in Japan (tempura is actually Portuguese), curry is a dish that was imported from another part of the world (presumably India). Typically the mix comes in segmented bars like chocolate that you break off and add to a pot of meat, veggies and water. It’s sweeter, milder and thicker than Indian curries and used to be one of my favourite dishes growing up.
I haven’t made Japanese curry since I started blogging since using packaged food is against the very ethos of this blog. Last night, I fixed that by figuring out how to make it from scratch. For those that love the packaged curry, the taste and texture are similar, but the flavours are brighter and more intense. It has an almost creamy quality about it that the packaged kind just doesn’t have.
For those that have never had Japanese curry, this dish is chock full of big tender chunks of meat and potatoes, all covered in a slightly sweet sauce that’s redolent of caramelized onions, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and nutmeg.
The best part is that this requires only a little more effort than using the packaged variety and almost no extra time (since you make the roux while the veggies and meat are cooking).
For vegetarians, just double the amount of caramelized onions and replace some of the meat with firm tofu. In my hunger, I totally forgot to add the peas, so you’ll just have to imagine how great this dish looks with little bubbles of green popping out of the dark sauce.
for the roux
3 Tbs butter
1/4 C flour
2 Tbs garam masala (or curry powder)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (add less if you want it mild or more if you want it spicy)
fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbs ketchup
1 Tbs tonkatsu sauce (or worcestershire sauce)for the curry
2 tsp oil
1 large onion sliced thin
2 lbs chicken thighs cleaned and cut into chunks (you could also use beef, shrimp, or tofu)
2 carrots cut into chunks
4 C water
2 large yukon gold potatoes cut into large chunks
1 small apple peeled cored and pureed (I use a microplane)
2 tsp kosher salt (use less if you use regular salt)
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 C peas
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium low heat and add the onions. Saute the onions until they are golden brown and caramelized (about 30 minutes). Turn up the heat to high, add the chicken and brown.
Add the carrots, and the water then bring to a boil. Skim off any foam or oil that accumulates at the surface then lower heat to medium and add the potatoes, pureed apple, salt and garam masala. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until you can pass a fork through the carrots and potatoes and the meat is tender.
For the roux, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the flour and garam masala, stirring until you have a thick paste. Add the cayenne pepper and some fresh ground black pepper and incorporate into the roux. Add the ketchup and tonkatsu sauce and combine. Continue to cook until the paste starts crumbling. Remove from heat and set aside until the meat and veggies are ready.
To make the curry, just laddle about 2 cups of liquid into the roux then whisk until it’s smooth. Pour this mixture back into the other pot and gently stir until thickened. Add the peas and heat through.
Serve over rice or noodles.
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Thanks for the recipe, Marc. I’ve been wanting to make Japanese curry for the longest time now, but have been unable to find a recipe. If there are any, they’re in Japanese! I’ve been resisting the call of the packaged Glico curry pastes, and I don’t know how long I could have lasted with a family member asking for Japanese curry.
Now that I think of it, Japanese (Glico) curry and frozen tonkatsu ramen are the only “packaged food” I eat. Easy meals, easy flavours. Kudos to you for going the extra mile.
Great to see a recipe for this! When I was in Japan I often indulged in a “katsu curry” (I think thats right) and I do remember the sweetness associated with it. That, along with all the other wonderful foods I indulged in will always be remembered. Can’t wait to actually give this a go. Cheers Marc.
I LOVE Japanese curry. Looks great! I didn’t know it was so easy to make from scratch. Could I make the curry dark brown by further cooking the roux or will the water wash the color down anyway?
Wow, I bet it’s just delicious…love it.
YAY! marc i’m so happy you posted this! no matter how much i love Japanese curry, I always feel very guilty making it by breaking off those japanese gold ‘chocolate bars’ but now that i’ve got this recipe i shd be alright. cheers! x
fabulous! the first time i saw curry as an option on our local Japanese restaurant menu I was like, HUH??? then i did a bit of investigating and found out exactly what you discussed here. thanks so much for the recipe.
I love the packet Japanese Curry but I’ve always worried about the preservatives in it. I will definitely be trying out your fantastic looking homemade version.
Haha, I get the curry udon packs from Fubonn and they’re so good! It’s like curried gravy on udon. The first time I had Japanese curry it freaked me out a little - I thought they’d mixed curry powder with cream of mushroom soup.
But now I like it. I have some of the cubes, but I still tend to make it from scratch too.
Japanese curry is my favorite and this looks good!
This is great! I have been eating a lot of Japanese curry rice lately. I have just been buying it take out from Yoshinoya and at home add a whole lot of cooked and raw veggies. It is not too bad. (Half fast food, half healthy garden veggies, kind of a weird combo.) So, I have been thinking that I want to get some new and yummy recipes for curry and make up a big batch and just freeze it. We’ll refer to your recipe. Thanks!
KyotoFoodie?Peko
eatingclub vancouver, to be honest, I didn’t even bother looking for a recipe because no-one in japan makes curry from scratch.
helen, yea I still haven’t gotten the stock for tonkotsu soup down yet. Even with a pressure cooker I just can’t make it as white and creamy as the packaged kinds.
Peter G, katsu curry is definitely one of my favourite meals.
Manggy, You could try that, honestly this was my first attempt so I’m sure i’ll be doing some refining, let me know if browing the roux works for you.
Thanks Noble Pig, it was;-)
diva, yea I’ve always thought it was a bit unnatural cooking with bricks of solid chocolate like sauce.
We Are Never Full, yea it is a bit odd when taken out of context, but I think most japanese food you get in restaurants here was imported from another country (tempura, fried rice, gyoza, ramen, etc)…. kind of ironic if you think about it.
Syrie, give it a try and play around with the ingredients. I think the key to make it taste “japanese” is the caramelized onion, some kind of fruit to sweeten it and a roux to thicken it.
Heather, I just made some curry udon from the leftovers tonight and it was awesome, thanks for the idea:-)
Thanks Kevin.
Peko Peko, I’ve never been to Yoshinoya despite the fact that all the japanese expats I know rave about the place. Curry is great to freeze and have around. If I had a bigger freezer I’d totally freeze batches to have over Tonkatsu, omurice, etc.