This post is about Japanese Curry, but first a back story…
“Do you smell something? I think it’s smoke!”
It was 1982 or so and I was living in a Victorian house on Pennsylvania Avenue in Morgantown. I had two roommates, a math professor whose name escapes me, and Noriko Kamori. Noriko was from Japan, and she struggled a bit with her English. She kept lists of idiomatic expressions and would ask me to quiz her. She was incredibly earnest about the endeavor, but she was also quite playful. I used to love to listen to her on the phone with her mother or her friends, speaking in Japanese. I couldn’t understand a word, of course, but the experience was high glee regardless. Her cadence was rushed and the conversation was punctuated with infectious giggling. I smile now remembering.
One afternoon she came to my room and told me that she thought she could smell smoke on the first floor. I followed her back downstairs, and not only could we smell smoke, there was a slight haze hanging in the kitchen. It seemed to be coming from the apartment in the basement of the house, so we raced outside and ran down the stairs to the apartment in the back and began pounding on the door. A bit more pounding and then shouting, and finally the door opened slowly, smoke billowing out. The guy who answered the door was squinting and shirtless, not at all impressed with our concern and the high alarm we were sounding. “It’s nothing,” he said. “I was just baking a chicken, and I fell asleep. It’s fine. Go home.”
Noriko and I looked at each other and turned around to go as he slammed the door behind us. I said, “Noriko, something’s fishy.” She looked at me wide-eyed and said, “No, Melinda, he said it was chicken.” Then that giggle. Noriko made a funny!
Noriko’s mom would send care packages from Japan on a regular basis, and they always included boxes and boxes of commercially produced blocks of Japanese curry roux. It was exquisite. Noriko would reconstitute the curry in one pan and steam vegetables in another – usually potatoes and carrots. Then she’d pour that velvety goodness over the veg. I loved it.
Unfortunately, although those roux blocks are readily available at Amazon, specialty Asian food stores, and even the local grocery store, they all include wheat. Given that Ron is gluten-intolerant, I have to steer clear. This curry is an attempt to recreate those flavors, and I do really like it. It’s great not only with potatoes and carrots, but also broccoli and rice, summer squash, whatever you have on hand. I’ve used sirloin steak, carrots, and potato in the recipe below.
Japanese Curry
Ingredients
Veg and Protein
- 1/2 pound beef sirloin
- 4 large carrots
- 1 russet potato
Aromatics
- 1/2 onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 T grated ginger
- 1/2 apple
- 1 T tomato paste
Curry
- 3 T unsalted butter
- ¼ cup All Purpose Flour (King Arthur Measure for Measure)
- 1 T Japanese curry powder (I use S&B)
- 1 T garam masala
- 1/2 t celery salt
- 1/2 t mustard powder
- 1/8 t cayenne
- 3 cups broth (I use homemade chicken stock)
- 3 T soy sauce
Instructions
Prep the Veg and Protein
- Chop the vegetables and roast in the Air Fryer – Cut the carrots and potatoes in large, bite-sized chunks. Toss them with a bit of oil and salt, and roast in the Air Fryer for twenty minutes.
- Chop the beef, velvet it, and brown it – Cut the beef into long strips across the grain and then trim each strip into small pieces. Velvet the beet according the instructions on the Methods page. Brown in a small sauté pan and set aside.
Prep the Aromatics
- Prepare the aromatics – Finely chop the onion and grate the apple. Slice the garlic and grate the ginger. In the same small pan you used to brown the beef, sauté the onions until they are translucent, then add the garlic, ginger, and apple, and cook until fragrant. Stir in the tomato paste. Set aside.
Prep the Curry and Finish
- Start the roux – In large saucepan melt the butter completely over medium heat and then add the flour. Using a spatula with a flat edge, stir to combine. Once combined, reduce the heat to low. Continue to cook and stir by scraping the flat edge through the roux until the it is a golden-brown (about 10-15 minutes).
- Add the spices – Add the curry powder, garam masala, cayenne, celery salt, and mustard powder to the roux. Mix well to combine and cook stirring for 20 seconds. Then whisk in the broth and soy sauce, and simmer until the curry base has thickened nicely.
- Assemble the Curry and Serve – Add the beef into the thickened curry and cook for 5 minutes. Fold in the roasted veg. Serve finish curry with short grain brown rice.
I was talking to Junko recently (one of my best friends from Belpre, Ohio), and asked her if she could think of any shared food memories that I could add to this collection. June’s parents would drive to Pittsburgh fairly often to shop at the Strip District and load up on Japanese food stuff. My most vivid memories of food at June’s house involve her father chiding me – “you must at least try one bite”, no matter my reluctance. Sushi, red bean pastries, dumplings… But when I asked June for a food memory, surprisingly, she mentioned Japanese Curry. This was her favorite comfort food. So, I urge you (channeling Junko’s father), you must try this curry at least once!
