Japanese-Style Curry
Simply using the word "curry" admits that a dish is a foreign (non-Indian) perversion and not at all authentic. Please don't yell at me. This particular perversion is very popular with Japanese and Japanese-Americans.
I generally use Vietnamese curry powder, but that's because that is the type of curry powder in my area that has the strongest flavor/smell.
- Cubed beef appropriate for stew
- Diced Onion
- Carrots cut into big chunks*
- Sliced celery
- Diced or sliced jalape[ent]ntilde[/ent]o peppers
- Sliced squash
- Sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms
- Roux (flour, vegetable oil)
- Curry powder
- Japanese style rice (if you can't get that, any short grain rice cooked a bit extra wet will work)
- (optional garnish) Fresh apple cut into thin spears
- (optional garnish) dried cranberries
- (optional garnish) Fukujinzuke (translates to "happiness pickles")
The celery, squash, fresh chile peppers, and mushrooms are
not normal for Japanese style curry. Those are modifications by me.
The onions, celery and carrots are not in typical mirepoix proportions. Half as much celery as onions, but just as much (or more) carrots as onions.
*Cutting the carrots:
https://vimeo.com/43198242
Hold the knife at a 45[ent]deg[/ent] angle and rotate the carrot by a quarter turn each chop. Cut bigger pieces than you see in the above video (if possible, buy carrots of larger diameter from an Asian grocery). The irregular cut means that hopefully parts of the carrot will be softer than other parts when you are done cooking, which provides a variety of textures from the same ingredient.
Start cooking your roux in a separate small pot.
At the same time, lightly dust the beef cubes in flour and brown in a big pot at high heat.
Add onions and celery. Cook until onions are translucent.
Somewhere around here, the roux should reach the blond stage. Add hefty amounts of curry powder and cook for a bit longer, then turn off the heat.
Add peppers, carrots, mushrooms, and squash. Cook until mushrooms start to get a bit soft.
Add water until all ingredients covered, then another inch of water. Add a bit of curry powder to the water and stew at low heat for an hour or three, stirring occasionally.
At the end, add curry-flavored roux, stir and heat until stew thickens. Taste and see if you need more curry or more heat.
Serve donburi* (over rice).
*Note: you know how you can make squid sound fancy by calling it calamari (which is just Italian for squid)? Similar thing here. You can serve stuff on top of rice and make it sound fancy by calling it "X donburi."
The only caveat is that to call it donburi, the thickness of the sauce matters. Most of it needs to stay on top of the rice, but you still want some of it to drip down into the rice and flavor it. American chili con carne is probably a perfect example. Chili donburi is just the right viscosity to get away with calling it donburi: most of it stays on top, some of it drips down and flavors the rice.
Alternate serving: serve open-faced on top of toast ([ent]agrave[/ent] la shit on a shingle):
