This post is more of a recommendation than a recipe. Japanese Curry (karē raisu) is one of the most loved and common dishes in Japan. For some reason this dish didn’t become as famous as Sushi in the west but in Japan it is just as common. Surprisingly, Karē raisu is a new dish in the Japanese cuisine as it has arrived to Japan with the British at the end of the 19th century. The Japanese really liked the idea of a curry, changed the spices and adjusted it to their taste and packed everything in neat little cubes that can be kept forever in the pantry. With those brownish cubes you can easily make THE signature dish of tasty, fast and comforting home cooking.
There are lots of brands for Japanese Curry, I like S&B Golden Curry the best. You can find it in any Asian supermarket in the US or in Europe as well as in various eastern countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, Korea and obviously Japan. You can also buy this online.
Preparing Japanese Curry is fairly easy – once you lay your hands on Japanese Curry cubes you just need a batch of random vegetables and some meat/chicken/tofu, cook everything in a pot with water until tender, add the cubes and you got yourselves an amazing lunch/dinner.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients (4 to 6 servings)
- About 6 cups of coarsely chopped vegetables – carrot, yam, potato, cauliflower, zucchini, capsicum, broccoli, peas etc.
- 1-2 thinly diced onion
- 500 gr chicken/meat pieces or a tofu cube
- 750 ml water (about 3 cups)
- 4 curry cubes
Directions
Heat some oil in a large pot. Fry and onion until it browns. If you use tofu dice it to small cubes and add it after the onion is ready, fry for few more minutes. Add all the other vegetables and the chicken/meat, add the water (boiled or at room temperature) and cook on medium heat with the pot partially covered until the vegetables are tender. If you use chicken and you care about the chicken not being overcooked you can cook the vegetables without the chicken for about 15 minutes and only then add the chicken pieces and cook until the veggies are tender.
At this stage add the cubes. S&B’s cubes comes in batches of 4 cubes which fits 750 ml of water. After adding the cubes mix everything really well until the cubes dissolve completely. Cook for few more minutes on medium heat without a lid. Your curry is ready! Serve it hot with white rice.
Comments and suggestions
Tofu. In order to transform the tofu from a depressing piece of protein to fun and tasty ingredient you just need to cover it with a clean kitchen towel, place it on a plate or cutting board, place something heavy on top (like some heavy skillet or pot) and leave it for 30 to 60 minutes. This simple procedure takes the liquids out of the tofu and allows it to absorb the taste of the dish you’re making. And if we’re talking about making things vegan – note that the curry cubes themselves are vegan.
Frying the onion. The sweetness of fried onion plays a traditional part in this dish, but if you don’t have the time or patience to fry the onion you can just skip this step and add the onion with the rest of the vegetables. No worries, the curry is really tasty even without it.
Cooking the veggies. I like the vegetables in this dish to be really soft and mushy, and that takes about 40 minutes on medium heat. However you can definitely go with the less mushy version and keep the vegetables texture by reducing the cooking time for about 25-30 minutes.
Spiciness. The curry has 4 “levels of hot” – Mild, Medium Hot, Hot and Extra Hot. As a foodie that loves hot and spicy food I can say that the “Hot” level is hardly hot in my opinion, and I didn’t try the “Extra Hot” yet. Anyway, if you’re new to spicy food I think it will be best to start with “Mild”.
In short
Fry the onion until it browns. If you put tofu add it once the onion is ready and fry it for few minutes. Add all the other coarsely chopped vegetables and the chicken/meat. Add 750 ml water and cook covered on medium heat for 30-40 minuets. Add 4 Japanese Curry cubes, mix well and cook for few more minutes. Server with white rice.
