Japanese Cookbook 101 — part 9. Homemade Dry Curry
いらっしゃいませ!
Welcome again to my kitchen! It has been nine months since your last visit if you read my article series back on our old Kinja blog. Sadly, those articles are gone now, but I’ve decided to bring this series back and continue exploring Japanese cuisine and anime / manga inspired dishes. I probably won’t be bringing my old articles over here to our Medium site, but if you are interested in any previous parts of this series, leave a comment with which one you want me to revisit and I might go back and try it again. To give you quick summary of what I already made, here’s the list:
- Pt. 1 — Furikake, Dashi, Miso
- Pt. 2 — Ochadzuke
- Pt. 3 — Oyakodon
- Pt. 4 — Anko (Red beans) paste, Coffee Jelly
- Pt. 5 — Dorayaki
- Pt. 6 — Rose Basket (from Food Wars, ep. 65)
- Pt. 7 — Nama, Yokan, Dango
- Pt. 8 — Gohan Teriyaki Burger
But enough about the past — let’s focus on today’s recipe. This time I have prepared for you Homemade Dry Curry from Sweetness & Lightning’s ninth episode. This show had a huge impact on both me and my wife. When we got married, we agreed on not having kids, but after watching this series together, it changed our mind a little bit and we realized it might not be that bad to be a parent. Fast-forward to the present, and we have a lovely one-and-half-year-old daughter, the most precious person who brings so much joy to our lives. All this gave me the idea to recreate one of the dishes from Sweetness & Lightning as a tribute. So, without further ado, let’s start cooking!
Ingredients (Serves 3–4)
- 400g ground pork
- 2 onions
- 1 carrot
- 1–2 stick of celery
- 1–2 Japanese eggplants
- 2–3 green bell peppers (I managed to only get yellow, but that shouldn’t be an issue)
- 200g diced tomatoes (½ a can)
- ½ apple (grated)
- 40g raisins
- 1 thumb ginger
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 bouillon cube
- 2–3 tsp curry powder
- Salt
- Olive / vegetable oil
Steps
1. Dissolve bouillon cube in 300 ml of boiling water to make broth.
2. Cut onions, carrot, celery, eggplants, and bell peppers into similar sized small cubes (about 5mm).
3. Mince garlic and ginger.
4. In a large saucepan, heat oil and fry garlic and ginger together.
5. After it starts releasing aroma, add onions.
6. When onions turn clear, add carrot, celery, and eggplant. Cook for five minutes.
7. Remove the vegetables from the saucepan, heat a little more oil, and add ground pork.
8. Once browned, return the vegetable back into the saucepan and add the curry powder and salt.
9. Add the diced tomatoes.
10. Once the mixture starts to boil, add the grated apple, raisins, green bell peppers, and the broth.
11. Cook over medium-high heat for just over 10 minutes to boil the curry down.
12. Serve with rice.
Note: Right before you finish cooking the curry, you can set part aside for kids and add garam masala to the rest. It further deepens the flavours of the dish, bringing a little bit of spiciness while slightly suppressing the sweetness of the dish at the same time.
This dish was a huge success; even our little one wanted her portion! Before we realized it, everything was gone, and I’m looking for the next occasion to make more.
I hope you enjoyed this part of my Japanese Cookbook 101. Do you have any tips on what to try next? Hit me with a comment here or on twitter.
Until then, またね！
