Cooking Experiment: Japanese Beef Curry

[tuftears]

I don't know if I've mentioned it but I had a rather tasty encounter with Japanese curry at a place named Muracci's the other week. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a sweet curry-flavored gravy slathered over a tasty thing like chicken katsu, with rice.

When dracosphynx mentioned that he'd had Japanese curry up in SF the other weekend, I got tempted to try making it myself. After picking up the ingredients yesterday, I commenced today, following this recipe except that I used the crockpot to simmer the beef, carrots, and potatoes, and since I didn't have any garam masala, I needed to improvise using this spice mix.

This was my first time trying to make a roux... I think I may have made a mistake along the way, since it never really bubbled the way that a gravy is supposed to. Maybe the original recipe had too much flour? Or maybe I was supposed to add some kind of liquid to the roux as well as the butter and flour? It's a mystery!



So how is it? Stronger (spicier) than the curry I had at the restaurant, I think, probably due to my improvised spice mix. I may have overcooked the beef a bit, in attempting to brown it before I put it into the crockpot-- for that, I should either use bigger pieces or skip the browning step, and I should add more liquid to the roux. Overall it is a hearty stew-like fare, good for warming you up in the winter.

The downside is that it's also got a lot of steps to cook it, which I disapprove for stew-like fare. If I were going to try cooking it again, I'd avoid the crockpot and go with a curry gravy on top of breaded chicken breasts, a la katsu.

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Use this, no fuss no muss. Ready in 30 minutes. Tastes awesome, we make it all the time.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Contains MSG though, which I've heard isn't the most awesome thing. I get the impression it's hard to find a ready-made Japanese curry roux that doesn't have MSG.

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

Now I want to try making stew again, darn it. =o.o=

[anher.livejournal.com]

Look for the 'Gravy Confidential' episode of Good Eats and watch that. Does a good job of explaining how to make a roux, and from there quiet a few different styles of gravy and sauce.

[wordslinger.livejournal.com]

Lisa would know!

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Roux usually doesn't bubble! You want it to be good and thick, almost like a dough; adding more liquid means it takes longer to darken and develop. You do need to either stir it often, or bake it.

I make Roux in large batches, cool it, cut it into cubes and keep the extra in my freezer. It lasts forever. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... Now I'm thinking about just buying pre-made beef gravy from the store, and mixing that with garam masala when I want a curry sauce.