Japanese Food Guide: Japanese Curry

December 14, 2016

WHAT IS IT?

Curry has become so popular worldwide that now every country seems to have its own variation. Curry is one of the most popular dishes in Japan, and the Japanese make their curry with onions, carrots and potatoes. Other spices and flavourings often include curry powder, bay leaf and honey, but most of the time Japanese households will use a curry roux cube to make the dish. 

Curry was actually introduced to Japan through the English!

HOW DO YOU SERVE JAPANESE CURRY?

The Japanese eat their curry in one of three ways; as a curry with rice, as a curry over noodles, or as curry buns, which are bread rolls with a hot curry filling. Curry is often also served over breaded cutlets or 'Katsu'. It's a common misconception in the UK that katsu is the name of Japanese curry, it actually refers to the breadcrumb fried meat cutlet. 

Japanese curry will often be served with chicken, beef or pork and is often made with a meat base. 

If you are serving curry with rice, use the short-grain sticky Japanese rice, or sushi rice. This is how the Japanese serve their curry, not with the Indian long grain rice we often do. It's easier to eat with chopsticks this way too!

If you want to make curry buns, or just enjoy a curry at it's best, leave it overnight in the fridge. The flavours become much more delicious, and the curry is more easily handled and placed into buns. 

 

WHAT TYPES OF JAPANESE CURRY ARE THERE?

As with most dishes in Japan, curry is cooked in different ways regionally, and each region is very proud of their way of cooking the dish. Aomori Prefecture is famous for its scallop curry, Nagano makes an apple curry, and Wakayama even makes a whale curry. 

GET CREATIVE

There are no rules for how to make your curry; just make a base using a Japanese curry roux cube, thicken with potatoes, carrots and onions, blend to make a sauce, and then the rest is up to you! Curry is delicious when mixed into noodles and served with breaded prawns and Japanese pickles, it's also great over fried tofu, or made into a thinner sauce and served with soup noodles.

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