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Japanese Curry

This recipe was updated on 3/5/2019.

Ingredients for 5 or 6:

  • 1 - 1.5 lb. cubed chicken breast or well-marbled stew beef [1]
  • 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in large cubes [2]
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 3 carrots
  • 1 stalk celery
  • 1/2 bell pepper (optional)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup corn (optional)
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 6 cups water
  • 2 whole bay leaves
  • 1 1/2 tsp. ginger
  • 1/2 - 2 Tbsp. sugar

Seasonings:

  • 5 oz. Golden Curry Sauce Mix [3]
  • 2 tsp. cumin powder
  • 1/2 tsp. coriander
  • 1/2 tsp. turmeric [4]
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
  • salt to taste (optional)

Instructions:

  1. Chop onion, celery, carrots, and bell pepper into 3/4" pieces.
  2. In a large pot, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. When surface just starts to smoke, add meat and brown the outside.
  3. Add the chopped vegetables and minced garlic and saute together until the garlic becomes fragrant.
  4. Add 6 cups water, bay leaves, ginger and sugar, then bring to a boil. Skim foam and simmer with a lid for 40 minutes for chicken or 2 - 3 hours for stew beef.
  5. Add the potato and simmer for 20 minutes.
  6. At this point the potato should be soft. Take out a few chunks and mash them. Add the mashed potatoes back to the pot. This will help thicken the curry stew.
  7. Add corn (optional), bring to a boil and simmer covered for 10 minutes.
  8. If you are using highly marbled stew beef, you will want to remove the excess fat. Refridgerate the stew overnight or until the fat solidifies on top. Scoop off the fat. If the beef pieces are quite large, cut them down to preferred size. Return the stew to a simmer over the stovetop.
  9. Add the Golden Curry Sauce Mix and the rest of the seasonings. Simmer until mix dissolves, about 5 minutes. Gently scrape the bottom of the pot to ensure none of the mix is stuck to the bottom. After the sauce mix has dissolved, season with salt if desired.
  10. Serve over hot steamed short-grain white or brown rice.

Notes:

  • [1] A whole piece of chuck pot roast beef works well.
  • [2] For more fiber, you can use 1/2 cup of dried lentils instead of potatoes. Wrinse the lentils and sort them to ensure there is no debris.
  • [3] Turmeric is believed to be very good for your health. Scientists have observed a link between cultures that consume turmeric and lower occurrences of Alzheimer's disease, cancer and arthritis.
  • [4] Golden Curry Sauce mix is available at Safeway and other grocery stores. If you buy the 7.8 oz. box of Golden Curry, it comes with 2 blocks. Each block can be broken into 4 pieces of curry mix. Each piece is about 1 oz. of curry mix, so for this recipe, you can put 5 pieces. You can also use a different brand of Japanese curry mix.

3/5/2019 Update:

  • Increased from 4 oz. curry mix to 5 oz. curry mix for a thicker curry.
  • Increased some of the ingredient quantities: 1/2 onion to 1 onion, 2 carrots to 3 carrots, 1/2 tsp ginger to 1 1/2 tsp ginger, and 2 potatoes 3 potatoes.
  • Increased amount of sugar that can be added to the curry. Sugar is critical for balancing the taste of the curry.
  • Added ground cardamom to the seasonings.
  • Lengthened the cooking time for stew beef to make it tender.
  • Added an extra step to remove beef fat from stew.

1/2/2019 Update:

  • Increased 3 oz. curry mix to 4 oz. curry mix for a thicker curry.
  • Originally the recipe called for finely dicing the vegetables in a food processor, but we found this can dillute the flavor of the curry. Switched to chopping the vegetables into 3/4" pieces.
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