Big fan of Japanese curry? It’s a popular menu and widely available in many Japanese restaurants or izakaya. But wait, you don’t have to go to restaurant for tasty Japanese curry. Use Japanese Curry Roux and make your own! It’s so easy that a lot of Japanese people share a memory of cooking it outdoor at a summer camp when they were in elementary school as their first cooking experience.
If you go to any Japanese grocery store, you’ll find many choices of curry roux. The secret is getting at least 2 different kinds, preferably by different brand, and mix them. What you need to do is just follow the instruction on the box. While most standard ingredients are onion, carrot, potato, and beef or chicken, you can change it up as you like. You can use seafood, ground meat, or just vegetables. Or make simple curry and add toppings like karaage, chicken katsu, or sausages, etc., etc. World is your oyster!
When I make with ground beef, I chop up the vegetable ingredients very small, as if you are making meat sauce for pasta. Ground beef will be cooked quickly and don’t have to be stewed long for nice beefy flavor.
You can use chicken drumstick or bone-in thigh, cook longer before adding vegetable. Broth from the checkin will add richness to the curry.
My absolute favorite is using seafood. You can use frozen seafood mix (shrimp, squid, scallop, etc.). The flavor comes out from the seafood mixed with curry is just heavenly!
Japanese curry is thick so it really goes with sticky Japanese rice. If you don’t find it easily, use any rice available such as basmati or jasmine rice.
It is known as easy dinner helper for a family with hungry growing kids. Make a large pot full and eat for a couple of nights. It tastes even better the next day! If you intend to freeze it, avoid using potato.
