Japanese Curry Mix

Well, again that was a long time between updates. I've moved to fantastic tropical Cairns to take up a new teaching position and that comes with a few fringe benefits. Apart from a 5 month "Wet Season", a beautiful selection of restaurants and and amazing scenery, there is bucket loads of insanely fresh produce here!

It's truly a cooking pleasure garden! Unfortunately, thanks to the Brisbane floods, all of my stuff (including the beautiful appliances and granite mortar/pestle I was gifted for Christmas) has been MIA and I've only just found out that the moving company was trashed in the floods (along with my stuff).

Sucky. So I've been living out of a microwave, tupperware, a few pyrex bowls and an $8 frypan I bought in the supermarket. One thing that is absolutely awesome about that combination though, is that I can make curries!

I particularly like Japanese curry, but I don't like the the fat it comes with when you buy it in blocks.  Japanese curry comes in two forms - powder (karee-ko) or blocks of "roux" (ruu). A roux actually comes from French cooking and is that standard mixture of fat & flour, such as flour & butter with a little milk to start a white sauce for a bechamel or mornay sauce, or flour added to fatty meat juices to make gravy.

OM NOM NOM NOM IN YOUR FACE EAT NOW!

Japanese curry roux is the spice mix combined with flour and a fat (usually palm oil - Satan's salad oil) and portioned in blocks which you add to the meat and vegetables the curry is based on. Each one of those blocks contains 110 calories, and 70 of those calories are fat!

So I preferred to buy the S&B Curry Powder when I was living in Japan (which is sooooo versatile) but it's very hard to come by in Australia. The one time I've found it in a specialist Japanese food store, it was a tiny tin with a big price tag. And it's not just about the fat factor, the powder is much more versatile - try tossing popcorn or fries through a tablespoon of the curry powder, or combine it with crunchy peanut butter to make a satay paste. So I began to investigate how to make my own. 

This curry is made from maids who are terrible at
making curry - the ultimate form of karmic justice.

Maki over at Just Hungry has a great recipe for a Japanese Garam Marsala she dug out of an old Japanese curry book, as well as a good breakdown of the S&B Curry basics (translated from their Japanese website). However, it's not a specific recipe. Allow me to present you with my recipe for a proper Japanese Brown Curry Powder.


Ingredients (makes 3/4 Cup Powder)

• 5 tbsp Ground Coriander Seeds
• 2 tbsp Ground Cumin Seeds
• 1 tbsp Ground Tumeric
• 2 tsp Ground Ginger
• 2 tsp Mustard Powder
• 2 tsp Ground Fenugreek Seeds (sub for 1 tsp dried leaves, ground to powder if needed)
• 1 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1 tsp Ground Cinammon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cardamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Dried Red Chillies

 Method

1. Combine all spices and store in an airtight container.
2. Drink lots of beer (Optional - can be substituted for hard liquor if after 10am).

Cooking Notes

• You can make it from whole spices if you want, but you'll have to measure the spices AFTER you grind them and toast them. Use fresh storebought ground spices, store the mix in an airtight container and it will be excellent!
• When using it, create your own roux with flour and butter (or oil of your choice) and add the curry powder. Or thicken your curry with lentils (for more protein & fibre) rather than with flour and butter.