Japanese Curry

It's been a long time since I've posted. If it's knitting, it's because I haven't wanted to dress up to take a picture of my knitted object. If it's gardening, it's because it's been dead most of the year. If it's food, then there's no excuse.

Here comes a string of updates!

Here's beef curry that I made with a friend one day:

Basic vegetables to cut up: potatoes, carrots, onion (not pictured), and garlic.


Ingredients we bought at Uwajimaya and an Indian grocery store: garam masala, beef bouillon. We found "instant" Indian curry and cardamom for cheap at the grocery store, too (at normal grocery stores, cardamom sells for like $14 for a small bottle!).


We tackled browning the beef, sauteing the vegetables, and making the sauce in separate steps. Here's everything in one pot.


Pretty amazing beef curry! Tasted awesome, too.


We combined these recipes together (somehow) to make the curry above:
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/curry/r/curryroux.htm
http://www.grouprecipes.com/2942/japanese-curry.html


It might have looked something like this (no guarantees):

Japanese Beef Curry

Ingredients:
1-1.5 lbs beef chuck roast (or something similar)
4 medium sized red or yellow potatoes
3-4 carrots
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic (you can't have enough, IMO)
3-4 tsp grated ginger

Roux:
4 cups water + 2 beef bouillon cubes (although consider 2.5 or 3; need a stronger flavor when all the ingredients and rice are added)
4-6 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour (might need more than that)
4-8 tbsp curry powder (like S&B)
1 tsp garam masala
Chili powder to taste
Ground ginger to taste

1. Brown/cook the beef until it is mostly cooked, then set aside.
2. Add some oil and saute the onion and garlic until the onion is somewhat translucent. Add the carrots and potatoes, saute until 1/2 cooked. Add the water and the bouillon, and simmer for 15-20 minutes (I wasn't counting).
   
3. Roux: This part is tricky, because you don't know how it'll taste until you combine it with the broth from the previous step.
   
   Put the butter in another pot, and when it's "boiling," add the flour and blend. Keep stirring. Add the curry powder, mix well. Add a shake or two of chili powder (this is the "kick" and it starts adding up fast, so be conservative. You can always add more later), mix well. Add some ground ginger if you want. The roux will look crummy and dry.
   
   Take the vegetable pot off the burner. Take some broth from the vegetable pot and put it in the roux, and combine until the curry sauce emerges. I think eventually, you want most of the broth from the vegetable pot in the roux. You'll see how thick it is and how strongly it tastes. Add salt if needed.
   
4. Optional step (the mistake step): Make another roux and add the amount of flour, curry powder, chili powder, etc. you need to thicken the curry and/or add flavor. Consider making more concentrated bouillon broth if you want stronger "medium" flavors. Add some of the curry to the roux, then add it back to the curry pot when it's a similar texture, little by little, to avoid unintentional "dumplings" from unmixed flour :p Add the garam masala.
   
5. Add the curry to the vegetables and beef and simmer for another 20-30 minutes, stirring intermittently. When the things are cooked and it tastes the way you want, you're done. Serve hot on rice.