How to make Japanese beef curry rice, using curry powder and not roux(cubes)?

Question

Really, i don't know if there is much of a difference between the two, but i read about someone using the powder, and even though it looked good, it tasted wrong.

I've been surfing around for a while now trying to find a recipe using the powder but..meh. maybe its just plain wrong to use it =/ lol

My grandpa cooks his curry in a very different way, might be Thai or Chinese style since when i eat curry at Chinese or Thai restaurants it tastes like the ones he makes =/ which isn't quite to my liking...lol

P.S. He uses curry powder

Maybe i should just go buy some curry roux haha.

Answer 1

In the curry roux, the spices are mixed with flour and fat or oil, I would imagine, and that would account for the difference in taste and also the difference in the thickness of the curry sauce.

If you want to use powder, maybe it would taste more like a curry made with roux if you make a cream sauce first. You would do this by making a paste of oil or a fat and flour and cooking it in a frying pan while all the time you mix and mash it with a fork. Then, still mixing, you would slowly pour in a hot liquid, like beef broth, for example, and keep cooking and stirring with a wire whisk until the diluted paste cooks up into the thickness you want for your curry.  

Answer 2

FRAGRANT BEEF CURRY WITH RICE

Servings: Makes 6 servings.

Ingredients

2 pounds well-trimmed boneless beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 large onions, sliced

6 whole cloves

2 large garlic cloves, chopped

2 cinnamon sticks

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3 large tomatoes, quartered

3 tablespoons Major Grey chutney

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger

1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Hot cooked rice

Preparation

Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over high heat. Working in batches, add beef to pot and brown on all sides, about 7 minutes per batch. Using slotted spoon, transfer to plate.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in same pot over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until tender and brown, about 7 minutes. Return beef to pot. Add cloves, garlic, cinnamon sticks, bay leaf and dried red pepper to pot; stir 1 minute. Stir in milk, tomatoes, chutney, lemon juice, ginger, curry powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until beef is tender, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.

Uncover; increase heat to medium. Boil stew until juices are slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Serve over rice.

CURRIED BEEF WITH RICE

Yield:  4 to 6 servings

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 1/2 pounds boneless beef shoulder roast, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces and patted dry

1 large onion, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced, or to taste

1 tablespoon curry powder, or to taste

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1-pound can tomatoes, chopped, including the liquid

1 1/2 cups beef broth

1/2 cup golden raisins

Juice and grated zest of 1 small lemon

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and cubed

Cooked rice as an accompaniment

Roasted nuts, toasted coconut, and assorted chutneys as accompaniments, if desired

In a heavy kettle heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over moderately high heat, add the meat in batches and salt and pepper to taste, and saute the meat until it is browned on all sides. Transfer the meat to a plate.

To the pan add the remaining oil and the onion and cook the onion, stirring occasionally, over moderate heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, curry powder, coriander, cumin, ginger, and cayenne and cook the mixture over moderately low heat, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add the flour and cook the mixture, stirring, for 2 minutes. Return the beef to the pan, add the tomatoes and their liquid, beef broth, raisins, lemon juice and zest, and salt and pepper to taste, bring the liquid to a boil, stirring, and simmer the curry, covered, for 1 1/2 hours.

Add the apple and simmer the curry, covered, for 30 minutes more, or until the meat is tender. Serve with rice.

To Freeze: Let the curry cool to room temperature, transfer it to a freezer container with a tight-fitting lid or to a resealable freezer bag, and freeze it for up to 1 month.

To reheat: Defrost the curry in the refridgerator. Transfer the curry to a kettle and simmer it over moderate heat, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until it is heated through. Correct the seasoning, adding salt, pepper, and fresh lemon juice to taste. Serve the curry over rice and, if desired, accompany it with small bowls of roasted nuts, toasted coconut, and assorted chutneys.

hope these help.               good luck and enjoy.

Answer 3

Japanese style beef curry

Makes about 6 to 8 servings.

450-500g / about 1 lb stewing beef cubes (chuck works well; it should be a cut with a bit of fat in it and not too sinewy)

6 large onions, or about 6 cups sliced

3 cloves garlic

An adult thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger

2 cups of crushed tomatoes (1 small can, or 400g)

1 beef or vegetable stock cube (I prefer Knorr)

1 bay leaf

1 star anise

2-3 Tbs. garam masala (see notes)

3-4 large carrots

1 medium eating-type apple

3-4 medium potatoes

Oil or butter

Optional: 1 cup frozen green peas

Salt and pepper

For the curry roux:

3 Tbs. butter, ghee, clarified butter or oil, or a mixture

4 Tbs. white flour

1 1/2 to 2 Tbs. curry powder, or more to taste (see notes)

To serve with:

Plain white steamed Japanese rice, or plain brown rice

Garnishes: fukijin zuke, rakkyou

Special equipment recommended: a heavy-bottomed enamelled cast iron pot (Le Creuset etc.) (but any decently heavy pot will do. A thin walled pot leads to burned curry. Burned curry ranks near the top of things that are Not Nice.)

If the meat is in one big chunk, cut into cubes about 2 cm / 1 inch square. Pat dry with paper towels, and brown in a little oil on all sides in a frying pan. Set aside.

Slice the onions thinly. Grate the ginger and either grate or finely chop the garlic. (A microplane is great for this task, if you have one.) Peel and cut the carrots into chunks. Don't peel the potatoes yet: this will come later.

Heat your heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, and heat up some butter, ghee or oil. (Butter or ghee will add some richness but oil is fine - you will barely notice the subtle difference since the curry will overwhelm it.) Add the onions and a pinch of salt, and lower the heat to medium-low. Now comes a period of long, slow cooking of the onions that can take up to an hour or so (the salt helps it along as it extracts the moisture in the onions). At the end you want to end up with a much reduced mass of onion that is a light caramel brown in color, as in the photo.

Once the onions have reached this stage, add the ginger and garlic and cook a few more minutes. Add the canned tomato and 6 cups of water, the browned beef, the stock cube, the bay leaf and the star anise. (If you are particular you can put these in a bit of cheese cloth or a tea ball for easy extraction later.)

Peel and grate the apple and stir in. (This is optional, but adds to the depth of flavor.)

Bring up to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for at least 1 hour, or more if your meat is a bit tough.

About 30 minutes into the cooking process, dry-roast about a tablespoon of garam masala powder in a small frying pan until it starts to get very fragant, and ad to the stew pot. Add the carrots around then too.

In the meantime, make the curry roux. In a small frying pan, melt the butter or ghee or clarified butter (note that ghee is basically clarified butter) and heat until any foaming subsides.

Add the flour, and cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it becomes a light brown in color. (See these very detailed instructions for roux if you aren't sure.)

Take the pan off the heat, and add the curry powder (the more the hotter.) Stir until the whole kitchen and beyond smells like curry. Set aside.

When the meat is about as tender as you want, peel the potatoes, cut them into chunks and add to the curry. Continue simmering until the potatoes are tender.

Take the pot off the heat and fish out the bay leaf and star anise. Stir in the roux carefully until it's completely melted into the stew and the liquid is thick and very brown. Return to the heat and simmer a few more minutes.

At this stage you can dry roast another tablespoonful or so of garam masala and add it to the curry.

At the last minute, add the optional frozen green peas, and stir - they should cook almost instantaneously. Serve immediately.