2.03.2010

japanese beef curry

coming home hungry and having to eat some salty, mediocre leftovers isn't really my idea of a good time. sound familiar? so what do you do? you improvise. scrounge your fridge and pantry. doctor up the leftovers. lucky for me, i found a box of japanese curry paste in my pantry. and with yesterday's overly salty sirloin strips in hand, i decided to make japanese beef curry.

after getting the rice going, i threw a sliced red onion and a chopped carrot into a saucepan with some olive oil to brown.

once the onions started to brown and there was some nice caramelization going on in the pot...

i added 3 cups of water and scraped up the browned bits and brought the brew to a boil over high heat.

i then added the leftover sirloin strips from yesterday's meal. if i was making this from scratch, i would've added the meat during the browning process above and let the broth similar for about 15 min to cook the meat through.

aw i love all things japanese. this is basically curry boullion in a packet.

1 packet contained 6 cubes of curry paste...

which i broke up and added to the pot.

the curry then simmers over low heat, stirred occasionally, until the curry thickens...

and is thick enough to nicely coat the back of a wooden spoon.

at this point the curry is ready to be plated. whenever i see japanese curry at restaurants, it's always a mound of white rice surrounded by a moat of steaming hot brown curry.

what a satisfyingly rich meal for a cold winter's nite. i'll admit, the curry isn't the best in the world, but it's pretty tasty and spicy, a perfect foil for the overly salty sirloin leftovers. add some onions and tender carrots and you have a warm, soul-soothing dinner in less than 20 minutes.

and, you've made do with your leftovers.

3 comments:

Joanna Ng said...

if i move to sf, please let me come over for dinner sometimes :)

リリー said...

I'm a Japanese, this curry, I was eating I ~.
I read with interest.

Michael Taylor said...

I make this all the time. My kids love it too.
Garnished with shredded cabbage is a big hit at my house.