Kore wa curry desu ka?
Alex cooks a surprise meal.
There are few statements that elicit such delight as the one Alex sent me via text message last holiday Monday. This man speaks my love language.
Truth is, I love to cook (surprised?) but when my partner offers to make a meal I know it will be a special treat. And while I’d love to be a part of the action and lend a hand, Alex would prefer to cook “unsupervised”. That means no snooping, no taste tasting, no questions when he’s in the kitchen. So I gleefully stay out of it, and instead busy myself with a book or a crossword until it’s time to set the table.
I had an inkling what Alex was cooking when we picked up the ingredients at H Mart earlier that day but I was plenty surprised when he set the bowl down in front of me for my first taste. It was a textbook-perfect Japanese beef curry, right down to the cubed vegetables (carrots and potatoes), the plating alongside short-grain rice, and the pickled sunomono (cucumber) on the side.
As a Japanese curry first-timer, I was a solid convert: it was not unlike most Chinese-American dishes I ate as a child (sweet and sour pork with canned pineapple anyone?) crossed with a traditional beef stew (with rich oniony and beefy flavor). Since the roux’s main ingredient is wheat flour, the sauce becomes thick and glossy when cooked. The aces in this curry’s hole are the reduced onions and tomatoes, which give just a suggestion of sweetness but moreover loosen up the sauce into a savory, rich gravy.
Alex is typically a recipe man, following instructions to a T, but this particular curry is an amalgam of two recipes — this one from Just One Cookbook and the vague basic recipe on the side of the Golden Curry box — in an attempt to replicate a third, the curry he enjoyed numerous times while visiting Japan for film gigs. And luckily, I managed to capture the details of this on-the-fly meal while we tackled the dishes.
Some tips from Alex:
Alex bought chuck roast rather than stewing meat because it looked better in the butcher case, but take a minute to trim visible fat from the meat prior to searing.
Too much carrot makes the curry sweet so Alex opted to add less in the final recipe — about 3/4 of 1 large carrot, sliced. Use the rest in another recipe or snack on it while you’re cooking.
Do peel the tomatoes. It still seems like a silly step (that I’d probably skip if I was cooking) but having those silky, molten pieces of tomato in the finished dish is a nice touch.
Alex doesn’t hide his affinity for garlic in this dish (6 cloves!) but it’s not overpowering in the final dish. Go for it, you’ll be fine.
You can use any brand or level of spiciness with your curry roux but Alex went for Golden Curry’s hot flavor, and it was hands down delicious.
Serving sunomono pickles on the side was a nice foil for the rich curry. He followed this recipe from Just One Cookbook — no changes.
Alex-san Curry
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes | Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 tomatoes, cored
1 lb beef chuck roast, cut into 1” cubes and trimmed of visible fat
salt
1 tbsp neutral-flavored oil
2 tbsp butter
1 large white onion, finely chopped
2 white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced into coins about 1/4” thick
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 cups reserved water from blanching the tomatoes
1 3.2 oz box Golden Curry roux, your choice of flavor (but we prefer hot)
short-grain white rice and sunomono pickles, for serving
Directions:
First, skin the tomatoes. Prepare a pot of boiling water and a bowl of iced water. Core each tomato, and then lightly score an X on the blossom end. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds or until you see the skin break. Fish them out with a slotted spoon or spider and plunge them immediately in the ice water bath. The skin should peel away easily from the tomato; if not, use a sharp knife or peeler to remove the skin. Discard the skin; dice the tomatoes into small cubes. Set aside.
Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on the beef cubes. Allow the beef to sit while you prepare the rest of the vegetables.
In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon each of oil and butter until shimmering. Add the beef in a single layer; allow them to get a good sear. Turn the beef carefully so each piece is well-browned, about 8 minutes total. Remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.
In the fat remaining in the pan, add the onions with another tablespoon of butter. Reduce the heat so the onions gently sizzle — you want them to get soft and golden brown, but not deeply caramelized (or burnt).
Once the onions are nearly done (20 minutes?) add the garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, carrots, beef, soy sauce, and tomato water. Stir well and simmer for 45 minutes; after 30 minutes, add the potatoes to cook for the last 15.
Once the vegetables are soft, add the curry roux. There’s no ceremony here: just break it up into cubes, toss them in, stir, and let simmer for 5 more minutes.
Your house will smell amazing by now and hopefully you’ve already made sunomono pickles and have rice ready in the rice cooker because this curry is best when it’s piping hot.