hey everyone welcome to pai's kitchen now hands up if anyone has ever used one of these now if you
don't know what this is this is a Japanese curry sauce mix sort of like a curry paste basically
you add meat vegetables water and there you have a Japanese curry now I used to love this I still
do and I use this all the time until one day recently it occurred to me wait a minute what is
actually in this thing and could I actually just make it all from scratch and it turns out that
I can and it's not that hard it's only a little bit more work in prepping a few ingredients but
the rest is pretty much the same so I'm super excited to share it with you because then you
can actually make it to suit your taste exactly so let's get started you can use whatever kind
of meat you want if you want to use meat you can also do this with tofu or with no protein at all
okay so I'm using beef because I love the flavor of beef with this and I'm using chuck which is
the best cut for stew it cooks out to be nice and tender and flavorful I'm going to just salt it a
little bit so that the beef has some flavor inside with the other ingredients I've got
here apple puree now I know the color does not look anything like an apple puree but when you
puree an apple it oxidizes really quickly so it just turns really Brown but it's actually quite
common to use apples as a sweetener in Japanese cuisine for curry powder now for this recipe you
can use whatever kind of curry powder that you have that you like however if you want to get
the flavor as close to the Japanese curry blocks as possible you might want to look for Japanese
curry powder SMB brand is pretty classic so the secret ingredient not that secret is tomato paste
and this is not going to make the curry taste tomatoey at all but what it will do is give a
rich umami lift because tomato paste is packed full of natural glutamate which is what MSG is
so don't skip it this makes a big difference all right now for seasoning I am using here Japanese
soy sauce okay and Japanese soy sauce does taste different from Thai Chinese or Korean
soy sauces so you can get one of these they come in small bottles you don't have to buy a big one
or you can just collect those sushi soy sauce packets until you've got enough okay the next
ingredient the next seasoning is worse - sure sauce where's your sauce however you say it it's
such a difficult word and it's a vinegary sauce that really brightens the flavor of this curry
I would say you could probably get away with skipping it if you don't want to buy a whole
bottle and then never use it again but if you've got one in your fridge already definitely a nice
addition okay so I'm going to start by browning the beef because browning is flavor and you're
going to want to brown the beef anyway even if you're using the curry blocks and it doesn't
tell you to do that in the package instructions but trust me it makes a difference if you don't
hear the sizzle it's not hot enough and you don't want to crowd the pot now you're feeling hardcore
you can you know go and flip them all and get all six sides brown but I only have enough patience
for about two to three sides and I'm like alright that's enough all right so that's done now I'm
going to keep that pot because all that brown stuff in the pot is flavor and I'm going to add
onions garlic and ginger and we're just going to sauté it until they become soft and translucent so
once things are softened up I'm going to add the tomato paste now I like to cook my tomato paste in
some high heat before I add it too before I add any liquid because there's this tinny metallic
flavor in tomato paste that seems to go away if you sautee it and it also almost sweetened
the tomato paste a little bit just makes it so much better I'm going to add my curry powder
so give the curry powder just about a minute to toast bloom all the flavor of the spices if it's
getting a little dry you can add a little bit of oil to help lubricate and at this point just watch
your heat because spices powder spices can burn quite easily I can really smell it in the air now
I'm going to go in with my liquid which is beef stock now I am actually using store-bought beef
stock for this because Thor bought stock has a nice brown color because they make a brown
stock and it's a lot of work to make a brown beef stock at home but make sure that when you buy it
it is unsalted not low-sodium not thirty percent less salt unsalted you want all the salt to come
from the soy sauce which will add more flavor if you use salted stock now you won't be able to add
hardly any soy sauce before it becomes too salty the apple puree goes in so this is our sweetening
agent and also it will help thicken the sauce now all my seasoning is also going to go in at this
point and then the beef goes back in now I'm going to let this simmer and stew now for two
hours before add my vegetables if you're using chicken or pork it's not going to take as long
and I'll include all the details in the written recipe in the meantime we'll be right back so
this point the beef has been simmering for about two hours it is almost at the point where it's
fork-tender ok we're going to add some vegetables to it classically it's always carrots and potatoes
I prefer russet potato which is a starchy potato which cooks up to be sort of creamy right if you
use a new potato or a [ __ ] potato it's going to be a little firmer and I find in stews it doesn't
absorb flavor quite as well and I really like that creamy texture now this just has to cook
for another half an hour it's looking a little thin so what we're going to do is make a roux
to help thicken it so a roux is a classic French method of thickening a soup or stew or a sauce in
fact a lot of people call this stuff a curry roux like curry flavored roux because there is flour
in here that helps thicken your curry but it's really easy to make it's just flour and butter
okay so I'm gonna just melt some butter in here and it's unsalted now if you're feeling lazy and
you don't want to make a roux you can just make a flour slurry and add it to your curry and thicken
it that way however making a roux will add extra flavor so once the butter is all melted I'm going
to add in the flour and this is just all-purpose flour and that's it pick up that's the root now
you want to cook this though so that the flour no longer has that raw flour taste so give it a
few minutes you can leave it like this and it's called a white roux make it a little more dark
this called a blonde roux and it adds a little extra flavor some people push it really dark
and they make a brown Roux which ass even more flavor okay so it's starting to darken a little
bit so I'm going to I'm happy with that I can smell the nuttiness I'm going to turn off the
heat and now this can just sit until we're ready to use it so the potatoes are cooked and soft and
tender and creamy and when you weren't looking I stirred in some peas because you know I like
pops of green in my food and I left peace so you don't have to do it though now at this point I
do want to thicken my curry a little bit see how it's it's thickened but it's still a little runny
now you don't have to add all the root okay so it completely depends on how thick you want it so I'm
going to start with just about half and see where we're at and because the flours coat it in the
butter it won't clump do you want to stir that in and you bring it to a simmer so that the roux has
a chance to work and I love it when the potatoes start to lose their edges because they're getting
a little bit mushy that's perfect and now taste and adjust mmm mmm mmm I think I'm gonna add a
little more soy sauce but then I think we're good to go so always serve this with rice and of course
I've got Japanese rice in my plate here Oh mm-hmm because this is quite rich the Japanese like to
serve a little bit of pickles to go along with it and the classic pickle that gets served with
curry rice is something called fugu Shinsegae it's a mixture of different vegetables radishes
lotus root a bunch of stuff in there and it's red because of shiso leaves however not all of it is
red I've had some where it's sort of a yellowish and those work as well so it's just sort of up to
you it's widely available at Japanese grocery stores they've got tons of pickles to choose
from and the red ones a nice color contrast as well look how cute that is let's begin
hmm oh that beef is so tender I have to say as much as I love my curry block this just
takes it to a whole nother level it's really hard to describe but there's something about
it but tastes fresh you eat that and you know it was made from scratch that it didn't come
from a premade box and you just feel so proud of it you know you just love this so much more when
you know you made it and that flavor there's no other curry box that can replicate the flavor
of home-cooked meal so I hope you give this a try it's so so good the recipe will be on
hot Thai Kitchen calm and when you make it please send me a photo on Facebook Twitter
or Instagram and I'm also now on snapchat so follow me on snapchat and subscribe to
the show if you haven't done so and I will see you next time for your next delicious
adventure you can use whatever kind you want chicken beef pork shrimp elk moose alligator
alligator squirrels rabbits tofu meatballs tofurkey have I covered everything you use