The Adventures in Cooking: Curry Rice

Before coming to Japan, I knew about the proliferation of noodles in the cuisine such as udon, soba, and ramen. I mean, this is the birthplace of the ubiquitous meal of the poor college student, instant ramen noodles. However, I noticed upon arriving here that curry is a popular menu item of choice as well.

Delicious curry

According to Wikipedia, for the sake of historical perspective, curry was brought over from India during the 19th century but has since been adopted, adapted, and assimilated into the cuisine of Japan. It is very easy to find both in restaurants and in supermarkets, instant or otherwise. Made properly, I have found it to be quite delicious and has become a dish that I like to seek out at times when I am hungry.

Since it is such a popular dish, many products have been created so that it is easy to make at home, much like a Hamburger Helper or macaroni and cheese equivalent (you can't find those here, by the way). The first time I sought to create this dish at home I used one of the popular instant varieties that come in many different varieties, flavors, and degrees of spiciness. Oh look, here's a picture of the product released in an english-speaking country:
Simply enough, I had to boil a vacuumed-sealed bag in water and serve the contents with white rice. Delicious.

However, I am a person who enjoys cooking with all the useful skills learned and lower cost per finished product. Conveniently enough, shelved next to the instant curries are blocks of curry roux. Curry roux can be made from scratch by cooking together curry power, flour, oil and other spices, but such a thing is time-consuming. That is why one can buy pre-made blocks of curry roux:

I can make curry with this, right?

In theory, I cut up some vegetables, cut up some meat, boil them together and then throw in a block of flavoring. Not too difficult. I will make a week's worth of curry so I won't have to worry about cooking.

Now the details.

I only had an idea of how to cook something like this, so it was primarily a guessing game. The instructions on the box of roux were written in Japanese at a level I coudn't yet read at, so I had to figure out the entire cooking process with three pictures. Thankfully, I supplemented this sparse information with the power of the Internet by looking up different cooking instructions. When it came to the actual creation, I didn't know the amount of vegetables that I needed, so I ended up buying double the necessary amount of potatoes, carrots, and onions. I guess those can be stored until the second attempt in the future. I also bought some type of meat. I couldn't tell you what it was, but it was on sell and it was pre-cut like most other uncooked meat you buy. The fish are purchased whole, but that is something completely different.

Anyways, the meat, possibly pork, is cooked up. A plate full of vegetables is cut up in preparation for cooking. I need about one liter of water for each block of roux? I don't have a measuring cup, but this tupperware look like it is measured in milliliters. Close enough. Let's cook some vegetables. Too much water? Let's empty some of it. Okay, now to simmer 30-40 minutes. *Gasp* I already knew this would be a problem, but now I have to face the fact that I don't have a storage container large enough for a week's worth of curry. While it simmers, I will run to the 99yen store to get something that will work. *trot trot trot*

*trot trot trot* OK, I'm back. I couldn't find a square storage container like I found last time, but I got a pitcher instead. Close enough. ... but this curry looks to thin. Let's take out some water. ...maybe a bit more. Now the vegetables are soft. Let's put in some roux. Two cubes of roux since I doubled the recipe.

...

Uh oh. I seemed to have entered this trial with too much confidence. Instead of meat and vegetables in a thick sauce served next to rice, I get:

SOUP!!!

Oh, the shame. Oh, the disgrace. Oh, the leftovers. A lesson has been learned, but the damage is irreversible. The next time it will be better. Until then, I have decided to call it a stew instead of curry. Not quite as good as the target dish, but enough salt can improve the flavor of any dish. Tune in for more adventures in Japanese cooking at a future point in time.