Cooking 101: Japanese curry

Daniel Pfyl, hospitality management lecturer at Otago Polytechnic, shares some professional techniques to make your cooking easier. Today, Japanese curry in a slow cooker.

Serves 6-8 with enough left for udon noodles the next day.

1kg chicken (boneless thighs are suitable)
50ml oil
150g mixed vegetables (onion, carrot and red and green capsicum)
2 cloves garlic
300g-400g potatoes
200ml water
1 packet (500g) Japanese medium curry paste (available from international sections of good supermarkets)

To serve:
spring onion finely sliced
steamed jasmine rice

1 Trim fat and skin from chicken pieces and cut into pieces. Put in the slow-cooker bowl. Wash the chopping board and knife after contact with raw chicken.

2 Chop carrots into chunks. Chef Pfyl likes to cut them on an angle, turning the carrot between each cut.

3 Cut the capsicum into pieces and the potatoes and onions into chunks. Mushrooms could be added if desired. Place vegetables in the slow-cooker bowl. Don't add salt as the curry paste will be salty.

4 Add water to barely cover the ingredients and push the vegetables down. Leave chicken to cook for 5-6 hours. You can use beef instead, but this will take about 8 hours to cook.

5 To finish the curry: Skim the froth off the top. Break the block of curry paste into segments and mix into the slow cooker, being careful not to smash the vegetables as you stir.

6 Let the paste melt into the mix for about 10 minutes.

7 Ladle the curry into a bowl, garnish with finely sliced spring onions and serve with rice on the side.

A tip is to soak a wooden spoon in water so it won't stick to the rice when stirring, fluffing and serving it.

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Leftovers

If you have leftover Japanese curry, serve it with miso soup and udon noodles the next day.

1 packet udon noodles
sachets of miso soup or 1 Tbsp red miso

1 Add noodles to boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain.

2 Mix the miso soup with boiling water, according to packet instructions. Pour over the noodles.

3 Put noodles and soup in a serving bowl, top with Japanese curry and garnish with finely chopped spring onion.

 

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If you would like to request to a particular technique we haven't already shown, please let us know. Write to Cooking 101, Editorial Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin or email odt.features@odt.co.nz with cooking 101 in the subject line.

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