So this recipe provides you with that sweet dark curry we all know and love when we go to a ramen house. I love this dish because basically as long as I have onions, curry, butter, and flour in the house I can make something delicious.
You will Need:
- 2-3+ Onions or Leeks
- 2-3 Full Sized Carrots
- As many potatoes as you want
- Meat (or fake meat like I use. Trader Joe's fake ground beef works fantastic)
- Any veggies you want (peas, peppers, tomatoes w/e...If you're going for a vegetarian curry I recommend using mushrooms to add more protein and a meatier flavor to the curry)
- 1 large Apple
- 4tbs Butter
- 1tbs flour
- 4 tbs of curry powder or garam marsala powder
- 3 tablespoons of worchestire sauce
- 2 tbs ketchup
- 1-2 tbs salt
- Pepper flakes or hotsauce to taste
So let's get started!
The first thing you're going to want to do is cut up your onions or leeks. In my experience you can never have too much onion in a curry as long as you caramelize the onions right. If you wanna do four onions you go for it, just make sure you have a large pot that can fit them all!
So you cut them up and start to caramelize them. Get them in the pot that will hold all of your curry and cook them at low heat for 20-25 minutes until they start to get browned like this:
You don't need to be super attentive during the 25 minutes, so we can get some other things done (just stir them around a bit every 5-10 minutes making sure nothing is burning).
Now's a good time to cut up whatever vegetables you want to put in this curry so you can have them on hand for when SHIT GETS REAL!!1!!------------Please note however, that generally when making curry, shit does not get too real.
Now we're going to make our "rue" which is instrumental to nailing a Japanese style curry. In a very small saucepan melt 4tbs butter and mix it up with 1 tbs flour (pancake mix works too if you're in a pinch)
Over a very low flame (as low as it goes) stir this constantly until it starts to carmel (10-15 min) you'll note the mixture is turning tan or brown and it will smell amazing. That's how you'll know it's ready.
Now that it's turning brown add in the 3 tbs of curry powder (or garam marsala powder) and stir it for about a minute to toast the spices. Then turn off the heat and put in the worchestire sauce, ketchup, and any hot sauce, pepper flakes (or really any spices you want your curry to have. I'd recommend 1-2tbs per flavor you want to add to the curry.) Mix it all up well and make sure it is removed from heat!
Now back to the onions in the big pot with those sexy looking onions. Push them off to the side of the pan and then put the meat (or vegetable proteins) in the middle of the pot and start to cook it. Sear it on both sides and then add 4 cups of water. Add the carrots in at this point to give them a head start, and cover the pot.
Take this time to peel and core an apple. You can put the peel into the curry too if you want, I usually do. We're going to be melting this apple into the curry though so make sure that it is peeled! Chop it up as fine as you can (not the core ya dingus! Throw the core away)
Once it is at a boil add the potatoes or any peppers you might want to add. Let it simmer for 15 minutes with the pot covered. At this point you'll wanna eyeball the curry and see if you need another cup of water. If you think that a lot of the vegetables are going to be above the water line add another cup of water. At this point throw the salt, 1 tbs curry powder, any other vegetables you'd want (perhaps if you wanted to melt tomatoes into this curry, now would be the time) get the apple in there too.
Now put the flame to a low heat, cover the pot and cook for 40 minutes. When that time is up stir it vigorously to ensure that you break up the pieces of apple. At first it will seem like they won't dissolve, but once you stir they do. Now grab the rue and get all of it into the curry pot. Turn off the heat on the burner and stir it in until it has fully combined. Taste it and then use salt and pepper to nudge it a little more if you feel you need more flavor.
You can throw in a bag of frozen peas real quick if you want some nice color contrast.
And there you have it! Just as good as an Udon shop eh?
