The latest issue of Cooks Illustrated has a recipe for Curry Rice with Chicken. (https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/articles/7495-homemade-curry-rice paywalled). I’m curious if anyone has tried it? I love curry rice and haven’t been able to make it at home since dealing with some food sensitivities to ingredients in the commercial curry blocks, so this looks like a great way to have it again. The article has nothing about how the taste compares to the real thing, though, so I don’t know whether to trust it in terms of flavor profile.
If you’ve tried it I’d love to hear from you! And if you have a favorite alternate recipe that doesn’t use a block of premade curry roux, I’d love to hear about it!
4 comments
I can’t get by the paywall, but when America’s Test Kitchen did some Japanese food (yakisoba I think), I remember thinking that it wasn’t so authentic (I think they used spaghetti or something for the noodles). I realize they tailor their recipes for the American pantry, and they are probably good just because of the level of testing.
However, you might consider trying to make your own curry from scratch. You can buy S&B curry powder and make your own roux. u/norecipes has a few recipes on making your own from-scratch curry.
https://norecipes.com/japanese-curry-recipe-from-scratch/
The linked recipe for homemade blocks looks reasonable enough, but you’ll probably have to tinker with it to nail the flavor profile. I’d start by adding a teaspoon or two of S&W curry powder.
Traditional Japanese Home-cooked Curry
Ingredients (Serves 4):
300g of your preferred meat (cut into bite-sized pieces)
2 onions (coarsely chopped)
1 potato (roughly chopped)
1 carrot (roughly chopped)
2 tablespoons of salad oil
700ml of water
1 bouillon cube (solid)
1 teaspoon of salt
​
Curry Roux:
2 tablespoons of salad oil
4 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of store-bought curry powder
​
Instructions:
【1】Heat salad oil in a pot and stir-fry the meat.
【2】Once the meat is cooked, add onions, carrots, and potatoes, and continue to stir-fry (about 10 minutes over medium heat).
【3】Add water and the bouillon cube. Once it boils, skim off any scum, slightly uncover the lid, and let it simmer (about 20 minutes over low to medium heat).
【4】While simmering, make the curry roux. In a frying pan, add salad oil and all-purpose flour. Stir-fry until it turns a light brown color, being careful not to let it burn (about 10 minutes over low heat).
【5】Turn off the heat, cool the frying pan on a damp cloth, add curry powder, and mix well to make the curry roux.
【6】When adding the curry roux from 【5】 to the simmering soup from 【3】, gradually mix in about one ladleful of broth at a time into the roux. Add the stretched roux to the soup pot after finishing the simmer. Dissolve and mix the roux thoroughly before turning on the heat again.
【7】Simmer lightly (about 5 minutes over low heat) until it thickens. Season with salt to taste.
I’m cheering for you! :)
I’ve made the curry recipe from Just One Cookbook for the homemade roux and it was excellent!