2009-05-17 Japanese Beef Curry

I woke up this morning ravenously hungry and in need of a quick breakfast solution. Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriend made me some very delectable cinnamon rolls in Qingdao, most of which were still residing in my freezer. I made my way up the stairs to use the microwave in the 4th floor kitchen. No dice. I then had to trudge up to the 5th floor kitchen, where thankfully, the microwave worked. Being the curious sod that I am, I decided to have a poke around and was rewarded with the discovery of some of my cooking utensils from last year. Sweet! This fortuitous development prompted me to march straight down to DaFuYuan and the nearby vegetable market, to assemble the ingredients for a delicious Japanese curry.

Japanese curry is one of the easiest things in the world to cook. The MSG and cornstarch or whatever else they put in the curry cubes, ensures a tasty and savoury result every single time. All you need to do is cook a stew and add the curry cubes at the end. What could be simpler? The recipe I learned off my good friend Pingmu calls for a large quantity of onions to be thinly sliced and cooked slowly until they are caramelized and delicious. The onions are then mixed with tomato pasta sauce. I didn't have any ready made, so I added 5-6 skinned, crushed fresh tomatoes. In a different pot, 500gms of beef was browned and half a litre of water, some paprika and a small chunk of ginger added. I boiled the beef for about 15 mins and skimmed the impurities off the top. I then added the caramelized onion/tomato mix and dusted with more paprika for good luck. After determining the beef was cooked through and fairly tender, I added a sliced up carrot and two large eggplants, also sliced finely. Mostly Japanese curry recipes call for the use of potato as a thickening agent, I prefer eggplant, I think it makes the curry taste more vegetably and less floury than the potato version. Anyway, once the carrot slices were nice and tender, I turned down the heat and added the curry block. Voila! Delicious Japanese curry, not completely faithful to the Hiraki family recipe, but still good enough for me.

I just finished stuffing my face with two bowls of curry rice, so I am feeling a little 不舒服 (Oh no you didn't Dave, God you're a wanker). I think I'm going to go take a nap before bowling tonight. Jia You me!