Japanese Kare (Curry)

I'm a huge fan of Japanese kare. It is a staple of Japanese fast food and can be made at home quickly thanks to the pre-packaged bricks you can find in most Asian supermarkets. Just fry up some onions then brown some beef, potato cubes, and carrots, cook some rice and you've got a meal in under 45 minutes. But the pre-packaged curry is full of MSG and things with chemical sounding names. I wanted to see if I could make it from scratch.

I found plenty of recipes online for making kare roux from scratch. The overwhelming consensus in the twenty or so recipes I peeked at was to melt butter into flour, add spices, and heat to thicken up - much like making gravy.

The recipe I used called for:

3 T butter
1/4 cup flour
2 T garam masala
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 T of ketchup (or tomato paste)
1 T of tonkatsu sauce (or Worcestershire sauce)
Lots of fresh ground black pepper

But even glancing at the recipe I saw it had flaws, the first being, how much salt? The pre-packaged curry mixes are notoriously salty, using MSG to achieve the right salty taste. Japanese kare is greatly inspired by Indian curry and those call for plenty of salt too.

Now I used tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce, but as I tasted the curry there was another flavour missing. It didn't have that slight sweetness. Now ketchup would have sugar, as well as tonkatsu sauce, and maybe that explains why the sweetness was off?

It was also missing a sort of creaminess. I thought that the original recipe calling for butter instead of oil would give the kare its usual creamy taste, but it didn't.

I went back and peeked at the recipes again to fill in the gaps of the recipe.

A common ingredient in the other recipes was just straightforward curry powder. Garam masala is used to finish spicing curries in Indian cuisine and is combination of ground cloves, cinnamon, black & white cumin seeds, black & white pepper, and black, brown, & green cardamon pods.  Curry powder contains spices not included in garam masala such as ground coriander, turmeric, mustard seed, and ground ginger.

Truthfully to my palate the recipe I used as is was inedible. So inedible that I almost considered chucking it all together and making something else for dinner instead of the kimchi tonkatsu curry don (bread pork filets smothered with spicy curry and served with rice and kimchi that is served in fast food joints and street food stalls in both Korea and Japan) I was looking forward to. In the end I decided to try and save it. Here's what I consider an improved upon recipe, that is even more flavourful than the packaged stuff, and better for you too.

3 T butter
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp curry powder

1. Dissolve the flour and curry powder in the butter over very low heat.  Once you have a "paste", add:

1/2 c finely minced onions
3 cloves finely minced garlic
1 inch of finely ground ginger
1 T sugar

2. Fry over low heat until fragrant and add:

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more or less depending on your tastes, but it should be spicy)

3. Slowly add 1 1/2 - 2 c. chicken stock, making sure to slowly dissolve the paste into the liquid. Stir constantly over med-low heat, until the curry thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in garam masala, 2 T of whole milk, and remove from heat.

4. Set aside uncovered, stir occasionally until curry cools completely.

5. Prepare whatever you will serve the curry with.

* If you want to make tonkatsu kare,  salt the pork filets and let sit in the fridge for an hour before dipping them in egg wash and coating them with a nice coating of panko (Japanese style breadcrumbs), and fry in sunflower oil until golden brown and cooked through. Let pork filet rest about 10 minutes.

Serve in a large bowl with a rounded scoop of rice (I pack rice into rice bowls and then overturn them into the serving bowl), cut breaded pork filets into strips, scoop the kare into the bowl around the rice, and garnish with pork strips (and kimchi).

** If you want Japanese beef kare, peel and halve an onion and cut into thin half moon slices. Saute the onions in 1 T of sunflower oil, add beef and brown, followed by potatoes and carrots. Add the kare to the meat and vegetables, and let simmer over low heat until potatoes and carrots are tender through. Serve with steamed rice and pickled radish.

Bon appetit or, rather,

잘 먹겠습니다 ! (jal meokkesseumnida)

どうぞめしあがれ ! (douzo meshiagare)

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Asian & Mexican Inspired Fried Chicken

This dish came to be simply because I love fried chicken and Thai sweet chili sauce. The pictures (I need to learn how to take better pictures of food, am going to have to ask my photog friends) do not do this dish justice, I swear.

In recent years there has been an exploding popularity of "Korean" fried chicken especially in New York and LA. These dishes are based on two dishes from Korean cuisine dakgangjeong and yangnyeom tongdak. The secret to Korean fried chicken whether it's the two more "traditional" (I'd technically consider both sort of street food) recipes or the styles being served stateside is that the chicken is fried twice - once to cook the chicken and the other to crisp up the skin underneath and the breading.

In most Asian cuisine there is some recipe that calls for deep-frying. The Chinese have several dishes for example - sweet and sour pork - that call for deep-frying. The Japanese have kara-age, which is marinated before breading. Both of the Korean recipes and the Japanese recipes for kara-age will all call for potato starch whereas most Chinese recipes will call for wheat flour and corn starch to be used.

Mexican fried chicken is another recipe style, but when made properly is one of the most delicious things you can eat. What I like about Mexican style is that the chicken is marinated, dusted with corn flour, deep-fried, and then roasted. It's a very unique taste.

This recipe is a combination of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, American, and Mexican fried chicken techniques. Or at least I think it is.

Ingredients:

8 chicken thighs, de-boned with skin still on rinsed with cold water and patted dry, then cut into slightly bigger than bite sized chunks

1/2 c. flour
1 c. Japanese style breadcrumbs called panko 
5 stalks of lemongrass, outer leaves removed and sliced lengthwise
2 T soy sauce
2 T fish sauce
3 cloves of garlic minced fine
1 egg

1. Mix half the lemongrass with the fish sauce and soy sauce and the chicken. Let sit in fridge 1 -2 hours.
2. Combine the panko and the flour in a large bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Add the egg to the marinated chicken chunks and mix well.
4. Toss the chicken mixture with the breadcrumbs & flour.
5. While the chicken sits (you might want to check it from time to time to make sure the breading sticks properly), heat a few tablespoons of oil and gently fry the garlic and the rest of the lemongrass, remove to paper towels, and let drain.
6. Fry the chicken on low heat, making sure that they brown slightly but evenly.
7. Drain the fried chicken on paper towels until all chicken is fried once.
8. Crank up the heat (just high enough so it doesn't spatter), and fry again until the pieces are golden brown and crispy.

Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce (I used bottled this time, but I use the recipe here when I'm feeling ambitious to make a big batch and store it) or I make a sort of nuoc nem sauce with chili peppers, lemongrass, coriander, and lime juice.

It's very good. I offered a taste to my neighbour who came by to thank me for the cookies I made for him and his family and he couldn't stop eating even though he had to go home and eat dinner himself.

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Building a Spice Collection

If you're looking for jars and containers for spices or spice racks, this isn't the post for you. I have barely sorted out my problems with the spice section of my kitchen (which is basically spices shoved into old glass Bonne Maman jars or anything with a lid), so I don't think I can yet be of use to anyone in these matters, but what I can do is help you build a spice collection because it's not as easy as you think.

Another thing I should mention is that I am a multi-cuisinal (this is not a real word) cook. If you are too, then you should start by sorting out the spices you currently have according to what types of cuisines you cook. Many cuisines use the same spices for example Mexican and Indian both use a lot of cumin, fine cayenne powder, and coriander powder. There are also spices I consider cuisine indifferent like onion powder, garlic powder, salts, different types of peppercorns, and paprika.

First make a list of what cuisines you tend to cook most often.

I regularly cook:

French
Korean
Italian
Indian
Chinese
Japanese
Thai
American (Southern, New England, Cajun, Tex-Mex)

While I cook other cuisines as well such as Vietnamese, English, Malayasian, Indonesian, etc. the above list are the cuisines I cook at least 2 or 3 times a month. Being half French and half Korean, I cook these cuisines most often, but I do like to keep my meals ethnically diverse.

Once you make your list of cuisines start to think of the spices you must have in order to create your meals.

Here are my lists:

French:
Rosemary
Bay leaves
Thyme (Thyme Flowers)
Marjoram
Tarragon
Basil
Lavander
Chervil (which looks like parsley but has a bit of anise taste to it)
Sage
Cumin (for duck a l'orange)
Mint
Cloves
Nutmeg (for red meat and desserts)
Saffron
Cardamon (desserts)
Cinnamon
Fennel

Korean:

Now Korean is more complicated because very few dried spices are used in Korean cooking. This doesn't mean you don't need a lot of space in your refrigerator or on your counter for the basics. You cannot and I mean cannot cook Korean cuisine without soy sauce, sesame seed oil, cayenne pepper (both finely ground and crushed), soybean paste (called gangjang), red pepper paste (called gochujang), sesame seeds (both white and black), garlic, green onions, ginger, and lots of flavoured vinegars.

You also need one off things that make all the difference in Korean cooking like brine shrimp, sea salt, anchovy powder, dried chestnuts or chestnut powder, and fish sauce.

Italian:

Basil
Garlic
Pepper
Saffron
Coriander (seeds)
Oregano
Borage (a bit like cucumber)
Ginger (used only in southern Italy)
Nutmeg
Bay Leaves
Fennel
Juniper
Majoram
Myrtle (used in Sardinia)
Parsley (flat leafed)
Rosemary
Sage

Now without listing all of the spices for all the cooking I do, you can already see where spices crossover between two cuisines, in this instance French and Italian. The best way to build a spice collection is to not only know what spices are used in multiple cuisines you cook, but also which ones are rather rare.

In Indian cooking you can't make aloo gobi without mango powder or garam masala. In Cajun cooking you need to have file powder or your gumbos won't thicken properly (and remember you serve file at the table, do not add it to directly to your pot of gumbo! I was severely chastised by a lady in New Orleans for telling her I added it directly to my gumbo and promised I would never do it again). In Mexican cooking a lot of spices from Indian cooking are also used, but you can't make proper Mexican food without all the various peppers used in Mexican cuisine like jalapenos, poblanos, and chipotles.

Once you make your list save yourself a bit of money by buying the most often used spices in bulk either at the grocery store or if you live in Paris at the Indian shops either at La Chapelle (Metro Line 2) or rue Saint-Denis (Metro Line 7,8.9). They're not only cheaper, but you can buy in bulk. I buy bay leaves at the Indian shops for example because I can have 250g for 2,00 euros whereas at a French supermarket 40g will cost me about 3,00 euros.

The good news about either building your spice collection or building from your existing collection (I counted and I have almost 100 different types of spices) is that it can also help you experiment.

I make Indian Tex-Mex for example where I switch up a few things by using nan instead of tortillas and make raita with sour cream instead of yogurt and instead of beef curry I make Mexican style carne guisada (beef stew). I also make fusion French-Korean food where I add a bit of gochujang or encrust pork tenderloin in roasted sesame seeds and make a ginger-wine sauce. With the right spice collection, anything and everything is possible.

Of course having almost 100 different types of spices takes up room and isn't always easy to manage, but take a page from cooking shows. Measure your spices out into tiny little glass bowls beforehand and the searching through everything becomes less of a nuisance because it's annoying to have to search for something when you're at a crucial point in cooking.

Plus, while I might not have a beautiful spice rack, I have given up aesthetics for practicality and for the environment. I never throw away any glass jar, not even olive oil bottles because I reuse everything. I simply wait until I have a fair amount of bottles to de-label, fill the sink up with hot water, let them soak, and once they're clean and label free I store them until I need them. It also means that when a bottle breaks or cracks I haven't lost whatever money I invested in spice jars because I simply need to finish up the mustard to replace it.

Be aware that dried spices do lose their freshness, especially when exposed to sunlight and humidity, and should be thrown out after about a year. Also, do some research because certain spices shouldn't be kept next to each other on a spice rack unless the containers are airtight. I learned this lesson when I kept my asofetida next to my garlic powder. It was not tasty as asofetida is foul until added to food and everything I added garlic powder to didn't turn out quite right.

What unusual spices do you have in your spice collection? Mine would probably have to be the powdered galangal I bought in Holland because it's very hard to find in France. I've used it to make a curry rub for a roasted chicken with great success. I love it's subtle flavour that is similar to ginger, but still has a little extra omph.

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