I've known for a while that the box curry (usually House brand, but others are good too) is not all that healthy, with palm oil being a predominant ingredient. Although palm oil turns out not to be nearly as bad as previously thought, I would prefer not to add too much saturated fat to my diet. Thus it was with great interest that I came upon a couple of homemade Japanese-style curry recipes on the 'net. With the help of Google and our friend Jane (who helped with some of the poor English translation), I was able to create a very tasty curry without all that sat fat. It basically involves creating the roux from S&B curry powder, flour, and oil (I use olive oil because it's supposed to be the healthiest). The recipe is available (poor English and all) here; in case the link is broken, the recipe is mostly duplicated at the end of this post. I use boxed chicken stock (from Trader Joe's) instead of boullion cubes, which has way too much sodium and MSG.
Although there is a little bit more effort in creating the curry from scratch, the final product is very good, and rivals the stuff you'd get at Curry House or out of a box. Give it a try, you might be surprised!
Recipe (courtesy Mariko at jpn-miyabi.com. my comments in brackets):
Ingredients (serving for 4)
200g sliced pork loin, 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1+1/2 onion, 1 carrot,
1 laurel, 1 tbsp grated garlic, 10g grated ginger, 2 tbsp ketchup,
2 tbsp Worcester [sic] sauce, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp salt,
1 tbsp honey, 1 teaspoon instant coffee
3 cups rice (1cup = 180cc)
Preparing
1. Cut sliced pork into 2-3cm width and coat with curry powder [I use chicken, and don't bother to coat with powder, but do dust with baking soda which gets washed off to make the meat more tender].
2. Cut onion and carrot into bite-sized [pieces].
3. Heat vegetable oil on a pot, cook onion until became softly
and add honey.
4. Add soup, bring to boil up and turn down the heat .
Get rid of harshness.(A)
To add honey is familiar to well-cooked onion taste [i.e., honey adds to the traditional caramelized flavor].
How to cook curry roux
1. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan, add flour slowly,
stir constantly until well blended.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and put it on a towel
to cool it down.
3. Add curry powder to the pan and mix well.(B)
4. Pour (A) in (B)slowly. (C)
5. Pour (C) into the pot, add garlic, laurel [bay leaf], ketchup,
Worcester sauce, sugar and salt.
6. Boil well for 30 minutes [I think simmer is what it meant].
7. Pour instant coffee [a teaspoon or so of instant powder].
Instant coffee makes more rich taste.
["Secret ingredients" which are supposedly added to curry, let me know if you try any (*):
- Consomme
- Ginger
- Chocolate
- Instant coffee
- Tomato ketchup
- Apple, mango, and other fruits
- Honey
- Mayonnaise
- Worcestershire sauce
- Soy sauce
- Milk
- Garlic
- Laurel leaf
- Yogurt
- Wine]
* of course, a number of these items are, in fact, in the recipe already
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