Dan Bites

I took the easy way out for this past Meatless Monday adventure. I found a packet of Japanese Curry in my cabinet and decided to use it up. I don’t know if you can buy Japanese Curry packets at regular grocers, but it is available at almost any Asian market. It comes in a box with two packets and comes in different spice levels. I like the spicy, but it does come mild and medium.

At any rate, we usually eat this with either chicken, beef, or pork as the protein. Being Meatless Monday I used tofu instead. Not all that creative, but still delicious and healthy.

For this batch I chopped up a whole onion into about 1/3 of an inch chunks. I also cut up a green pepper, red pepper, carrot, and some potatoes (all about the same size as the onion chunks). I wanted them cut a little larger since they’d be stewing for a while. If they’re too small they can disintegrate.

In a hot stew pot I put in a little soy oil and then the onions and carrots. After they sweated a little I added the peppers so they could sweat too. Then I added the potatoes. After about 5 minutes or so I added 3 cups of water. That was a bit of a mistake on my part. The package said to add 3 cups, but my wife told me that in Japan a cup is much smaller. Not sure why that is, but it was a little too much water. To fix that I just boiled it down a little longer without covering to pot to let the water evaporate. If I had the proper amount I would have covered it. Next time I’ll only add 2 cups.

Once the veggies were cooked through I broke up the curry cube into 4 pieces and added them one at a time to mix them in completely. You’ll want to let it simmer for a little bit to let the curry sauce thicken, otherwise it’ll be too soupy.

All the while this was going on I had taken some silken tofu and pressed it to firm it up a little and rid it of some water. To do this I took a plate and lined it with a few paper towels. I put the tofu on top and then covered it with a few more paper towels and laid a cutting board on top. I put some weight on the cutting board and let it press the water out of the tofu in the fridge for about an hour.

Once the tofu was a little firmer I cut it into cubes and stirred it gently into the curry. I let the curry cook with the tofu for about 10-15 minutes over a lower heat to let some of the flavors absorb into the tofu.

I served it simply with white rice and drank it down with a cold beer. Just for my friend Tsutomu I did not add a hard boiled egg. Actually, I never do for this type of Japanese Curry.