Food Escapades & Curry Fridays ! Bon Appetit's Katsu Curry
Hello hello people ! Hope you are all doing well today :) This week, I have prepared possibly the most complex dish I have in this whole curry thing I started at the beginning of the year ! (side note, it really has been 5 months I've been making a curry dish every friday huh? that's insane hahahah) A Katsu Curry completely by scratch ! The process started on Wednesday, where I had to make a broth with a few spices, beef stock and mushrooms ! It took me a while to find some shiitake mushrooms... they always come in huuuge portions and I only needed a little bit lol. Now I have a bunch of shiitake mushrooms lyin around and I dunno what to do with them ! I guess I'll see :P After making the broth I chilled it for 2 days until friday where I started the curry prep. Curry was quite a simple dish to make, but the fun part was making katsu to go with it. Definitely a combination of flavours that go real well together ! As for the curry, it's a weird tasting thing. It definitely tastes like curry, but almost tastes like it in a branded way, you know? It's like the taste of a generic "Curry" dish. From my understanding that was kind of the point, but still, find it rather odd.. not that it's any bad though ! You can't really go wrong with curry powder :P I found that curry with calrose rice is actually quite phenomenal... calrose has such a distinct texture that it's barely even replaceable with any type of rice. Delish ! Overall, I think everything melded in together quite well and made for a real good sensory experience. I do think I could've salted the curry a little more, but my parents said it was fine so I left it as is hahahah. Definitely recommend this one if you have the patience to make a broth a few days early !
Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/EwrKmqR
Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/katsu-curry
Question of the day: What do you think is the best accompanying dish (i.e. crunchy bread, naan, rice...) ever? What do you usually have alongside your dishes?
Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~
This dish is my jam! But I almost never have it with tonkatsu; it's just too much work for me.
That being said, this recipe is a little bit weird to me. I do what the Japanese do and start off with a pre-made curry roux like this, mix it with some of my own spices and usually add in chopped meat to stew. I'd also recommend chopping the vegetables smaller, something less than bite sized. They are also there to add their flavor to the stew. With that in mind, also consider adding celery.
Another alternative to the tonkatsu is to cook up some Japanese style "Hamburg steak", which is actually somewhat more akin to a tiny meatloaf. You can also bread and fry the meat to make it into menchi katsu, which doesn't really have any Western analogue.
Yeah I’m guessing this Recipe is more of a “fully homemade” idea, which isn’t too much in spirit with the original idea hahaha. I do agree the tonkatsu was a bit extra work, but I think it was worth it in the end :P Btw, I did put in celery ! Gave some nice flavour to it. I do agree the chunks could’ve been a little smaller, but I do like me some chunky curry.
Sort of offtopic, but what camera do you use @TinmanJones? Your food pics always look so good compared to any I try to take.
I have white rice with the majority of my meals since it works with almost everything, but it feels more of a staple/necessity than anything, so I don't know if I would call the "best"... Or maybe that's exactly why it should be considered the "best"? In any case, any bread or biscuit slathered in butter/ghee and copious amounts of garlic is probably my favorite side though, even if it isn't the "best" (especially for my breath). :P
Honestly I just use my pixel 3 XL camera hahahah, pixels always have been renowned for its amazing cameras, so that can explain it well. And yes! Anything with butter always makes for something super delicious next to a dish, especially saucy stuff. Whenever I make the kenji naan recipe I feel like I’m in heaven... so good !