quarantine cooking:
katsu curry omurice
an upgraded at home comfort food
This lockdown has got me training to be a Japanese housewife.
Kidding. Kind of.
Japanese curry has always been a comfort food for me. Growing up, my mom would make giant pots of curry (wonder where I get my portion control issues from…). The whole house would smell like warm spices as it stewed. We’d have leftovers for days. I’d sometimes forgo the rice and just eat the loaded curry alone. Even though I’d eat it all the time at home, I’d still go to curry restaurants (mostly in Asia) and order it. So it’s really no surprise that I’ve turned to this go-to comfort food during COVID era. I’ve made curry at least 3 times in the past month.
To me, this is a no-recipe recipe. All of the components are intuitive: you start the rice, cook the curry, fry up the pork and then top it off with the egg. That being said, it’s rare that I go all out. Usually it’s just vegetarian or chicken curry with rice. Often, it’s just the curry sans-rice, kept in tupperware for the week, a meal just 2 minutes in the microwave away.
It’s usually easiest to use the roux cubes that you can pick up at a Japanese market, but I prefer to use curry powder. And actually a very specific curry powder, one that is not easy to find in the US, but just tastes so much better than other ones and I’m not sure why.
ingredients
Curry
- 1 small to medium sized sweet onion, diced
- 2 stalks of celery, diced
- 2 carrots, cut into 1 in pieces
- 1 potato, cut into large cubes
- garlic, minced or grated
- ginger, minced or grated
- curry powder (I use Indira, but any Japanese curry powder works)
- salt + pepper
- chili pepper or cayenne pepper
optional
- half an apple, grated
- 1 tbsp softened butter mixed with 1 tbsp flour
Katsu
- pork cutlet, salted
- egg*
- flour
- breadcrumbs (panko)**
Omurice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- cooked white, short grain rice (Koshihikari)
*I just beat 2 eggs for the omurice, and then used some for the katsu
**I couldn’t find panko at the corner store so I just used regular unseasoned breadcrumbs
**I couldn’t find panko at the corner store so I just used regular unseasoned breadcrumbs
steps
Curry
- Start with some vegetable oil in a large pot, add onions, garlic and ginger and cook until onions are translucent.
- Add carrots and celery, salt, pepper, curry powder and chili powder.
- Then add potatoes and water or stock to just cover the vegetables and bring to a boil.
- If you’re using the apple + butter and flour mixture, add that in and stir until it melts and slightly thickens the curry.
- Simmer until potatoes are tender.
Katsu
- Meanwhile, start on the pork cutlets. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
- Coat pork in flour, and then egg wash, and then cover in breadcrumbs.
- Pan fry or deep fry. Let rest before cutting.
Omurice
- Meanwhile, plate the rice and start on the eggs.
- Beat the eggs and add to a heated and oiled non-stick pan.
- Stir vigorously until it begins to set, then turn heat on low and gently fold it over the rice.
- Plate with curry and top with pork cutlet.
