A Japanese curry roux is a base that helps you prepare Japanese curries in ease.
It's like a maggie cube but for Japanese curries!
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📕 What is Japanese Curry Roux?
Japanese curry roux is a spiced curry base to make Japanese curry variations.
It is influenced and based on Indian curries and the French roux. Dishes influenced by the West in Japan are called yōshoku.
Ingredients such as garam masala, an Indian spice blend, and flour are the main ingredients in a Japanese curry roux.
To make a Japanese curry, such as curry rice (aka karē raisu), you will need this curry base.
Japanese usually buy cubes of ready-made instant brown curry roux to make a curry. Brands such as S&B sell them as "Golden Curry".
But you can't always get those and that's where this homemade version comes to play.
This Japanese curry roux recipe is from Momoko. She runs a Japanese restaurant in Goa and they use this same roux recipe to make their special curries.
🧅 Ingredients
- whole wheat flour
- oil - sun flower, vegetable, canola.
- brown sugar
- salt
- garam masala
- coriander seed ground
- cumin ground
- ketchup
- soy sauce
Japanese curry are spiced but not hot and they are balanced with sweet and salty flavors.
This recipe doesn't contain MSG (ajinomoto/Monosodium glutamate).
To make it Gluten-free, switch the regular whole wheat flour with a gluten-free advertised flour (check packaging).
🔪 How to make it?
Here is an overview on how to make this from scratch. The complete recipe with US and metric measurements is located further below in the recipe card.
Step 1
Combine, cook and reduce flour and oil.
Step 2
Season with salt, sugar, cumin, coriander and garam masala.
Continue to mix and cook.
Step 3
Add ketchup and soy sauce and combine.
Keep and cooking and stirring until the Japanese curry roux has turned into a dry consistency.
🍛Uses
Use your curry roux to make Japanese curry dishes from scratch:
Karé means curry in Japanese.
The curry paste has 3 main uses:
- karē raisu - Curry variation served with rice. I.e Chicken Katsu Curry
- karé pan - fried curry filled bread
- curry udon soup
Curry served with rice comes in many different variations in Japan. A curry can be enriched with meat, seafood, or vegetables. Each region has it's own version on top of this.
🍱 Storing
This curry roux results in a thick powder. It resembles crumbled maggie cubes in consistency.
We just store the homemade mix in a glass jar. That way you can spoon it out as you need.
You can also fill some ice cube trays and freeze them. Then take out the ice cold cubes and store in a vacuum bag in your freezer. This is great if you want small equal batches.
Stored in your fridge, the Japanese curry roux will last for about 2 months.
💭 FAQs
Yes and no. There are many regional Indian curry recipes, which makes it hard to compare Japanese curry with Indian curries. The Japanese curry resembles the Goan chicken curry because both use a lot of garam masala spice blend. Yet, the Japanese curry is not spicy hot, it's flavorful but also sweet and salty.
The roux is added to the water in the cooking pot and it's mixed in with a whisk. The curry gravy is then slowly reduced and thickened to the desired consistency.
Yes it's vegan and therefore vegetarian as well.
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📖 Recipe
Japanese Curry Roux Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Whole Wheat Flour
- ½ cup Oil sun flower or vegetable
- 2½ Tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 2½ Tablespoon Salt
- 5 Tablespoon Garam Masala
- 2 Tablespoon Coriander Seeds ground
- 1 Tablespoon Cumin ground
- 1 Tablespoon Ketchup
- 2 Tablespoon Soy Sauce
Instructions
- Over the lowest heat setting add the whole wheat flour and oil and combine to a paste.
- Heat up your pan over a low to medium heat setting. Start mixing and reducing. Keep on stirring all the time. This can take about 8-10 minutes.
- Use lowest heat setting or take from heat and mix in salt and sugar so that no lumps are formed.
- Use lowest heat setting or take from heat. Add the ground cumin, coriander and garam masala and combine.
- Use lowest heat setting or take from heat. Mix in ketchup and soy sauce.
- Keep over a medium heat setting and stir continously so that your roux starts to dry. Try to reduce lumps from forming by breaking them with your spatula. Do this for about 5-10 minutes or until you are satisfied with the result.
- Allow to cool and place roux in a jar or freeze in ice cube shapes or use diretly in your Japanese curry.
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