Potato, carrot and tofu Japanese curry. Super basic but it's got legs. Made about a week's worth of dinners with this batch.
love a massaman curry, sweet potato/chickpea/onion/whatever meat if there's some on hand
galangal is something magical I swear
I've been vegetarian since forever by this point but I still have fond memories of eating beef massaman curry which has been slow cooked all day on a cold evening.
A good massaman is like a warm hug emanating from your stomach to your fingertips. Absolute banger of a curry.
Matar tofu for the week:
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Made from scratch. Happy to type out the basic recipe if anyone is interested.
Required equipment: blender or food processor
In a large pot, dry fry the following whole spices on low heat:
- 1 tsp cumin seed
- 4 green cardamom pods
In a blender or food processor, blend the following ingredients until they form a smooth paste:
- 700g tomatoes
- 200g onion
- 1 large green chili, deseeded
- 4 tbsp fresh cilantro leaf, or 1 ice cube if blanched and frozen
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, or 1 tbsp each fresh ginger and garlic
- 2 whole cloves (can use powder or pre-crush if your blender isn't powerful)
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp coriander seed
Once blended, add to pot and simmer until the raw onion smell dissipates. Add the following spices:
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder (or about half as much if using the untyped chili powder from white people stores, which is stronger.)
Then prep ~500g of firm tofu and add to the mixture. Simmer again until the tofu is soft.
To finish, add 2 cups of frozen peas, and the following optional finishing ingredients:
- 2 tbsp soy cream (very optional, makes for a richer sauce)
- 1 tbsp kasuri methi leaf
Serve over rice, with naan, or with roasted potatoes.
Is that chana masala? I'm new to curries but have been making chana masala a lot lately (it's so good).
- Caramelize onions, garlic, and ginger (either diced or blended into a paste)
- Add whole spices (Indian tempering spice blends, curry and bay leaves) and sugar
- Fry the pastes (a Thai curry paste, tomato paste, maybe miso)
- Add powdered spices (eg. garam masala)
- Stir fry some vegan protein (usually tofu or beans)
- Stir fry veggies (whatever is leftover for the week or frozen blends)
- Add soy sauce, Thai soy sauce (for the RNA), nutritional yeast, mushroom seasoning and MSG
- Add liquid (water, broth, vegan milk or yogurt) and optional starch to thicken
- Add optional flavored oil like toasted sesame oil
Serve with rice or flatbread after it looks and smells done
Add soy sauce, Thai soy sauce (for the RNA)
RNA like... DNA? I haven't used Thai soy sauce before, it sounds like a lighter kecap manis, could that be a substitute?
Yes RNA! Well, at least the one I am talking about is Golden Mountain brand and the ingredients says
Flavor enhancer (Disodium 5' - ribonucleotides)
It's basically the remnants of broken down proteins which gives it the umami taste. I would say kecap manis might work as a sub, or maybe make a caramel simple syrup and mix it around 1:1 with a light soy sauce or tamari.
Sounds cool! I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm shopping
I usually have my Japanese curry with a vegan fried chicken patty.
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I'll try plain tofu next
It can be really simple. They sell blocks of the curry roux with instructions on the back. Or you can make it homemade (and better) of course. There are also retort packs of pre-made curry that you just microwave, but I don't really like it.
It looks like this.
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Blocks, not paste. When you put it in, you may want to dissolve it into a thick sauce in a separate container. That way you won't get small bits of pure roux in your curry. Recently I got a miso strainer (just look it up) and that lets me dissolve it safely in the pot.
And yeah you'll want onions, potatoes, and carrots. There are a lot of options though. The Just One Cookbook website has a bunch of pages on Japanese curry, and it's where I get a lot of Japanese recipes. Hope you like it!
I just ate some it is the bomb. It’s so mild and the onions make it really sweet. Pretty easy as well as far as preparations go… bonus, my kid likes it!
Wonderful!!! The different brands have different flavor profiles. When making a bigger batch, you can even mix them together.
I like massaman curry with coconut milk. I use potatoes and onions, maybe a choice of meat on rare occasions, served on jasmine rice. All said and done, it's a special treat these days as the sheer heartburn is insane and may have helped in killing my gallbladder.
Sorry to hear. It's definitely a rich curry with all the coconut cream/milk. Can't imagine having it too often because so little goes so far.
I broadly follow the steps on the back of the curry block packet and just vibe with the quantities of veggies to add depending on how big the pot I'm cooking is (also, it needs garlic, I add four cloves roughly minced):
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Variations are that I use about 800g of soft tofu, cut into cubes or triangles instead of meat, and it still makes the ~12 serves. I also cook the onions first (20 mins in drizzle of oil over medium heat) to soften and sweeten them. I'll cook longer if I really want the caramelisation to come through. I also vibe on water, basically add until the ingredients are almost covered and scoop off the oily dregs that come to the surface as it boils.
The one tip I've learnt is that if your curry is too thin after the curry bricks have completely dissolved and been mixed through, you can mix some potato/corn starch into a glass of water and pour small amounts at a time into the batch while stirring, then waiting to see how it thickens up til it gets to the desired consistency.
I've been thinking of reconstructing the curry base and making my own roux, the ingredients are here:
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I'm not a huge fan of the palm oil, which I understand is partially used to hold the dry ingredients for shelf stability as much as flavour. I'd use another room-temp solid oil on hand like coconut instead.
Thanks for the recipe! What kind of tofu are you using? Silken, firm, or something different entirely?
A firm or regular tofu, whichever I happen to grab at the shops, either the kind that comes in a tub or plastic with a bit of liquid. Silken would break apart easily, but could work if you added it at the very last moment and stirred gently, so I wouldn't rule out trying it in the future. Fried doesn't have the same melt in your mouth texture that pairs with the potato.
Do you do a press beforehand? I've been meaning to try the Japanese curry cubes they sell at the store and this may have inspired me.
Would you serve this over rice or is it good as its own dish?
Also this reminds me I need to buy some more curry powder.
Do you do a press beforehand?
As in press the tofu to get rid of excess moisture? No. Not for a stew/curry.
You definitely need to press when you're frying tofu on the other hand, paper towel or tea towel between two plates or a cutting board, because water explodes in hot oil and it can be very splattery and dangerous.
I've tried pairing it with solo/naan/bread/pasta/rice and hands down you need it with rice. The pre-mix curry is sweet so I don't really enjoy it on its own.
You can do a curry udon too, you'd make the curry slightly thinner I reckon and probably leave out the starchier veggies. I don't go for this because it requires more foresight than just grabbing the rice from the cupboard. It's an easy alternative though if you just pick up some udon (usually pre-cooked/pre-packaged, just requires warming up) when you buy the curry cubes.
Thanks for the reply. I've been meaning to try this style of curry for a while now and your post inspired me. I got all the stuff for it and will prob be making it today for lunch.
I hadn't considering not needing to press if you don't use oil. I was thinking just for texture. I did order a tofu press tho this weekend because CONSUME and because I can never get it pressed enough with plates and random kitchen stuff as weights.
How well does tofu do in a stew? I've never tried using it in one
It mostly holds its shape, but doesn't really absorb on the flavours of the stew itself, so you need to pair it with veggies that do.
There's things you can do like brining the tofu or shallow frying it first, that can add some sear and meatiness but I usually skip that.
I made this last week to use up some leftover mango: https://holycowvegan.net/vegan-jamaican-mango-stew/
Substituted tempeh for extra firm tofu, boiled potato for finely diced sweet potato, scotch bonnet for jalapenos, and skipped the mango pureeAnd this one's pretty good too: https://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/sweet-potato-lentil-stew-vegan/
Hell yeah! Mangos are slowly coming into season where I am, will have to set one aside.
