Japanese Beef Curry

Dear Readers,

I love Japanese Beef Curry but I have never cooked it myself.  It's apparently a staple in Japanese cuisine and it's like the comfort food by excellence loved by kids and adults alike.

So popular that Re-ment has created many incarnations of this fabulous dish!  Here below is only a few of them!  (yes, there are even more curry miniatures! O_O)

Re-ment Curry Pot from the "Is Dinner Ready?" Collection

Re-ment Curry Plate from the Strawberry and Bean Collection

Re-ment Curry Pot from the Hello Kitty Kitchenware Collection

Re-ment Curry Plate from the Hello Kitty My Meals Collection

Re-ment Curry and Rice from the Doraemon Collection

Re-ment Hawaiian Curry Meal from the Airplane Meals Collection

Aren't those awesome miniatures?  I especially like the Hello Kitty Curry Pot and Plate!  What's your favorite?

All these photos were making me crave for a sweet Japanese curry plate with steamy hot white rice... so I decided to cook some!  It was a lot easier than I thought.  I used the recipe from this website: Japanese Cooking 101.

The recipe says to let it simmer for 45 minutes but I think 1 hour would make the meat more tender.  I also used a pre-packaged curry paste from S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix which I found in a Korean grocery store (although I bet you can find it in the International Food section of any grocery store as well).  

It comes in four different level of "hotness" : 

1. Mild
2. Medium Hot
3. Hot
4. Extra Hot

I don't mind eating spicy food but I wanted the kids to try it out so Mild was the safest option.

Well it was a success!  All the children loved it, even my super picky boy!   

I will probably try to be more adventurous next time and make my own curry roux from scratch instead of using the pre-packaged one.  I will also try to substitute the beef with chicken or tofu to make a change :)

Do you like curry?