Comforting Japanese Curry Recipes for Fall

Comforting Japanese Curry Recipes for Fall

What happens when a classic Anglo-Indian dish makes its way to Japan? Pretty much anything you want. These recipes for miso curry and curry rice with pork belly leave plenty of room for interpretation

 

By Charlotte Druckman in the Wall Street Journal

YESTERDAY'S FUSION frenzy has given way to today's mash-up madness: Doughnuts and croissants are having babies; burgers are donning ramen "buns." Amid all this high-concept hybridization, it's easy to forget that food has always been a medium for cultural cross-pollination.

One of my favorite examples is Japanese curry, not just because I find it incredibly comforting, but also because it is far enough from the "real thing" to have become its own dish—and one that allows for lots of improvising.

Curry came to Japan from India via the British Empire—which means it had already undergone significant alteration before arriving. During the Raj and after, an influx of Brits in India, and vice-versa, set off curry mania in Britain. "Over time," Colleen Taylor Sen explains in "Curry: A Global History," dishes categorized as curry and defined by their region or city of origin "became less authentic and more Pan-Indian" as well as "thoroughly integrated into middle-class British cuisine."

A standard recipe for British home cooks was published in Isabella Beeton's 1861 cookery manual, "Household Management." Compared with curry as it was known in India, this recipe reduced cooking time significantly, relied on apple to lend some tart sweetness and had flour do the thickening (instead of ground nuts, puréed vegetables or coconut milk). It also advised readers to use store-bought curry powder rather than make their own.

The British brought that commercial product, along with their Anglicized take on curry, to Japan when that country reopened its ports to outsiders after more than 200 years, at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912). Today, Japanese karé resembles Mrs. Beeton's curry more than it does one you'd find in any region of India.

"Japanese Soul Cooking" by chef Tadashi Ono and food writer Harris Salat devotes an entire chapter to the dish. From that book, I learned that when curry initially arrived in Japan, it was identified as a European, not an Indian, thing. The Japanese thickened it further and brought in native ingredients.

Frequently made with beef, Japanese curry also comes in pork, lamb, fish and straight-up vegetable versions. Regional examples showcase local produce; recipes invented by naval chefs have even been known to include Cheddar cheese or coffee. Mr. Ono developed a miso curry for his cookbook. It has the red wine and beef of a French stew combined with Japanese items like burdock root, daikon and two types of miso paste, which give it a marvelous, savory intensity and saltiness.

I'm also a fan of Nancy Singleton Hachisu's basic curry rice tossed with sautéed pork belly. A Chez Panisse acolyte residing in Japan, Ms. Hachisu uses fresh ingredients from her farm and makes everything from scratch, including the stock that gives body to her vegetarian base. I replaced her potatoes with a combination of sweet potatoes and parsnips, and added an extra half-onion. You, too, should feel free to go your own way. What makes Japanese curry "authentic" isn't how strictly it adheres to an original; it's how original your interpretation is.

Corrections & Amplifications

Nancy Singleton Hachisu is not an alumna of the restaurant Chez Panisse as reported in an earlier version of this story.