Japanese Beef Curry

January 20, 2023

There's much more to Japanese cuisine than miso soup and sushi, as this easy-to-prepare recipe proves. On the right side of sweet and with just enough spice to tickle your tastebuds, it's a classy crowd-pleaser.

What is a Japanese Beef Curry?

Japanese beef curry has significantly less heat and is sweeter than its more well-known counterparts. While Indian and Thai curries tend to give certain ingredients the leading role, a Japanese Beef Curry gives each one an equal amount of screen time. The result is a dish layered with flavours, ready to be uncovered with each mouthful.

For many, the idea of getting together all the relevant herbs and spices can be challenging. However, follow this recipe and the top tips from our chef, and you'll be serving up something delicate and fragrant in under an hour.

Key ingredients

Unless you work in a professional kitchen and have access to fresh Japanese ingredients, striking a balance between sweet, salty, sour, and spicy can be a time-consuming task. For the home cook, our chefs recommend Golden Curry Japanese Curry Mix. With all the weights and measures already taken care of, it's simply a case of adding the dry cube to your stock and letting it work its magic.

Because this is a Japanese dish, the only way to make this an unforgettable experience is to use Japanese Wagyu Beef. Undoubtedly the “Rolls Royce” of steak, Wagyu beef offers exceptional marbling, and, as we all know, fat is flavour. It's flavourful enough to hold its own against the aromatics offered up by the curry mix. In addition, its melt-in-the-mouth texture ensures that you'll serve up something that everyone will remember.

While a Japanese Beef Curry may have a slightly sweeter profile than curries from other countries, this dish is underpinned by an umami foundation. To ensure you enjoy all the depth of flavour this dish can deliver, our pan-rattling Einsteins recommend using Dried Shiitake Mushrooms. On top of providing that umami base, these are easy to use and only need rehydrating.

Fun fact about shiitake mushrooms… As an excellent source of vitamin B1, the Japanese Navy embraced Japanese curry to prevent beriberi, which presents itself as the result of deficiencies in this vital vitamin.

Top tips from our chef

Due to its delicate nature, Wagyu beef needs to be treated with respect. Although it’s entirely possible to sear it straight from the fridge, you won't get the full benefits of this exceptional steak. When using Wagyu, our chefs like to season it well in advance with salt and pepper and let it come up to room temperature. You can achieve a superb sear on medium heat with just two minutes on each surface. Once it's golden brown, perhaps with a little darker caramelisation, you know you're ready to continue with the recipe.

If you decide to make your own beef broth, consider yourself saluted by our culinary team. However, given that this process can take hours, if not days, our chefs are happy to recommend Beef Stock Powder. Stock powder is far more suited to a Japanese Beef Curry than the liquid extracted from boiled bones. Part of the reason is that a homemade broth will, if made correctly, be quite gelatinous. Using a powdered alternative gives you far more control over the consistency of the sauce, which is one of the stars of the show.

Whether you're cooking up this spectacular dish or want to challenge yourself with a recipe from another country, check out our list of the best in international cuisine: https://chefmeathome.com/blogs/recipes

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