House Foods Vermont Curry Mild 8.11 oz - Japanese Mild Curry Roux for Home Cooking, Easy Curry Recipes - Perfect for Weeknight Dinners & Family Meals

This is served in the Japanese Navy every Thursday. During the Meiji Imperial Era (1868–1912) Emperor Meiji was anxious to bring isolated Japan up to the Western World in technology and education. Japan became especially enamoured of the British and one thing they copied, oddly enough, was Indian Curry as done by the Brits. The British version was at that time basically a beef stew with potatoes and carrots and not very spicy. Japanese food is also not very spicy, although they have some pepper they like. Most Japanese "homey" food is kind of overcooked and bland, believe it or not. The Japanese take on Brit-Indian Curry was to make a seasoned roux base (starch plus fat and spices) and use pork or chicken in addition to beef, beef being very expensive.So if you make this, you need meat (chicken thigh, breast, beef, or pork, sliced thinly) onion, carrot, potato, water and these cubes. After sautéing onion, browning meat and adding carrot, potato and water, you cook merely fifteen minutes to soften the vegetables and then stir in these cubes. They quickly thicken into something looking like beef stew. You serve it over Japanese rice (short grain, sticky type rice) or sometimes on ramen noodles. Garnishes can include a shelled soft boiled egg (I don't do this) or pickles such as Japanese rakkyo (picked tiny onions) or beni-shoga (red pickled ginger.) You can use sushi ginger (gari) or I just put on a dab of good Major Grey's chutney.I've made it for company, people who almost never eat Japanese food and they loved it. Kids typically like this, especially the mild and the Vermont brand which is sweeter than most and has honey and apple as a flavoring (very subtle.)This dish is so fast to make, I have it frequently in winter. Put on the rice cooker, then halfway through the rice's 45 min cycle, I'm whipping up the curry for a very satisfying meal. Leftovers reheat pretty well in the microwave but I don't find they keep well more than a day or two; the sauce gets rather thick.