Writer, Agilist, Elder Geek
Been cooking my last curry variant for awhile, and it’s good enough to consider another Milestone. So here’s the summary of my experiments – I wanted to remake it a few times, and after remaking it so often without tweaking it it was like “yeah, that’s pretty good!”
So here’s the full recipe!
OK a quick update on my quest for the best Japanese Curry.
I’ve been playing with Milestone Curry #4 for awhile, trying to find how to get the balance of tastes – mostly as the addition of red wine made it complex but a bit too sweet.
I think I got it to a near-milestone again – by cutting the wine to 1/3 a cup and giving up on using the Broth substitute. The Broth substitute is nice, but I tried home-made vegetable broth and it seems to add a little extra something. I’ll probably use regular vegetable broth (made at home) for the rest of my experiments.
(It’s not like it’s hard to make)
So I’m going to try a few of the stored servings to really get to know the subtleties of the new taste. I think I’m close to a new plateau, but it’s more subtler than the last one – all the tastes in balance. From here I think it’s a matter of improving a mix of richness but keeping balance.
The red wine was actually very revealing. I’m starting to realize the power of fermented foods and taste. Several of them – soy sauce, wine, and vinegar – are big parts of my cooking. In combination they’re quite powerful (my experimental vegetarian Cincinnati Chili, which isn’t ready for prime time, uses all three). Consider other similar foods such as beer or cheese, and the richness they bring.
Well, I’ve got two more servings of this curry to eat, then I’ll think about the next stage . . .
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.
Well I’ve made version #15 of the curry. In this case I decreased the spread by 25% from my last version, Milestone #4.
The result . . . wow that was less interesting.
I figured the sweetness of the spread was contributing to the sweetness of the curry, and that cutting it would be worth it. Well apparently I needed that in the curry roux, probably due to the flavor, fat, and ability to help fry the other ingredients. Removing it made the curry notably duller – and when I add some in and reheat it, the taste normalizes.
So frankly I’m a bit puzzled/stumped. It seems that these two ingredients were far more vital than I thought, which may mean I didn’t fully understand the complexity of what I was making – and may have more to learn. It also means that the red wine may have to be my next target for reduction, and I really want to get it right because it’s addition really took things far.
My only other thought is I used a quickie broth this recipe this time, so maybe I’ll remake the last milestone again, using this broth, to just check to be sure.
Still, closer each time – and this may be a good warning that the roux of a curry is a lot more complex than we may think. Now I’m starting to understand the tales of secret ingredients, of curry cooked and recooked to unlock flavors, and so on. This is an amazing art and the further I go, the more respect I gain.
You can really understand how this has spread across Japan into so many versions. It’s like chili in America in all its amazing variants.
Maybe I’ll never find my perfect curry. I think by now I don’t care. I’m loving the ride.
Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.