Easy Curry Beef Rice Bowls Recipe - The Woks of Life (2024)

FAQs

What kind of beef should I use for beef curry? ›

These include chuck, skirt, leg and flank. It's also sometimes labelled as Stewing Steak. Any of these cuts that need to be cooked slowly are fine for this recipe. Any curry paste you like to your taste will work here.

Recommended beef cuts for Japanese curry: Beef chuck or shoulder: These cuts are commonly used in Japanese curry due to their balance of tenderness and robust flavor. They break down beautifully during cooking, infusing the curry with their rich taste.

Chuck Steak

Chuck is juicy, flavourful, and versatile with the fatty juices providing a rich, delicious curry. Plus, the chuck steak is easy to cut into small pieces, so it cooks quickly and evenly.

First off, cooking meat causes it to lose moisture and the tissues shrink, making it tougher. Braising (cooking meat in a liquid) allows the meat to reabsorb moisture and breaks down the tough tissues. This lead to a more tender piece of meat.

Waxy potatoes like Yukon gold, white potatoes and russet potatoes are best for curry. However any other kind of potatoes are okay if you cook them just until fork tender so they retain their shape. Avoid using new potatoes.

Beef, pork, and chicken are the most popular meat choices. Katsu curry is a breaded deep-fried cutlet (tonkatsu; usually pork or chicken) with Japanese curry sauce. Curry originates in Indian cuisine and was brought to Japan from India by the British.

The sauce is thickened by a roux (a mixture of fat and flour and an addition of curry spices). You can find many variations of Japanese curries, ranging from regions to households, but the most basic one uses chicken, which is the recipe I'm sharing here.

For one, Japanese curry uses curry powder with less spices whereas Indian curry uses a variety of bases such as cumin, paprika, turmeric, and many more. Indian curry is more vibrant and bursting with flavor, while Japanese curry is sumptuous and “umami” but in a more understated manner.

Why is Japanese curry so good? ›

The stand-out feature of a Japanese curry is its thick, rich sauce. The thickness of the sauce which can only be found in Japanese curry is supported and beloved by many. The rich and indulgent sauce mixes with rice so perfectly, you will find it difficult stoping eating.

Instead, it's a classic pan-searing technique called butter-basting that, for my money, often gives me the kinds of steaks, chops, and fish I crave.

You also want to go with a cut that has a good amount of fat that will render down, enhancing the flavour of the sauce. If your cut is too lean it could easily become dry and overcooked. We recommend choosing a chuck steak.

You want brown. These are truths that apply to all Indian curries. If you like cooking Indian, consider adding these techniques to your cooking.

Beef is sought after and popular in Japanese curry along with onions, carrots and potatoes. That's classic comfort food for most of them. However, pretty much any protein is great in a curry. Try it with chicken or pork.

These cuts—ribeye, New York strip loin, and filet mignon—can certainly be dubbed the best, and few will disagree. “Filet is the most tender cut, but has the least amount of flavor. Ribeye is the most flavorful, but the least tender of the three, and New York is in the middle.” Flannery explains.

Next time you're shopping for stew beef, look at your options and see what cuts of meat will work best for your recipe. For example, chuck is a lean and tender cut of beef that works well in stew. However, if you would prefer a thicker and more flavorful stew, short ribs or oxtail may be better choices for you.