Japanese Curry

While Wid's parents are away, I usually can get in a bit of cooking done on my own without worrying about pleasing people or about food being sent away to the other families. Last night I made Japanese-style curry, which is one of my favorite dishes, but because most people here don't like Japanese curry (not hot enough for them), I haven't made this dish since I came to Bali. Instead of following the recipe from my favorite cookbook, I went with the set of instructions my mom gave me years ago when I first started to learn cooking. The funny thing is the "recipes" my mom gave me were more like guideline than actual recipes. Things were a bit crazy at first because I couldn't find the vegetables or the meat in the kitchen, and then I discovered that my vegetable peeler disappeared so I ended up peeling the vegetables with a knife. Another annoying thing I discovered was that one of the carrots became rather wooden (a tough, fiberous ring in the middle was present, which made cutting very difficult). At least later we found out that the carrots were very sweet and tasty.

After chopping all the ingredients, I was ready to cook. Instead of using oil, I used butter for this batch. Garlic, pork (tenderized with soy sauce and corn starch), and onions were cooked first, and then carrots and potatoes were added later. Instead of water only, I used mostly milk with a bit of hot water to cover all the vegetables and meat. Once the carrots and potatoes became soft, I added the curry cubes. Curry cubes are awesome and so convinient, but one of these days I'm planning to make Japanese curry from scratch.

Wid really liked the curry. I think it's one of my best batches so far, thanks to the tips from my mom.