Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do People Make Curry Rice When Camping?
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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Japanese Curry bricks are available in most all the major supermarkets here in the Orlando metro area. Spiciness ranges from Mild to "Call 911!". It is just about bullet-proof as far as prep work is concerned. If you can make stew or chili you can make curry. ( Hey even a kitchen klutz like me has made it, no problems. ) It is very much a comfort food.
Mark Gosdin |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Huh, I actually thought they were using the boil-in-a-bag type of curry, but perhaps that's because of my American perceptions of camping, which is oriented towards food that can be prepared simply through finding nearby water.
Japanese curry is definitely that sort of thing that seems to transcend ages: Little kids will eat the stuff, as will the elderly. It's like their counterpart to pizza (except you don't really see pizza eaten on camping trips). While it's my personal opinion, if you're getting Japanese curry as groceries, I recommend the brand simply called House. This is the same company that runs the Curry House chain and is a notch above every other competitor's curry I've tried.
I'd like to know which ones are the "Call 911!" ones, because I've bought the spiciest Japanese curry from at least four different companies and I cannot perceive the spiciness at all in any of them. It's the exact opposite of Indian curry in capsaicin, where even the mildest curry I've had still has a pretty good kick to it. Then again, I am the sort of person who buys the extra-spicy version of Flamin' Hot Cheetos (the ones in the black bags) because the ordinary Flamin' Hot Cheetos don't cut it for me anymore. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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It will always be a matter of controversy whether curry counts as a stew or not. Certainly, its Japanese variant has the necessary stew-like feature of being simmered for a lengthy period of time, and indeed this is the norm across the Indian subcontinent. The complicating matter is that there are certain curry recipes in which a relatively expedited cooking time is permissible, and in such cases we grow hesitant to call the resulting dish a stew rather than merely some form of protein cooked in a spiced gravy. For this reason I prefer to conceive of curry, considered as a whole, by using the latter criteria, erring against any mention of stews.
Something I find interesting about Japanese curry is the resemblance it still bears to its ancestral British dish. Save for the heartier degree of spice and the occasional hint of soy, there is some similarity between low-end Japanese curry mixtures and the (presumably) curried condiment commonplace in fish-and-chip shops. The earthiness of cumin and coriander are there, but the more zestful ingredients typical of southern Asia are often harder to detect. I hasten to add that despite their merits, neither dish quite deserves to rank alongside the karahis and bhunas of this world. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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And think the "kidney shape" is old-school army surplus, or at least utilitarian for camping? It's similar to a lot of Boy Scout equipment for bringing "mess kits" along on a backpack hike, before the upscale backpacking-companies started making more elaborate sets. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2402 |
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Same. When I make curry, I have to make sure to add heat to it. "Very hot" is apparently far more subjective than you might think. To be fair, it is a lot more spicy than you'd get by default at most Japanese places, but I would have thought 'very hot' would be close to a 4 or a 5 at least at Coco Ichi... definitely is not even close. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I am not familiar with Coco Ichi, but I will say that at one time, I was growing an habanero pepper plant, and one minor reason was so I can increase the spiciness of the curry to match my tastes. I kind of stopped doing it since, though, since it turns out I was making it spicier than some other people were comfortable with. That, and my aunt killed the plant (but that's a story for another day). I began with one pepper per cake (curry cakes are sold in two separate containers), but reducing it to half a pepper per cake seems to work. Not as spicy as I would've liked it though. (These were standard habanero peppers, for the record, so they were about 100,000 Scoville units. They weren't the extra-spicy kinds like the Scotch Bonnets, and certainly not Naga Jolokias or Carolina Reapers or anything like that. I'm not THAT crazy!) |
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Wokka
Posts: 2 |
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Can anyone tell me how much water to use with a bar/block of curry? I've used the blocks in the past but never had any idea how much I should use, and since I've never had it made by someone else, I've no idea what it should look/taste like. My results have either been too thick or too runny, I've never gotten a good result.
thanks W- |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Yeah, I wonder if the original poster has ever done any camp cookery - especially at the kind of camp often seen in anime... Which typically seems to have some kind of field kitchen with worktables, a proper fire pit, and washing-up facilities. Even without that, with a little experience, making something as bone simple as curry rice is pretty easy.
Yes, they're army surplus, or at least started out that way. Though (IIRC) the JSDF uses round ones now, the kidney shaped ones (from WWII) have become traditional for civilian camping AIUI. (In America you can buy them from Amazon.) I bet Japan's camping culture, like that of the US and UK, got started with/got a big boost from army surplus kit back in the 50's.
There should be instructions on the package... But my impression it's more a matter of personal taste than anything else. I alway make mine a little on the thin side of heavy cream, the better to scoop it up with a spoonful of rice. And make sure it simmers long enough. (Emphasis on simmers.) If it's too thin, add another block. (Or use some other thickener, such as potato starch.) Too thick, add a little water. And watch the 'best by' dates on the package, though they last quite a while past that, their thickening power seems to drop sharply as that date approaches and especially once it's past. We eat curry rice one a week or so in the winter. Mine uses chicken thigh meat or pork butt (since they're pretty bullet proof and impossible to overcook), carrots, cauliflower, and mushrooms. (Potatoes, too much starch with the rice, and I don't eat onions.) Sometimes we make mild, sometimes "thermonuclear explosion" depending on we feel that week. The best part is the leftovers... it gets better with time. I'll make a huge batch and it'll be dinner and lunch for a couple of days. When I need to bump up the heat on mine I either use a little S&B Curry Powder (which comes from Japan), or Penzey's hot curry powder. Both of these add complexity as well as heat. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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It varies from product to product, but the back of the packaging should have directions (albeit they're likely to be in Japanese only). Generally, if you're using a half-package, it'll be about 2 liters, but again, it varies. A lot of the water will boil away as it cooks, so the thickness will increase. Thus, in addition to DerekL1963's suggestions, if you do not want to add anything more to the curry, let some of the water boil away. It won't affect the flavor short of burning it. Typically, Japanese curry should be thick, but not as thick as gravy. When poured over rice, it should not hold a shape but also should not completely run down between the grains of rice. Last edited by leafy sea dragon on Wed Jul 19, 2017 5:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13227 |
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How spicy is Japanese curry? I've always kinda wanted to try curry but I can't handle spicy foods.
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I might not have an accurate estimate, since, as I mentioned, I am a heat-seeker and have memorized the Scoville scale, but they are incredibly mild, like most Japanese foods. If Flamin' Hot Cheetos is a 5, the curry labeled as "hot" would be something of a 2.5 to 3, and the curry labeled "mild" would be about 0.5 to 0.75. Japanese cuisine is rarely ever above "incredibly gentle" in terms of spiciness*, and it seems most of the population has not built up that high of a tolerance. (I remember seeing mabo tofu played up as incredibly spicy in Assassination Classroom and Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, and when I tried it myself, I could barely even feel it.) The spiciness is there, but it's incredibly diluted. Don't worry; it's not like Indian phaal. * I refer to capsaicin-based spiciness. Isothiocyanate-based spiciness, like the kind from wasabi, is plentiful, but it's a different kind of spiciness--Japanese curry runs strictly on capsaicin. Last edited by leafy sea dragon on Wed Jul 19, 2017 5:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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#861208
Posts: 423 |
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There are a few GoGo Curry locations in New York. I think the New York ones are the only ones outside of Japan, though.
and GoGo > CoCo. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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2 liters for half a package? I just checked the packages in my pantry (S&B) and it's 6 cups (1.4 liters) for a whole package - which is right in line with the other brands I've used.
Only if you boil it (you shouldn't, it should be a medium low simmer) uncovered (which again you shouldn't). Again, both of these are per the package directions and don't really vary between any of the brands I've seen.
If you get the mild, it's dang near not hot at all (no worse than a standard US canned chili). |
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Vaisaga
Posts: 13227 |
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Yeah, I have lots of spice lovers in my family and when they're all "Try this, it's not spicy at all!" and when I do I find it to be quite spicy. Maybe I'll just wait until I'm in a situation where a friend orders curry and I'll ask to try a bite. I've had Ethiopian and Sri Lankan food before. Now that stuff had me full on rivers of tears and snot. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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You're right--my mistake. I was recalling from memory. I use a very large saucepan for, it, and I think I was confusing it with when I boil pasta in it. As for simmering it covered, that's exactly what I do, but it thickens up and the water evaporates with time anyway. Sometimes, I just leave it there for a couple of hours and the curry has shrunk by a few millimeters. But if it doesn't happen to other people, then perhaps it's a combination of my using old cookware (as I see steam escape from a few places) and our incredibly dry climate.
Ehtiopian and Sri Lankan food can be quite merciless in spiciness. While it's not a hard and fast rule, something I've noticed is that the warmer the climate, the more likely something will be very spicy. (Japan is one of the outliers, with very few really spicy dishes, compared to its colder neighbors of Korea, northern China, and Mongolia. The shishito pepper, Japan's national chili pepper, ranks at 50 to 200 Scoville units, though a few will reach 500 to 700. No one knows why. By comparison, the jalapeño is at about 1,000 to 5,000 Scoville units. But yeah, if you're eating authentic Japanese food and it uses chili peppers, it's a safe bet they're using the shishito. An exception is the shichimi spice mix, which, to my knowledge, is not used in curry.) |
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