Dry Curry Recipe

This is my Mother-in-law's version of Dry Curry and it is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. It is loaded, packed, bursting, exploding with veggies and flavor. I made a simple version tonight but you could add other things (like mushrooms, zucchini, squash, spinach, tomatoes, etc.)! Sometimes I add a couple cans of chopped tomatoes and that really makes it rich and yummy!

Prep time : 30 minutes

cooking time: 30 minutes

This freezes beautifully so make a BUNCH and freeze it for later. You'll thank yourself, I promise!

You will need...

~ 300 grams (1/2 pound) of ground meat (I used a blend of pork/beef)

~ 15 green bell peppers

one large carrot (Japanese carrots are big and thick, thin US carrots you might want to use 2 or 3)

two onions

garlic

2 ~ 3 bullion cubes (or consome)

1/4 ~ 1/3 cup worcestershire sauce

1~2 Tbsp curry powder

~1/4 cup raisins JUST covered with boiling water, set aside to soak

~ 1 Tbsp cooking oil

salt and pepper to taste

NOTE: "~" means about (do others use it that way or just me?), I don't use recipes very often so most of my cooking is about-ly measured (is that a word!?)

Pop some rice in the rice cooker!

Close the lid and push the button! Let it do the rest of the work for you!!! (love these things)

Whack the garlic good once or twice with the flat side of your knife blade like they all do on the cooking shows ;P and chop it up, throw that in the pan with about a Tbsp of oil (any kind will do)

Chop up your onions like this...

lop the top off and cut in half, then peel the skin

lay it down on it's side and make thin slices all the way across the leaving the root end in tact.

chop the onion horizontal to the slices you just made and you magically have finely chopped onion!

when I get about half way across, I plop the onion up on it's end and make a couple slices so my knife won't want to slide towards my finger as I get over the top of the dome of the onion.

like so...

then flop it back down where the root is touching the cutting board and chop chop chop, flip it back up and chop around the root till you get just that little root part left!

Wash the bell peppers in your awesome red collapsible strainer you brought all the way to Japan from the States and ADORE!

Finely chop those bell peppers like this...

most people lop off the end like this

but I don't, see all that wasted bell pepper around the stem! I slice it in half long ways

grab the spine of that inside white stuff and pull towards the top, pulling out the seeds and top with my finger while keeping as much of the non-stem portion of the top still intact.

Then thinly slice it long ways and like the onion chop horizontally.

stop for a moment to give a little boy a banana.

then continue chopping.

At this point I will shamelessly BEG you not to use a food processor or anything that will bruise and pulverize these yummy veggies, and take all the water out of it before it even gets in the pan. I'm old fashioned and this is the yummiest way to make it! ;P

this probably looks daunting with 15 peppers but I timed myself and even with a couple interruptions (see boy with banana) it took me 12 minutes.

get serenaded by man tuning his 12 string guitar and the next thing you know the awesome red strainer is empty and you have a bunch of chopped veggies!

grate the carrot like so...

Look at that wonderful orange yummy goodness!

Now get ready to stir fry it all

this is my handy dandy salt and pepper combo that I can't live without in Japan! You'll want to season the meat with this as you brown it.

Warm the oil and garlic that have been waiting in the pan, then turn up the flame and dump in the meat.

Once it is browned, switch to your big ol' huge honkin' wok because you realize little stir fry pan isn't gonna be big enough.

Put all the veggies in when meat is brown and stir fry on high heat for about 10 minutes until veggies are tender.

*one tip here, try not to lose much of the water that is going to come out of the veggies. So don't spread it out too much in the pan. If you lose too much water, add about a half cup of water before this next step.

recruit hubby to stir for you while you wash up all those dishes.

when veggies are tender add in the 2~3 bullion cubes and the 1/4 cup of soaked raisins WITH the water they were soaking in (and extra half cup water if too much from the veggies is gone at this point).

stir until cubes have dissolved then add 1/4~1/3 cup worscht-whatever sauce and 1~2 Tbsp curry powder, stir well and then lower flame and let simmer for about 5~10 minutes stirring occasionally.

at the very end turn up the flame and stir a lot until most of the liquid is gone. See the difference in the amount of liquid from the above pic and this one.

pop open rice cooker which is full of now perfectly done yummy rice!

and serve together!

make silly faces if you MUST! I MUST! Not that I have to to tempt little ones to eat it (see next step)

and watch your family devour it.

Even this little munchkin who will not eat a single veggie otherwise! This and spaghetti sauce are about the only way I can get veggies in him these days.

unlike this munchkin who will eat every veggie in sight and steal those from plates nearby if you aren't careful!

I love to watch the various ways my little family likes to eat this. Kai's is all mixed together

Daddy too

This is Mommy's plate half way to the end.

and THIS, this is the saddest shot of the day... my LAST bite.

I resist the urge to lick my plate! I will not mention here that Daddy usually DOESN'T!!! resist said urge, that is LOL (sorry no picture for that one)