Classic Dish of Japanese Curry Rice Topped with Breaded Pork Tenderloin
Japanese katsucurry (pronounced ka-rreh) is a popular dish that is often served in Japanese restaurants as well as in the family home. The dish consists of either tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork tenderloin cutlet) or chicken katsu and is served over rice with Japanese style curry poured all over it. It is often served with a side of tsukemono (Japanese pickles), of which fukujinzuke (a red colored radish, eggplant and shiso pickles mixture) or rakkyo (pickled Chinese onions) are popular. Katsu curry is uniquely Japanese and one of my favorite dishes.
There are four components to katsu curry.
- Rice (brown or white)
- Curry (vegetable, chicken, beef or pork)
- Tonkatsu or chicken katsu (chicken or pork cutlet)
- Tsukemono (pickles)
Japanese curry can easily made at home using a pre-made roux that is sold in Japanese grocery stores. This is often how families in Japan and in the West make Japanese curry at home rather than making a curry roux from scratch. It should be noted that Japanese curry differs from Thai curry and Indian curry in that the consistency is thicker and the flavors and level of spiciness are much more mild.
You’ll find there are several different brands of Japanese packaged curry roux, but I recommend trying a few of them to see which best suits your tastes. My favorite is a Japanese brand, “Vermont Curry” by House Foods, followed by “Java Curry”, which is made by the same company. The roux typically comes in three levels of spiciness: mild, medium-hot, and hot, although Java Curry offers "hot-hot" which might be out of my league. My family prefers medium-hot, although my mom often used mild when I was a child.
Recipe Tips:
- For added nutrition and fiber, consider mixing quinoa and brown rice for this katsu curry dish. I do this for my family occasionally, and when the quinoa is mixed with the rice, they’re more apt to eat it. Also, it's easy to incorporate as the quinoa can be steamed with the brown rice in the rice cooker.
- As a shortcut, consider making katsu curry using leftover tonkatsu from a previous meal. If not, a recipe is available here for homemade tonkatsu. A great shortcut is buying pre-made tonkatsu in the deli section of the Japanese grocery store.
