There is surprisingly a lot of delicious looking food in anime, which makes it so difficult to watch when you’re getting the late night munchies lol. Naruto is no exception. (Anyone else crave ramen??) While watching the Curry of Life arc, there was something about Rock Lee’s passion for the dish that struck home to me. You see, my husband and I are closet Indian food junkies. Until Naruto I hadn’t known there was a thing as Japanese curry, but after hearing that, my mind was blown. Now that I knew it existed, I absolutely had to try it. A few days later, I began making my own curry of life.
I could understand Lee’s passion for the dish without even trying it, so actually making it was so rewarding to me. I know it probably sounds silly, but it really is a life changing dish for us. Whenever we feel down, eating this curry makes us feel better, kind of like a chicken soup for the soul effect. It has a little bit of everything, so it really is nourishing and a complete meal all on its own, and we don’t find it much of a stretch to refer to it as the curry of life ourselves. Whenever I make it, I make a huuuge pot of it, because although it tastes great fresh, leftover curry tastes even better!
If you’ve never tasted curry before, don’t be afraid. Japanese style curry is more mild and you can always make it even milder by putting in less curry powder. It reminds me of the beef stew my mom would make me as a child, so I don’t think of it as curry, but as comfort food. But the seasonings make all the difference, so it’s definitely worth a try! Hopefully you’ll have a life changing experience too when you taste it!
The secret to good curry is time. There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but don’t be overwhelmed! It’s really just a lot of preparation and a little bit of actual cooking, most of the time it’s just simmering on the stove. I usually prepare ingredients for one step while doing another to speed things along while I wait, and by preparing everything fresh it really enhances the taste. But if you’re new to cooking you can use the substitutions I suggested to save time.
Recipe – Rock Lee’s Curry of Life:
– If the meat is really big, cut it all into bite size pieces. To get the flavor started, fry the meat in a large pot on medium high until browned on all sides. Transfer the meat to a bowl and set aside for later.
– Slice the onions really thin. Add the oil and onions to the pot and turn it to medium low heat.
– Cook for 45 minutes, until the onions have sweated out and look translucent. Grate the ginger and mince the garlic, then add to the pot and cook 5 minutes more.
– Grate the apple, then add the beef, beef stock, apple and tomato to the onions.
– In a small pan, roast garam masala on medium heat until it starts to change color. (roasting it like this helps awaken the flavor of the spice) Add to the pot, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
Peel and chop the potatoes and carrots. Add the potatoes, carrots, milk, honey, ketchup and soy sauce and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
– Dry roast the curry in a small pan like we did with the garam masala. Add the butter and wait until it stops foaming.
– Turn the heat down to medium low and add the flour, stirring constantly, until the mixture darkens and scrapes away clean from the bottom of the pan.
– Slowly mix in a ladleful of broth from the curry at a time to thicken the roux. It will lump up at first, but you will start to get a thick gravy. Add that gravy to the pot and stir until blended.
– Add the peas about 15 minutes before you’re going to eat, and you’re done!
To serve Japanese style, place rice on a wide plate and ladle curry over half of rice. Delicious, authentic Curry of Life, enjoy!
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