Japanese Golden Curry With Braised Jackfruit and Chickpeas

This mild and sweet curry gets a nutritious texture boost from the addition of chickpeas.

Japanese Golden Curry With Braised Jackfruit and Chickpeas

Makes 4 servings

I fell hard for Japanese curry a couple years back during my wife and I's first trip to a hip, busy little restaurant called M Kokko in downtown Durham, NC. The restaurant boasts few tables and long waiting lists and omits a casual feel that is reflected in the menu. A couple different kinds of ramen, udon, steamed buns and Korean fried chicken are chalked up on the wall. Make no mistake—this casual but busy joint is operated by the same owners of M Sushi, a well-established and high-end Sushi restaurant just around the corner from M Kokko. I’ve never eaten at M Sushi; but judging from the quality of the food coming from their spill-over kitchen, I have to imagine it to be pretty damn good. 

When I enjoy something delicious out of someone else’s kitchen, my mind starts pouring over how I can make that for myself at home. M Kokko serves a delicious curry ramen. I don’t know too much regarding the culinary origins of Japanese curry, except that it’s almost surely a cultural import from India, or perhaps even Persia, by way of China. The flavor profile is decidedly not Indian; it’s sweeter, less spicy, and overall a more mild affair. The ramen was topped with deep fried onion tempura. I could taste the maple syrup wafting in the broth. It was delicious. 

It’s easy to buy pre-made sauce packets of Japanese curry at asian grocery stores; but I had bigger plans. Admittedly, I started with pre-made Massaman Thai curry paste mixed with coconut milk to achieve a quick, convenient imitation broth at the onset of my recipe tasting (interestingly, Massaman is the Thai word for Muslim; so perhaps the origins truly are Persian). I was less focused on making the broth from scratch, putting effort instead into stuffing delicious toppings, like onsen eggs and my own fried tempura onions, down my gullet.

Eventually I decided it would be wise to take a break and put the recipe down. Maybe it was the over-richness of the dish and the subsequent bloated feelings that made me sick of my Japanese curry ramen experiment. It was probably for the best.

Homemade curry concentrate.

Six months ago, the cravings returned. Emboldened with new culinary skills and a growing appreciation for cooking with raw fruits and veggies, I decide to take on the challenge of making the curry from scratch. I started blending sautéed carrots and onions in order to make a thick, hearty and delicious aromatic base, to which I added plenty of curry powder, coconut milk and some maple syrup, for that trademark sweetness. What I was left with was a sizable quantity of rich curry concentrate that I could dip from and dilute with broth or coconut milk when I needed to. I had better control over the final result; I could leave it rich and creamy for a curry with rice, or dilute it in a pot of stock for ramen broth with noodles and onsen egg.

I’ll continue to tweak this recipe, though in the meantime I’m happy that this version is much healthier and far more digestible than it’s previous incarnation. I will make a future post dedicated to curry ramen and all of its wonderful toppings. This post will teach you how to make the rich and creamy divine-with-rice version. Additionally, I threw in a recipe for roti flatbread from Monisha Bharadwaj that’s a cinch to make. Skip it if you must, but I strongly insist you initiate yourself into the holy trinity of curry, rice and roti. If you know, you know.

For the curry concentrate (makes approx. 1 quart):

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 hot chili pepper (e.g. jalapeño or serrano)
• 1-inch piece of ginger, scraped and chopped
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon finely ground coffee
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon curry powder
• 3 tablespoon maple syrup or agave
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoon sesame oil

For the jackfruit and chickpeas:

• 1 can of jackfruit, drained, rinsed and shredded
• 1 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 star anise
• 3-4 Szechuan peppercorns
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons liquid aminos or soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee
• 1 can of cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock

For the rotis:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra for dusting
• Up to 3/4 cup tepid water, as needed
• Ghee or vegetable oil, for brushing

Start the jackfruit: Drain the can and rinse off the brine. Using your hands, break up the jackfruit until it resembles shredded pork. Heat the coconut oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add your jackfruit to the pot, along with the peppercorns, star anise, liquid aminos or soy sauce, and ground spices, stirring to coat. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for the entire duration of your cooking, stirring occasionally every few minutes to avoid burning. Add another half teaspoon of coconut oil after 20 minutes if the jackfruit looks to be too dry.

Don't throw those vegetable scraps away! Make your own vegetable stock.

Start the rotis: Place the whole wheat flour in a bowl. Mix in the water, holding back 10% to add once you know whether it’s needed at all. Kneed on a lightly floured surface for 5-8 minutes. The more you kneed, the softer the rotis. Leave the dough to rest until ready to cook in a bowl under a clean, damp kitchen towel.

Make the curry concentrate: Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté one star anise in the oil for a minute until it swells, then add the onions and sauté them with a pinch of salt for 3 minutes. Add the carrot, garlic and ginger together with one tablespoon each of curry powder and salt, stirring occasionally to prevent burning, for 5 more minutes. Add 1/2 cup vegetable stock to the pan and cover with a lid and continue cooking for 10 more minutes, until the carrots are fairly soft. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool slightly before adding to the blender. Discard the star anise.

Add the sautéed vegetables along with seasonings, coconut milk and maple syrup or agave to the blender and blend until everything is well incorporated. Set 2 cups of concentrate aside and store the rest in an airtight container. It will stay fresh refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Alternately, store it in the freezer to have curry on demand forever. 

Braising jackfruit in delicious spices.

Make the curry: Add 2 cups of curry concentrate to the jackfruit and stir to incorporate. Stir in 1/2 cup vegetable stock. This will make a very rich and creamy curry. Should you prefer it thinner, simply add more stock to achieve your desired consistency. Bring your curry up to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium and add the chickpeas. Allow the curry to simmer while you make the rotis.

Curry slurry!

Finish the rotis: Heat a shallow skillet or a griddle over medium high heat. Give the pan time to heat up; the flatbreads must be cooked on a very hot surface. Divide the dough into 10 equal-sized pieces. Coat lightly with flour, shape into a ball in your palm and flatten slightly. Roll each ball out into flat disks, dusting with flour as necessary. Brush both sides of a roti with vegetable oil or ghee and place it on the hot pan until the surface appears bubbly. Flip over and press the edges down with a clean cloth or spatula to cook evenly. As soon as the roti is opaque and flecked with brown spots, it is done. Make sure that the roti is cooked evenly all over.

Serve the curry hot, spooned over a bed of your grain of choice, with roti on the side.