When I was in Japan for work back in March of this year, CoCo Ichibanya was highly recommended and raved about by my youngest sister J. So on my last night, I wandered lost along the neighborhood of Shibuya Crossing, trying to find CoCo Ichibanya’s Curry House, as mentioned in a previous post. When I finally found it (apparently having passed it at least twice- there are so many bright signs that I missed it), I finally got to enjoy a comforting Japanese curry  dinner of level 4 heat curry with chicken katsu and mushroom. While paying for my meal, I also bought two curry mix packages to take back to to the US, one pork and one vegetable, to take home.

My sister informed me there is now a branch of CoCo Ichibanya’s Curry House in LA (the first on the US Mainland), so it looks like when my family gets together this Christmas holiday, we will be able to visit. There’s no reason for me to horde my CoCo curry mix anymore. So, thanks to the internet, I decided to give it a try, including even trying to katsu up some tofu.

Ingredients (enough for 2 people):

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Diced onions
• Mixed diced vegetables of your choice
• Coco Ichiban’s Curry Mix (I happened to use Vegetable)
• Tofu (you can also use meat of course such as pork or chicken cutlet)
• Flour
• 1-2 egg (start with one and add another if you run low)
• Seasoned breadcrumbs and/or panko
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• Steamed Rice (I used my standby jasmine rice)

Directions:

1. Heat a sauce pan, pour in the olive oil, and saute the onions until caramelized. Add in the mixed vegetables and lightly saute for a few minutes.
   
2. Drop the heat to medium-low. Squeeze in the curry mix. Let thicken, stirring occasionally while preparing your katsu tofu/meat. The one from Coco is liquid and already included some veggies, but I’m glad I added more as mine were fresher and crunchier versus the mush in the bag… though maybe I went a little overboard in quantity of veggies.
   
   But, often times the Japanese curry mix you find is actually hard and in blocks, similar to chocolate. So if you have that kind break it into pieces so it will melt. As it melts, for this curry block kind because the flavor is more condensed, start adding water, starting with one
   cup, to taste. You will want to do this in steps as the flavors opens up and develop. When it is all melted, depending on how it tastes to you, you can add more water, or some brown sugar to sweeten it, or add more heat with cayenne, or even sprinkle in some cheese for richness. Let the curry simmer on low, and remember that the Japanese curry should become thick almost like gravy, not like soup.
3. Meanwhile, with the tofu, since I was not using meat there was no need to pound it into tenderness. If your tofu is not fresh and comes in a liquid, you will want to put it on paper towels and put something heavy (I use pans) to press it to squeeze the moisture out. Otherwise, if you are using meat, pound it out so it is about 1/2 inch in thickness.
4. In a shallow bowl, combine breadcrumbs with salt, pepper and other desired seasonings, and or panko. I only had a little bit of panko left, and so I mixed the panko and some seasoned breadcrumbs together to get enough for two people’s worth. Dredge the tofu or meat in flour, then the whisked egg, then in the mix of seasoned breadcrumbs/panko and until evenly coated. I like doing this dredging using chopsticks, but need the fork to help turn over the tofu in the egg bowl.
   
5. Cook your tofu or meat a skillet with 1/4 cup vegetable oil, shallow pan frying them about 5 minutes each side if you are using meat but shorter for tofu since you are just browning it no fully cooking it. To start you probably want to start with a smaller piece just to check the heat of the oil first. Drain your fried goodies on paper towels.
   
6. The prettiest presentation for serving the curry is by first plating the white rice on half a plate, putting the curry on the other half, and place your crunchy tofu/meat on top of the curry so it will stay crispy. Or, I went the practical way which is using a bowl and putting in the rice, curry, and then topping with the tofu.
   

This was ok – definitely not as good as actually going to CoCo house and having the real deal. I wish I had mushrooms in the pantry for this, but had used them up earlier making a mushroom creme sauce on pasta. And, somehow I haven’t been able to recreate the kind of taste of katsu that I experienced in Japan- the texture was right with this panko breadcrumb mix, but not the taste. It must be something with the panko they are using- even katsu in the US  I get doesn’t taste the same way, yet at least 3 places in Tokyo were blowing me away with their versions. Now that I’m out of panko, I am going to specifically get my next batch from an Asian grocery store.

Well, I have something to look forward to next month in LA!