It is a bit of a running joke in culinary circles that the Japanese can take any foreign food and change it beyond all recognition. Sometimes the results can be rather disconcerting, as happened to me at a restaurant in Tokyo claiming to specialize in Basque cuisine. The “arroz con setas” (rice with mushroom) was made with Japanese short grain rice and kinoko mushrooms and, for all I know, flavored with dashi! Ingenious, but a million miles from San Sebastian. More often though the results are both clever and extremely tasty, as with mentaiko pasta (明太子パスタ; spicy cod roe pasta) that famous fusion of Japanese and Italian. Similarly, Japanese “curry”–pronounced kare (カレー)–stands as one of the great culinary inventions of that country, on par in my opinion with instant ramen.
If you’ve never had Japanese curry, it bears little resemblance–except perhaps in color–to the Indian kind, although, “curry” itself as I’ve mentioned before is a British invention (but that’s another story). Being slight sweet I’ll admit it is a bit of an acquired taste, but one that has been hungrily latched on not only in Japan–restaurants specializing in curry are at least as common as sushi ones–but throughout the world (there are literally dozens in Manhattan alone, for example). Japanese curry roux comes in small plastic tubs (see picture below). Most commonly, you simply fry some meat, onions, carrots and potatoes. Add water and the roux and–voila!–you have a tasty stew. Not quite instant food but a great time-saving ingredient to have on hand. But curry sauce is fantastic on udon as well (カレーうどん) and, as I recently learned, on meatballs.
Not any kind of meatballs. These are made of okara, a byproduct of tofu and soy milk production. In Japan (and Korea), okara is a staple, readily-available ingredient used in everything from hamburgers to donuts. You can also buy any number of okara cookbooks, a godsend for anyone who makes tofu regularly–as I do–and is looking for ideas on what to do with leftover okara. (It freezes very well.) Today’s recipe is from one such book I happened to buy recently titled simply “Okara Recipe” (おからレシピ) by Tsutsumi Hitomi (堤 人美).
This is an easy dish to make but I recommend making the okara balls in advance (the recipe is for many more than you need for this dish, but you can freeze the rest). The rest of the recipe then comes together very quickly. Also, Japanese curry roux essentially comes in three varieties: mild, medium and hot. As far as I’m concerned even the “hot” kind isn’t spicy at all, but I’d probably start with medium if this is your first time. I promise it won’t be your last!
Okara Recipe by Tsutsumi Hitomi