The Qiqirn Kitchen!

Yooo knoow? Kukuroon’s favooorite food is Cooory Boon? Make good clinkclink too!

Is trooo! Kukuroon’s Coory Boons will never, ever lose to Tacotaroos! Tacotarooos is too busy trying to use pre-made foody. Here ish favorite secret sooper dooper recipe for Cooory Boon that ish gooood baked of fried!

Three cheers for Clinkclink and Yoomy!

*Hakky’s Comment:

After living in Montreal for 6 months and getting to observe the Japanese community here in comparison to the one in Toronto, I really appreciate J-town back home at lot more. One thing I missed in particular was Japanese Curry; and since I love to bake breads, I decided to try my hand at making Cooory Booooons.

To tell you the truth, I never really liked Bakery Nakamura’s Curry Buns–I far prefer their cakes and pastries. It’s not that it’s bad bread, but I never really liked plain white bread in the first place. Most Japanese Curry buns directly fry the bread curry buns for a donut-like feel, but I find that it changes the flavor of the curry rather unfavorably. Along this line of thinking, I thought up the idea of a Montreal Curry Bread: A fried French Bread based Curry Bread. It takes a ridiculous amount of time, but the results are very, very satisfying.

Day1: Make Curry, Yoosh!

One weakness of most Curry Buns is that the curry is just plain lousy. To correct this, I made sure to pay a lot of attention to the taste of my curry; the curry itself should be something you should want to eat with bread more and more.

At Cafe Green Tea, Keiko-san’s technique to make the curry is simply to mix the various types of Japanese curry out there. It’s a simple idea, but it’s very, very effective. My sister loves Vermont Curry, and my friend Junichi’s favorite is Kokumaro, so I mixed the two. Anyways, here we go:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of House Kokumaro Curry, Med. Hot (contains Gouda cheese to produce smooth curry)
• 1/2 box of Vermont Curry, Mild (ground apple is the secret behind the sweetness of Vermont Curry)
• 2 tablespoons of Mild Curry Powder for (I used Sharwood’s Korma Curry Powder)
• 3 tablespoons Cashhew Butter (Kukuroon’s secret weapon!!)
• 2 tablespoons Patak’s Madras Curry Paste
• 1/2 cup of Cream
• 1/2 cup of Milk
• 1 lb. Meat (I used diced cubes of beef, but you can use Chicken or Pork too)
• 3 Onions, diced
• 3 Potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
• Olive Oil
• Poppy Seeds (completely optional)

The list is long, but this is one of those foods that I can eat for days and not get sick of.

1. Sauté and carmelize the onions on low heat in olive oil in a frypan for about 5 minutes. Set aside.

2. In a wok or dutch oven, sauté the beef and potatoes until the beef is browned and the potatoes begin to soften. Add 5 cups of water and bring to a boil.

3 . Add the curry blocks, powder and paste, stirring until everything dissolves. Heat for about 15 minutes and then lower the heat. Add cashew paste, cream and milk, stirring to evenly distribute everything.

4. Taste; if you desire a less intense curry more similar to Malai Kofta or Butter Chicken, add more cream. Set aside and refrigerate for the next day.

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On the same day, prepare the Pâte Fermentée for the bread:

• 1 1/8 cups Unbleached All-Purpose flour
• 1 1/8 cups Bread Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3/4 cup water (at room temperature)

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then add the water. Mix by hand until a ball forms. Add small amounts of water if significant amounts of flour are not incorporated.

2. Sprinkle flour onto a counter, and begin kneading for 15 minutes until the bread is not too sticky but not dry. If sticky, add flour, if dry, add small amounts of water. To test if the gluten has developed enough, use the windowpane test: take off a small chunk of dough and gently and gradually stretch it out and hold it to a light source: if the bread can stretch out to a membrane-thick layer without breaking, then the gluten has developed enough to be allowed to ferment.

3. Light oil a large bowl, and roll the dough around to coat the surface. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 1 hour. After the dough has doubled in size, degas the down by kneading once and return to the wrapped bowl.

4. Refrigerate overnight to develop flavor.

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Day 2:

Remove the curry and the prefermented dough from the refrigerate and allow to defrost for 1 hour.

French Bread Dough Ingredients:

• Pate Fermentee
• 1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cups Bread Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3/4 cup water at room temperature

As you can see, we just made this last night with just a little less flour. The pre-ferment of a bread is to give the bread a much richer range of flavor.

1. Repeat the same mixing process as on Day 1, incorporating the pate fermentee.
2. Ferment for 2 hours.
3. Divide dough into squares, about 5.5′x5.5′. Flatten slightly with a rolling pin if necessary.
4. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of Curry into the center of each dough square.
5. (The really tricky part) Fold the dough hot-dog style while not allowing the curry to spill out, sealing the ends of both sides by folding again.
6. Lie the buns crease down on a cookie sheet coated with oiled parchment paper.
7. Allow the buns to rise for about 45 minutes to an hour, oiled with spray oil and covered with plastic wrap.

Preheat the oven to 500F. Slip in the buns for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400F. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the buns turn a gold brown.

*Extra step for Japanese style curry buns:

Heat oil in a deep wok or dutch oven for frying; prepare a deep frying basket as well.

Coat the buns with beaten egg wash and Japanese panko breadcrumbs. Fry for 5 minutes until golden brown.

There you have it! Tons of work, but very much worth it. They are so byooootiful!