Japanese Curry Bread (Kare-pan)

There's a whole category of breads in Japan called okazu pan. Okazu are the savory dishes that you eat with your bowl of rice at a typical meal, and okazu pan are little breads with savory fillings.

Since curry flavored anything is a hit in Japan, curry bread or kare- pan is one of the most popular okazu pan varieties. It's a bun made of slightly sweet dough, filled with a spoonful of curry, breaded and deep fried. I am not sure how curry bread originated, but I am guessing it was inspired by Russian piroshki (piroshiki is also a popular okazu pan, though in the Japanese version it often contains very non-Russian fillings like harusame, thin bean noodles). Curry bread is sold at bakeries and convenience stores throughout Japan.

Making curry bread is a bit tricky since it's deep-fried. It's easy to make an oily, soggy lump if you fry it too long or at too low a temperature, but if you don't fry it long enough the center part where the dough meets the filling may be raw. My solution for this is to fry it until it's puffed and crisped, then to finish it in the oven. The other trick is to roll out the dough as thinly as you can manage without making it so thin that the curry is going to burst through.

You also have to be careful about the consistency of the curry filling. It's most convenient to start out with some leftover curry, but it has to be reduced down to a very thick, paste-like consistency, otherwise it will run over the dough and make the dough hard to seal. If the dough is not sealed properly, the bun will burst in the oil, which ends up to be quite a mess (oil seeps in, filling seeps out).

All in all, I am not sure I would bother to make curry bread at all if I lived near a Japanese bakery, but I do on occasion get a craving for this very down to earth snack. Try it if you're up for a bit of a challenge. This recipe is adapted from one in an out-of-print Japanese bread book.

Japanese curry bread or kareh pan (karee pan)

Makes 8 to 10 buns

The dough:

• 370g / 13 oz all-purpose white flour (see notes)
• 1 packet, about 7g, regular dry yeast
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs, beaten, with 1 Tbs. taken out and reserved for the eggwash (see below)
• 160cc / about 5.4 fluid oz.or 5/8th cup milk
• 40g / 1.4 oz (about 2 1/2 Tbs.) butter, at room temperature

The filling:

• About 4 cups of leftover curry or readymade foil-pack curry (though if you're going to all the trouble you might as well start with your own curry)

The coating:

• Bread crumbs - dry panko crumbs preferred
• The reserved 1 Tbs. egg from the dough (see above)
• Milk

To fry:

• Oil (I used peanut oil)

Epuipment and supplies:

• Parchment paper, cut into 10 pieces about 20cm / 8 in cm square (big enough to hold the buns)
• Food processor (useful but not required)
• Pastry brush
• Deep fat fryer or wok or a deep enough pan for frying
• A spatula big enough to put a bun on
• Oven

(Hint: click on each small image to get a larger view.)

Make the dough. If you're using a food processor, put all the dry ingredients into the bowl and whiz to mix. Add the egg (don't forget to reserve 1 tablespoon for the coating/wash), and while the machine is running, slowly add the milk until the dough forms a ball around the blade. Stop and add the butter in pieces, process for about a minute. Take it out and knead it briefly to form a ball.

If you're mixing by hand, mix together the dry ingredients with a whisk (or sift). Make a well in the middle of the mixed dry stuff. Add the egg (don't forget to reserve 1 Tbs. for the coating/wash) and milk into the well, and mix rapidly with your fingertips until you get a rough dough. Continue mixing until you have a ball. Add the butter, cut into small pieces, and knead on a lightly floured surface. The dough will be very sticky at first but resist the temptation to flour your board too much, or the dough will become very stiff. If you keep scraping off the stuck on dough with a scraper and kneading and stretching, eventually the dough will become smooth, coherent and pliable.

Once you have a nice smooth dough ball, put into a clean ball, cover with plastic film and let rise for about 1 to 1/2 hours until doubled in size. Punch down the dough, re-cover and let rise an additional 45 minutes.

While the dough is rising, deal with the curry. Mash down or smoosh/cut up any big bits of carrot, potato, meat etc. Over a low heat, slowly cook down the curry until it's reduce to 2 cups or so, and thick and paste-like. Let cool, then refrigerate until stiff.

Take out the dough, punch down, knead and divide into 8 to 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, and let rest for about 15 minutes under a piece of plastic or a damp kitchen towel.

Put about 1 tablespoon of milk in the reserved egg, and mix well.

Start forming the buns. With a rolling pin or with your hands, flatten out each piece into a thin round, with the center thicker than the edges. If you're making 10 buns the circle should be about 18cm / 7 inches in diameter.

Paint the edges of the circle with the egg wash. Don't make it too wet - the purpose of the eggwash it to act as a glue to form a seal.

Put a tablespoon or so of curry in the center of the circle. Gather up the opposing edges of the circle above the filling.

Pinch the dough all around to seal well, like making a dumpling.

When the edges are all crimped, push the crimped edge down to one side.

Add a bit more milk to the egg wash and put into a bowl or dish big enough to contain a bun. Dip the bun into the egg wash, coating it on all sides, then roll in bread crumbs.

Put each bun on a piece of parchment paper. Leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes - the buns should rise to about 1.5 times their original size.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150°C / 300°F. Heat the frying oil to 175°C / 350°F (this is pretty hot, be careful).

If the buns have developed any gaps, pinch them closed.

Pick up a bun with the paper, with a spatula. Slide the bun, paper and all, into the hot oil. Don't worry the paper won't burn - just scoop it out with the spatula.

Fry the buns until golden brown - this shouldn't take more than 5 minutes per bun. If they won't stay down just hold them down a bit. Do about 2 or 3 at a time at most - don't overcrowd the pan.

Drain well on a rack or several layers of paper towels, and put the buns on a baking sheet. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Notes

• If you're in Japan use 300g 'strong flour' (kyou-ryokuko) and 70g 'weak flour' (hakuriki-ko)
• You can make curry just for the bread, but making a small amount of curry is a bother, so just plan for a curry meal and reserve some for a later curry bread. (You can freeze the reserved curry as long as you take out the potatoes.)
• Panko or Japanese crunchy breadcrumbs are the best to use for this. They absorb a lot less oil than soft breadcrumbs.
• You can use other fillings, like cooked-down bolognese sauce, leftover stew, or even a stiff custard sauce. As long as the filling is stable enough that it doesn't run over the sides when placed in the center of the dough circle, it should work fine.
• If deep frying doesn't appeal to you, just omit the breadcrumb coating, brush with eggwash, and bake in a 180°C / 360°F oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. It won't be the same as the fried version but will still be pretty good.