A meal from a lot of beloved Toku. From the screens to your mouth.
Hello everyone, I’m Danno. One thing you might not know about me is that other than writing, I’m also heavily into cooking and I wanted to bring to you today a comfort food that’s now one of my favourite meals to cook, curry rice. Which as it turns out, there’s a lot of curry rice in toku. Like a lot. It goes back to Goranger for god’s sake. Which makes sense as curry rice is a comfort food most commonly found in Japan and college students fridges. So not only will this be covering Gokaiger, but it’ll also be covering a lot of shows. Lemme see … Goranger, Abaranger, Shinkenger- er, yeah, there’s a bit too many to list off the top of my head, actually.
I encourage you to take this recipe more as a guide to recreate the curry rice of your choosing from your favourite Toku show. I’m using Gokaiger as an excuse because it’s from a fan favorite season of Sentai and it has the most basic curry I can think of off the top of my head.
Now, let’s get to…
The Ingredients
This recipe is adapted from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Curry recipe, which I also highly recommend. I’m making a ton more servings because this Curry is amazing for leftovers. You can watch the video here.
We’ll start with the base protein and veggies that I like to use.
5 skinless boneless chicken thighs
3 medium sized potatoes
2 medium sized carrots
1/2 an onion
I’m not going to tell you how you should cut these, but you should at least de-skin your meat (if you couldn’t find skinless) and peel your potatoes. I use russets because I like them but I don’t like the texture of their skins when they’re simmered or boiled. Save your chicken skin for making stock and just discard your potato skins. Or compost them.
Then there’s our spices.
1 Tbsp Curry Powder
3/4 Tbsp Garlic Powder OR 2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced finely
1/2 Tbsp Cayenne
1/2 Tbsp Powdered Ginger
1 Tsp Cumin
1/2 Tsp Turmeric
1/8 Tsp Cinnamon
1/8 Tsp Chili Powder
These are just the base spices I use. You can use a roux block like 95% of people who make Curry do. In fact that has many of the spices that I just listed in it. Though I make my own roux because I don’t trust those roux blocks. Which is to say that I like controlling the flavours and spice of my own Curry and that’s something we all need in our lives. A little control. Also, I can’t find any roux blocks at the grocery stores I go to. You can use anything you want though. These are just some of the spices that I use. Some aren’t traditional at all but also I don’t care. They taste good together, and that’s what matters most.
Then some liquids
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Honey
Around 2-3 cups of your liquid of choice
Soy is pretty obvious. Japanese dishes pride themselves off of being sweet and salty. That’s why there’s also some honey to bring in a little bit of sweetness. I’ll explain the liquid of your choice once we get to it, just don’t pick any dairy-esc liquid.
Now, “how do you put this all together?” is something you may be asking.
Sorry, I just got done watching Jojos Part 2 while writing this. Can you tell I like Joseph?
First, get out a good sized pan or pot. I use a wok because mine is comedically large, wide and reduces liquids very well. Plus, it has a lid for the simmering process. I went to a local restaurant and got it. I cried, begged, and got on my knees as a very much adult man to get them to sell it to me. You don’t have to do that but props if you do.
Pre-heat some oil of any kind and throw in your chicken thighs to sauté. I wouldn’t recommend butter or any spray oil. Butter could burn pretty easily and spray oil will not give us enough oil in the pan to do what we want to do with the roux. Vegetable oil will do just fine. If you have some fat from an animal or something like that, like bacon fat for example, that’d be great too. Also, don’t be too pedantic about this adding another ingredient, it’s implied everyone has oil.
Once the chicken is browned but not fully cooked, take the chicken out to rest and throw in your onions. Once you see they’re translucent, throw in your potatoes and carrots. At this point, you might need a bit more oil in the pan. Just note that everything you throw in is going to cool down whatever is in your pan significantly. Then, throw your chicken back in with any accumulated juices it might have had while it was resting and add in your dried spices. You want to fry the spices to bring out their flavors.
Depending on how much oil is in your pan, you’ll then want to add in around that much flour. This is how you’ll build your roux, which thickens the sauce into what we know as Curry. Cook that roux for a minute, it gets the raw flour taste out of the dish. It might be a bit dry in the pan by now but just trust me and cook it. You might think you’re screwing up but you aren’t, it’s going to be fine.
Then you’re gonna take whatever liquid you want. Could be stock, broth, water. Whatever, as long as it isn’t dairy; that won’t give you the classic curry look you might be going for and depending on how long you simmer it the milk proteins are going to get all whacky and mess up the taste of your curry. Take whatever liquid you have and add a little bit at a time. Stir it to make sure the liquid is incorporated into the roux, then add a little more liquid. Stir a little, add a little. Stir a little, add a little. All until however much sauce you want is in the pan. Though DO NOT add all liquid at once. This will avoid any clumps in your final sauce. This method is how roux becomes béchamel. You can also use this technique to make gravy or the cheese part to your mac and cheese, obviously without anything else in the pan. I’m not taking anything out in this instance because I’m lazy.
Add your soy to colour correct and pre-emptively salt the sauce, as well as your honey as a bit of sweetener and stir some more. Then, cover with a lid and simmer for around … however much time you have, really. Obviously do not overcook the potatoes or carrots as no one likes mushy potatoes or carrots. But, you can put this on your lowest burner and simmer for however long you have really. By the time you’re ready to eat, your potatoes should be fully cooked. Use this time to maybe start watching a good toku show you’ve never watched before. Maybe write a book. Though do yourself a favour and check on it occasionally to see how everything is cooking. This is a good opportunity to taste for whatever seasonings you want to add at that point. Just try not to eat it all with a spoon by itself because I promise you, it will be that good.
Once your rice is cooked and you’re ready to plate, depending on how thick your curry is already, put it back on medium heat and reduce for a little bit to thicken it up. This step is optional as you’ll only have to do it if it isn’t as thick as you’d like it and once it is, you’re ready to serve. Grab a plate or a bowl, put on a mound of rice and pour on your curry. How much space you have is the limit to how much curry you can have. Though you really can’t have enough.
Then enjoy.
I hope you enjoy curry as much as I do. It’s a simple dish that, while it needs your attention at the start, most of the time spent on the dish is time spent away. And as I’ve said plenty of times, do whatever you want with this recipe. I’m not like the characters in Abaranger, but maybe add some fruits to the curry to your own discretion. The Toku Source is not legally responsible if you add Pineapple to your curry and die, so take that into account before trying. Though grated apple is a traditional addition to the dish that adds some sweetness. I may try it one day. Maybe add other veggies, though frozen veggies should be added at the very end of cooking. Want to add a different meat or make pork katsu? Take the chicken out. The world is your oyster, so take advantage of that. Just try to avoid getting caught up in the middle of an alien invasion, that really puts a halt to any enjoyment of curry. Just in general.
Do you have a favourite dish as seen in toku? Drop us a comment or reach out on social media and it could be featured in a later article. Stay tuned to The Toku Source for more tokusatsu content!
