Curry!
Moreover, Japanese Curry!
This is one of the dishes that I liked but it is not cheap when acquired from restaurants. With lockdowns continuing and one has got to save up money, a YouTube vlog has pretty much saved the day when I tried making a hardly any spicy curry for my traditional parents who has never tried it before, with a good budget as well.
Taking the opportunity while getting groceries for mom (especially for her gastric) I was a little concern whether her stomach will be able to take it. But isnce it isn't too spicy, it should still work.
I had some fun getting noise.cash members there to guess what these main ingredients to cook out, their guesses was close enough, but still this 3 ingredients could create something really nice.
Prepping the ingredients was pretty easy, except the garlic and ginger paste when my blender rubber sealer was cut during process. But these are the basics before adding the curry powder which I specifically used "Baba's Curry Powder" just because the original recipe was guiding towards that. I wanted to see is it really way much better than the instant Japanese curry or the ones from the restaurants.
My biggest patience test
Making the curry base paste from scratch was actually my mom's strongest part; but the Japanese curry that I have learned required to make a base Blond Roux.
Continuous stirring for 15 minutes under low heat many times started to get me to feel doubtful will it ever turn into a blond roux without adding extra liquid, but the good part was it worked, and what a relief when that was ready to add on the spices to make the ultimate paste.
Adding in the paste into the soup base requires patience as well, but boy the smell sure was rewarding.
All in all, as soon as I got it ready and my parents were saying, "oh gosh! That smells so good!" I knew I was half way won in the race. We had some paratha (instead of rice) since it was late lunch and dad had double portion! That must really be something! Even my mom (who is the head chef of the household) commented "a little strong on the salt but still nice to eat directly even" was quite an achievement I must say!
But how's the budget? Is it cheaper than just to get an instant pack instead of making a whole pot?
So let's check how much I have spent (excluding my electricity cost)
1 Carrot : MYR 1.45
1 large yellow onion: MYR 1.20
3 large potatoes: MYR 1.95
5 tablespoon of curry powder: MYR 1.43
5 tablespoon of flour: MYR 0.07
5 tablespoon of butter: MYR 0.64 (depending on brand)
2 tablespoon of oil: MYR 0.25 (depending on brand)
1 tablespoon of garlic and ginger paste: approximately MYR0.30
2 tablespoon of tomato ketchup: MYR 0.21 (depending on brand)
2 Chicken stock cubes: MYR 1.15
1 cup of cubed chicken breast: MYR 3.40
Total: MYR 12.05 (USD $2.98) that can serve around 6 - 8 servings, which is about MYR2 or 50 cents per serving, instead of purchasing from an instant stall that could cost around 4x more expensive that could actually be around 2/3 serving if you are a big eater.
So was it worth the pain for almost 2 hours to prepare to table?
Definitely worth it!
Here's my full cap on my curry making from scratch without help haha... and this is definitely one curry that is children friendly; although the little munchkins these days already are so professional they could even take on the spicy "Mah Lat" (spicy and numbing) spicy sauce.
Nevertheless, definitely so far so good, it is gastric friendly nonetheless.
I haven't really tried making it vegan friendly, but I think it could still be possible to change from butter to plant base butter like olive oil butter / coconut oil butter, replace chicken with mushrooms.
The rest are practically vegan; and it is definitely Halal version.
How about you?
Would you give this a try and see how it feels?