I’ve been to Japan 3 times now and i am completely and utterly in love with the country, the culture and the food. Japan has a lovely blend between history and modern, nature and the city, and it’s place where you can do so much, depending on the time of year and which part of the country you visit.

If you’ve been to Japan before then you would these are such popular treats and can be found in any convenience store like 7/11, Family and Lawson. These are Curry Pans, a curry filled bread dough that is coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried. They are so incredible to eat and surprisingly quite easy to make. Let me show you!

The ingredients you’ll need for this recipe and some tips!

1. Japnese curry blocks: if you have leftover Japanese curry from last night’s dinner then great, please use that! Just fridgerate so it solidifies and you can use that for your filling. Otherwise, we make it from scratch. This curry recipe is going to be a bit on the thicker side because it is going to be a filling. You can find Japanese curry cubes at your local Asian supermarkets but most big supermarkets do stock them nowadays.
2. Vegetables: we’ll be using classic veggies in Japanese curry – onion, carrots, garlic and potatoes. Cut up your potatoes and carrots in similar size so they cook evenly.
3. Beef: you can definitely swap this out for chicken or pork mince if it’s what you have on hand. I normally prefer a fattier mince for a juicier filling – if you’d like the same then i highly suggest you purchase mince with a higher fat content!
4. Bread flour: you must you bread flour, and you CANNOT substitute with plain flour. Bread flour has higher protein levels which gives your bread structure. You need at least 12% protein in your flour, check the nutrition table at the back of your flour packet.
5. Yeast: this recipe uses instant dry yeast which is a lot more beginner friendly. I highly recommend the Sal brand but you cannot find it, it’s no big deal – just use the best yeast you could find.
6. Sugar: in order to activate the yeast, you first need to feed it! Yeast feeds on sugar and this is an essential part in creating successful breads. If there is nothing for your yeast to feed on, it will not do its job in the fermentation and the rising of your bread.
7. Warm milk: aside from sugar, yeast activates at a certain temperature, more specifically at body temperature. If your milk is too hot, it will kill the yeast and your bread will not rise. If your milk is too cold, it will not activate the yeast and again fermentation will not take place. Make sure to heat up your milk to body temperature, this is an essential step!
8. Salt: salt adds flavour to the bread but it can also kill your yeast. It is important to not let salt and your yeast come into contact before the yeast is activated. This is why we let the yeast feeds on the sugar in the warm milk first and later add salt to the dough.
9. Butter: please make sure your butter is softened at room temperature as it will be easier to incorporate into the dough. Butter will add flavour to your bread.
10. Breading: just egg and panko breadcrumbs. Must be Japanese Panko breadcrumbs! You can find it at your local Asian supermarkets. If you can’t find then you can substitute it for tradtional breadcrumbs but the texture won’t be the same.

Ingredients

Curry:
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloved, minced
150g beef mince
1 cup water
36-40g Japanese curry cubes (approx. 2 cubes)
1 tbsp ketchup

Bread Dough:
180ml milk, warmed
3g instant active yeast
20g sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
25g butter, softened

Breading:
1 egg, beaten
Panko breadcrumbs

Method

1. Prepare curry in advance as it needs to be chilled: In a pan with a drizzle of oil over medium heat, add in the onion, carrots and garlic. Stir-fry for a few minutes until the onion is soft and translucent. Push the veggies onto 1 side of the pan then add and brown your minced beef.
2. Add the potatoes and water, cover and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the potatoes are cooked. Uncover and evaporate the water until there’s half left. Add in the curry cubes and ketchup and stir well until the curry is dissolved and combined. Season to taste.
3. Spread the curry thin onto a tray/plate and refridgerate until solid.
4. Bread dough: In a bowl, combine the warm (body-temperature) milk, yeast and sugar together. Set aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, add in the flour and salt and make a well. Pour in the yeasty milk mixture and knead until well-combined and the dough is not sticky (knead in the bowl first and then pour out onto a clean surface and knead, took me around 5 minutes).
5. Add the butter and knead again for another 5 minutes or until homogenous (the dough will look oily and broken but keep going and trust the process!). Place the dough into a bowl, cover and leave to proof for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
6. Once proofed, pour the dough out on a clean surface, roll into a log and divide into 6 (for large curry pans) or 8 (for smaller curry pans) even pieces. Keep the pieces covered while you work on each one.
7. Assembling: Take 1 piece of dough and roll out into an even circle that’s roughly 1/2cm (1/5th inch) thick. Divide your curry into either 6 or 8 even portions. Place 1 portion of curry onto 1 side of your rolled out dough (like half a moon). Lift up the side of the dough that doesn’t have curry onto the other side and cover the curry (like an empanada). Pinch to seal the edges shut (do it well because you don’t want the curry to leak out during frying). Repeat until all our dough and curry runs out.
8. Breading & Frying: Prepare your breading station egg and panko breakdcrumbs. Work with 1 curry pan at a time, drop it in the egg and then into the Panko breadcrumbs (pack the breadcrumbs onto the bread well). Repeat for all our curry pans, cover and leave to proof 1 final time for 20 minutes.
9. Heat up a pot of oil to 170-180C or 340F-370F and fry the curry pan until golden. Drained onto a paper towel and enjoy!