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 fried. They are so incredible to eat and surprisingly quite easy to make. Let me show you!

There are 3 main components to this dish: Japanese curry, bread dough and the breading

1. Japnese curry: if you have leftover Japanese curry from last night’s dinner then great! 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.
2. Bread dough: it’s going to be a milk yeasted dough. Don’t worry won’t take up the whole day for fermentation.
3. 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!