Wafuu, Dinner in Hand

You won’t find wafuu in sushi bars, but it’s a beloved comfort food often served in Japanese homes and as a lunch shop special.  Think of it as the Japanese equivalent of mac and cheese.

An enormous sweet potato sat on my kitchen counter.  It was among the last offerings from my CSA before season end, and was slated to be dinner.  I picked it up.  It felt solid in my hand, a good thing to fling at an adversary.  If you squinted, its long, lumpy shape made it look like a manatee, with a beauty all its own.  Very nice, but what to do with it?  African-American sweet potato and peanut stew?  Nah, too heavy.  Roasted sweet potato salad?  Not feeling it. 

Most of the time, I love menu planning, matching the fresh produce and pantry goods I have to the season and everyone’s whims.  Two months into sheltering in place, though, with a trip to the grocery store involving mask, gloves and social distancing, I can tell you this is not a normal time.   I was getting bored with my own cooking.

It was time to spice things up.  Curry?  Possible, but it had to be the right curry.  Coconut milk can wear out its welcome with me, so not Thai,  nothing too spicy for Benjamin, so probably not Indian, either. Then I remembered wafuu, Japan’s golden, mild and mildly sweet curry.   

You won’t find wafuu in sushi bars, but it’s a beloved comfort food often served in Japanese homes and as a lunch shop special.  Think of it as the Japanese equivalent of mac and cheese. 

Thai and Indian curries rely on curry pastes and masalas — spice blends.  Wafuu relies on curry bricks.  When we lived in Tokyo, you could find S&B curry bricks in almost every corner market. Curry bricks look like chocolate bars and are pretty much turmeric and other warming spices bound by fat.  Drop the block in with a pot of seasonal vegetables, tofu, or what have you, heat the pot, and the block melts with the other ingredients to form a creamy sauce.  It’s easy and a little unnerving.

Happily, you don’t need curry bricks to make wafuu.  But you do need something sweet.  Everyone’s recipe has some crazy secret ingredient — honey, apple, even chocolate. My sweet ingredient was literally right in my hand and would make a great base for the wafuu, too.  Sweet potato in hand, I rustled up the rest of the ingredients and got going.

Wafuu Curry

Unlike most curries, wafuu is thickened with flour, which gives it a smooth texture without a lot of fat.  Serve over brown rice.

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Ingredients

  

• 2 tablespoons grape seed oil or other neutral oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger minced
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon S&B curry powder or other mild golden curry powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 hefty sweet potato about 1 pound, chopped into 1-inch cubes
• 2 carrots chopped
• 1 sweet pepper chopped
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• 1 small tomato chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon white miso
• 2 cups assorted greens such as mizuna, kale or tatsoi, chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• fresh cilantro chopped (optional)

Instructions

 

• In skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add the ginger, chopped onions and garlic, cooking for about 5 minutes, or until onions are softened and translucent. 
• Sprinkle in flour, turmeric and curry powder.  Stir, so the ginger, onions and garlic are coated in the flour and spice paste.  Add chopped sweet potatoes, carrots, red pepper and celery.
• Stir, incorporating all the crusty bits stuck to the bottom  Pour in vegetable broth and spoon in tomato paste.  Stir again and bring mixture to a boil. 
• Reduce heat to medium-low, and cover.  Simmer, until sweet potato is tender and the sauce has reduced and deepened in color to a burnished pumpkin shade, about 30 minutes.
• Stir in the miso, then stir in the chopped greens. They’ll wilt right into the curry.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Garnish with the optional chopped cilantro.
• Serves 4.

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