Karepan (Japanese Curry Bread) Recipe
So I’ve had quite a few people ask for my karepan recipe now, and it’s always, “Oh, yeah, definitely! I’ll get it to you.”
And then I don’t. Because
I use... a box mix for the curry (gasp, shame, general disapproval).
But you know what, whatever. Vermont Curry is delicious, and more people should eat it. More on that later. Here we go.
Karepan
Dough
1.5t Active dry yeast (I like Red Star, but ymmv)*
5 fl.oz. warm water (you want this just barely warm to the touch, if you get much warmer, you’ll kill your yeast, and have sad bread)
565g bread flour, sifted**
3T sugar
1.5t salt
3T unsalted butter, melted
8 fl.oz. water
Make your starter
If you wanna get technical, ideal temperature for yeast activation is 85°-95°F. You can temp it if you wanna, but I always just feel it with my hands. If it’s eeeh, a little warm to you, you’re good. Take your yeast, your warm water, a tablespoon of your sugar, and about a handful of your pre-scaled flour, and whisk them together in your mixer bowl, and let it sit for a few minutes. You’re basically activating and feeding the yeast.
Once it starts looking foamy and bubbly on top, go ahead and add in the melted butter, like half the flour, and the water, gradually adding the rest of the flour in while the mixer is on low speed (Obvs, you should use your dough hook for this).
Let it mix until the dough starts coming together into a ball, and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. If you get impatient, you can turn it up to medium speed, but don’t walk away. Overdeveloped gluten makes for sad bread, too.
So. Once that’s done, get another large-ish clean bowl, spray it with pan spray, and put your little blob of dough in there. Cover it with plastic wrap, and from here, your paths can diverge. If you want a more complex, developed flavor, you can stick it in the fridge, and let it sit for ... well, I’ve only tested it up to eight hours, so definitely that long, but I’d say you could go as long as overnight, or maybe 24 hours, so long as you didn’t use instant yeast.
If you don’t have that kind of foresight, just leave the dough out in a warm area, and it should be good to go in 30ish minutes. While that’s going, start your curry!
Curry
So, this is what Vermont Curry looks like. It’s made by House Foods, and if you’ve never seen packaged Japanese curry roux before, it basically comes in like this perforated solid block that becomes your stock/base/whatever you want to call it. I use the chuukara, or mild variety, identifiable by the friendly, accessible green label on the box, which looks like this:
You can find it in pretty much any Asian grocery store, and I think even Amazon sells it. Don’t be put off by the apple and honey, either. It’s legit.
Ignoring the instructions on the box, here’s what you’ll need:
1lb. 93/7 ground sirloin (or any meat, really, but trust me on the sirloin)
1 large russet potato, diced into 1/2″ cubes
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
1 package mild Vermont Curry
2 cups water
Canola oil for your pan
So, first things first, cook the ground beef in a large, deep skillet over med. high heat. Oiling the pan a little (before you put the beef in) helps with sticking, and also makes it taste fattier more delicious. The finer you break it up, the more evenly it’ll cook, and the better your curry will be. So once alllll the pink is gone, add your potato cubes, and your onions, and cook until the potatoes give a little when you press on them with your spatula or whatever you’re using.
From there, break up your slab of curry into small pieces, and sprinkle them throughout your meat and potato wonderland. Dump the water on top, and reduce your heat to low. Stir to distribute the curry, and let it simmer, stirring whenever you see a skin starting to form. You’re wanting to reduce the curry until it’s pretty thick, as runny curry does not make for good pan filling (it leaks out, and crap, now the entire vat of oil smells like turmeric awesome), but also be aware that as it cools, it’ll thicken more, so don’t cook it down until it’s dry either. You want something a sort of the viscosity of a really meaty chili.
Making the buns
You’ll need:
Flour for dusting your work surface
Your curry filling
Panko (probably about half a box?)
1 large egg
1T water
Pastry brush
Okay. Your dough should be nice and gassy by now, so take it out of the bowl, and place it on a well-floured work surface. When I did this recipe. I got exactly a kilo of dough, which was super cool, and I haven’t been able to repeat it since. Whatever. To make big, huge meal-replacement buns, scale out twelve 90g portions, or to make non-gluttonous responsible adult-sized portions, do twenty-four 45g pieces.
From here, I tell people you’re basically making fried baozi. But not everyone was raised by Hawaiians, so that still gets me weird looks, so here I will try to explain the forming of the buns~
Using a rolling pin works better for the big ones, and I’ve found just using my hands works fine for the little ones. Up to you. Flatten the dough, focusing more on the outer edges, leaving the center plump.
Fill the bun. I know it’s really tempting to load the mothers up, because meat is delicious, don’t do it. Your karepan will explode in your vat of hot oil. It’s not fun to clean up. Anyway, portioning. So I have this Wilton cookie scoop that I use for my buns. One level scoop for little buns and two under-filled scoops for the big guys. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s slightly larger than a rounded tablespoon?
Okay, so here’s where my ability to explain things starts to suck:
Start with two opposite edges, and bring them together, pinching firmly as you go.
My suggestion is, gather and pinch as you go, finishing one entire side...
Before moving onto the other one. Try not to let any of the curry touch the edges of the dough, because it will interfere with the dough’s ability to stick to itself.
Now pinch it so it looks like a makuhita’s head! Or bao. If you’ve ever seen that. Just make sure it’s good and sealed, then flip it over, and roll it either on your work surface, or in your palms, until it looks good and round.
Now put it on a little pile of panko on a tray, like so:
Once you’ve finished all of them, you’ll need to let them proof. Proofing is a temperature and humidity controlled process wherein the gasses produced by the yeast are allowed to develop, giving the bread its characteristic rise and cell structure. Most people don’t have a proof box. I don’t have a proof box. So usually, what I do is place my bread in the oven (off, but with the light on [this only matters if your oven bulb is incandescent, and puts out appreciable heat. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter]) with a pan of boiling water below it. Let it sit in there for 20 minutes to a half hour, and make your eggwash.
Whisk the egg together with the water in a small bowl, and set aside. Begin to heat your oil/deep fryer about ten minutes before your buns come out. You’ll want the oil temperature to be about 375°F.
When your buns are done proofing, gently pick them up one by one, and brush a light coating of the eggwash on top of them (the bottom is already coated!), cover the eggwash in panko, and then drop them top down into the fryer (dropping them in top down makes them easier to flip when the time comes). Flip it over after about three minutes, and let it fry the other side for another three. Remove them gently with tongs, and place on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Repeat until all buns have been eggwashed, coated and fried. I can fit about six of the minis, and three of the large buns in my fryer at a time, but it will depend on your vessel; just don’t overcrowd it.
Also be aware that sometimes huge bubbles will form that will make the buns not want to flip over, so you’ll actually have to hold them down in the oil with your tongs until done.
Sooo, yeah, that’s it. Honestly, these things are really super good, and any time I ever take them anywhere, people flip over them. Any questions, I’ll be happy to answer if I can!
For reference, these are the finished “mini” buns, and each one is about the size of my fist. ... which... means nothing to you, but I assure you my fist is perfectly human-sized.
*A note on yeast: There are a few varieties of yeast readily available, and they’re not interchangeable. This recipe was written for dry yeast(looks like little balls), not to be confused with instant yeast (looks like a fine powder) or fresh yeast. I have found that if you’re in a hurry, you can use instant yeast, but the dough will rise a lot faster (also yields a slightly blander flavor, but it’s gonna be deep fried, so whatev), so don’t go off of my resting and proofing times if you make that switch.
**A note on flour: Ideally, this recipe works best with a 50/50 blend of high gluten flour and all purpose flour, but high gluten flour only tends to be available in specialty food stores and is really expensive, so I will say you can make the entire thing with AP flour if that’s what you’ve got, but the dough will be much weaker, unable to support the weight of the filling, and thus, will more prone to tearing/breaking/bursting. Bread flour is a happy medium. A lot of people don’t keep it on hand, but it is widely available, and has the gluten content to keep your curry from escaping. P.S. I love King Arthur Flour forever this is not a plug but they’re really good
