We love curry in Japan. Most often we make it from scratch, but I do keep pre-cooked curry packs in our home for rainy days. These simply need to be cooked in the pack in hot water – usually for about 5-7 minutes. To cook in the microwave I open the pack and move the curry to a deep bowl to heat for about 2 minutes in a 500 watt microwave. 1 1/2 minutes in a 600 watt microwave.

These ready-to-eat curry packs are packaged in retort pouches. The name of the pot that the pouches are cooked in is retort. The pouches are lined with plastic and metal, which is why these usually can not be cooked in the pouch in the microwave. The retort curry pouches can be stored at room temperature. The shelf life can be long. Some I purchased can be consumed more than six months from now.

To check the cooking time look on the back of the package. Look for the numbers which will give you cooking times. Sometimes there will be diagrams.

In boiling water – お湯の中に入れ

cook for 5-7 minutes – 5-7分加熱して

microwave oven – 電池レンジ

2 minutes in a 500 watt microwave oven – 500Wの場合約2分

Serve with rice. Some curry I will serve with udon noodles.

These curry packs are from MUJI and from our local supermarket. The MUJI flavors are butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. The supermarket curry in the box is a cutter chicken from a restaurant in Kanda called Mandara.

I picked up at MUJI a pack of fukujin zuké which are pickles traditionally served with curry. The pickles will serve about four servings of curry. Store the fukujin zuké pickles in the refrigerator after opening.

It’s fascinating the variety of curry available on the market. Kitano Ace is a supermarket famous for selling so many varieties that the shelves look like a bookshelf filled with retort curry packs. Flavors include oysters, beef tongue, wagyū beef, and even strawberries. Famous shops known for their curry such as Go Go curry or Nihonbashi Taimeiken are represented.

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