Oni Dry Curry (Ogre Face Curry Rice)
鬼ドライカレー
By Aoi, licensed nutritionist · From a Japanese preschool lunch menu
Every year on February 3, Japan celebrates Setsubun by throwing roasted soybeans to chase away oni, the horned ogres of Japanese folklore, and preschool kitchens love to get in on the fun. This is our Setsubun lunch: a gently spiced dry curry of ground pork, finely chopped vegetables and sweet raisins, spooned over rice and turned into an oni face with two carrot horns, raisin eyes and a ketchup mouth. Dry curry is a Japanese-style curry rice with no sauce, so it is easy for little ones to eat with a spoon, and the raisins and tomato give it a natural sweetness that keeps the curry powder mild. The children can hardly wait to 'defeat' their oni, and the plates come back empty every time.
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Ingredients
Amounts for 1 child (1 serving). An adult counts as 2 servings.
One serving here is 1.5× the portion served to a child in a Japanese preschool, sized for Western appetites. An adult counts as two servings. Tap an ingredient to check it off.
Ingredients
- 75 griceJapanese short-grain white rice (japonica), which cooks up soft and slightly sticky. The amount listed is for uncooked rice. Substitute: Sushi rice, or another short-grain or medium-grain rice such as Calrose.
- 27 gcarrot
- 27 gonion
- 5.4 ggreen bell pepper
- 48 gground pork
- 61.5 gcanned tomatoes
- 4.5 graisins
Seasonings
- 1.5 gvegetable oil
- 0.2 gcurry powder
- 21 gwater
- 5.4 gketchup
- 0.6 gsugar
- 0.5 gsalt
- 1 gWorcestershire sauce
About the Japanese ingredients in this recipe
- rice (米)
- Japanese short-grain white rice (japonica), which cooks up soft and slightly sticky. The amount listed is for uncooked rice. Substitute: Sushi rice, or another short-grain or medium-grain rice such as Calrose.
- Worcestershire sauce (ウスターソース)
- Read the guide: Bull-Dog Worcestershire Sauce: Japan's Everyday Brown Sauce → Guide: japanese-school-lunch.com/articles/bull-dog-worcestershire-sauce/
Directions
- 1
Cook the rice as usual.
- 2
For the oni horns, cut two small quarter-round slices of carrot per serving and boil them until tender. Briefly boil the raisins and drain them well.
- 3
Finely mince the remaining carrot, the onion and the green bell pepper.
- 4
Heat the vegetable oil in a pot and sauté the minced vegetables from step 3 well. Add the ground pork and continue to sauté.
- 5
Once the pork is cooked through, sprinkle in the curry powder and stir-fry to coat everything.
- 6
Add the canned tomatoes, water and the remaining seasonings (ketchup, sugar, salt and Worcestershire sauce) and simmer until the liquid has cooked off.
- 7
Spoon the dry curry from step 6 over the cooked rice, then make an oni face using the carrot slices for horns, the raisins for eyes and ketchup for the mouth.
Nutrition
| Per | 1 serving | 1 adult serving | Your total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 426 kcal | 852 kcal | 426 kcal |
| Protein | 14.4 g | 28.8 g | 14.4 g |
| Fat | 10.6 g | 21.3 g | 10.6 g |
| Carbohydrates | 75 g | 150 g | 75 g |
| Salt equivalent | 0.8 g | 1.5 g | 0.8 g |
| Calcium | 31.5 mg | 63 mg | 31.5 mg |
| Iron | 1.8 mg | 3.6 mg | 1.8 mg |
| Energy | Protein | Fat | Carbs | Salt equiv. | Calcium | Iron | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 serving | 426 kcal | 14.4 g | 10.6 g | 75 g | 0.8 g | 31.5 mg | 1.8 mg |
| 1 adult serving | 852 kcal | 28.8 g | 21.3 g | 150 g | 1.5 g | 63 mg | 3.6 mg |
Values are per serving (1.5× the Japanese preschool portion); an adult serving is double. They were calculated by a licensed Japanese nutritionist using the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan. "Salt equivalent" is sodium × 2.54, the standard Japanese measure. Allergen flags cover egg, milk and wheat only and come from the nutritionist's records. Soy sauce and miso are made with wheat but are usually allowed on Japanese wheat-free school menus, so check with your doctor.
