Yaki Kare

I love the way food can evolve and how something new becomes something traditional. This dish has quickly reached cult status in the Japanese port city of Mojiko. Its combination of rice, curry, melted cheese and oozy egg yolk is inspired!

Ingredients
serves 4
300g Japanese rice, (or any short grain rice)
500g Japanese Aubergines, (or regular ones will do just fine), cut into 1.5cm - 2cm pieces
500g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1.5cm - 2cm cubes
350g mushrooms, (mix of shiitake, oyster, etc.), chopped into bite-size pieces if large
250g carrots, peeled and sliced thickly diagonally
250g onion, finely chopped
100g banana, ripe, cut into a few pieces
50g apple, peeled and grated
6 garlic cloves
15g fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
1 green chilli, de-seeded (optional)
1 ltr veg stock
80g butter
80g plain flour
2 tbsp tomato paste (or to taste)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce, (or to taste)
1 tbsp caster sugar, (or to taste)
salt

100g mild cheddar cheese

1 or 2 free range eggs

for the Japanese curry spice blend
9 tsp ground turmeric
5 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cardomom
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground clove

Method
Per-heat the oven to 180C.

Place the aubergines, potatoes and carrots in a large ovenproof dish and drizzle over plenty of vegetable oil. Season lightly with some salt.

Roast the vegetables for 30 minutes, stirring at least once half way through. Then add the mushrooms and mix well. Cook for a further 15 minutes.

Whilst the vegetables are roasting pour about 4 tbsp of veg oil into a large pan and bring to a high heat. Add the onion and ginger and bring the heat down to a medium temperature. Fry until the onions are soft and begin to brown.

Add the garlic, banana and grated apple and continue to cook for a few more minutes before adding the curry spice blend. Stir well, Give it a minute to heat up the spice. Then add 750ml of the vegetable stock.

Bring to a boil and simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes. Blitz it into a smooth sauce with a hand blender.

In another large pan melt the butter and add the flour. Mix well into a roux, gradually adding some curry sauce a ladle at a time as not to create any lumps. Add all the curry sauce and continue to bring it to a simmer.

Add the tomato paste, caster sugar and dark soy sauce, and taste, adjusting the flavour by adding a little more of some of them.

Add all the roasted veg to the curry sauce. Add a little more veg stock if the curry is a little thick. It needs to be reasonably runny.

Boil or steam the rice as per instructions to the point of "just cooked".

In another ovenproof dish or casserole dish either layer the cooked rice and pour over the veg curry or (as I prefer) mix half the curry into the rice and layer the base of the dish then pour over the remaining half of the curry.  Either way top the curry with the grated cheese, leave a small gap from the edge.

Bake in the 180C oven for 10 minutes until the cheese melts, then create a well in the middle and crack an egg into it. Continue to bake for a further 5 minutes until the egg white cooks and hopefully the cheese browns nicely.

Place the whole dish in the centre of the table and let everyone to tuck in.

Or another serving suggestion is to omit the egg from the bake. Then serve them in individual bowls each topped with a poached egg and a garnish of spring onions and chopped coriander.

Serve with a glass of ice cold Sapporo beer.