What party/snack food can we make with Japanese Curry mix?

May 11, 2015 10:23 AM

We are trying to clean out our pantry in advance of a house move, and want to use as much as possible to make snacks for our goodbye-old-house party. One of the things in our pantry is a box of S&B Japanese Curry mix (medium hot). Given that a big pot of curry isn't really a good finger food, what would you suggest we make with it? (For those who are not familiar with this ingredient, it is not a powder, but more like a stew/sauce base.)
posted by matildaben to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

This is more work than you're probably looking for, but if you made a "dry curry", you could use it as the filling for curry pan? Maybe use store-bought biscuit dough to reduce the hassle?
posted by chocotaco at 10:26 AM on May 11, 2015

Would it work as a sauce for meatballs? You could make party-size meatballs and chuck them in a crockpot with the sauce and some toothpicks standing by.
posted by something something at 10:31 AM on May 11, 2015

I definitely like the curry pan/baked bao idea.

Maybe curry-flavored empanadas or hand pies?
posted by Muttoneer at 10:36 AM on May 11, 2015

You could take a cue from Japadog and use it as a sauce for hot dogs/cocktail weenies. Maybe some nori and bonito shavings on top too. I've done this before with full-sized hot dogs and it is delicious.
posted by Gortuk at 10:43 AM on May 11, 2015

I wonder if you could use it to make something similar to Currywurst? I like the sound of this sauce recipe better, though. I'd just experiment with substituting the curry paste you have for the curry powder.

This could be served on a small plate with a small fork and is easily eaten standing up.
posted by kinddieserzeit at 10:50 AM on May 11, 2015

Curry pan sounds the most portable, but I think the lowest effort (and people will adore it) would be the meatball/sausage/chicken chunk crock pot with toothpicks. If you wanted to go the extra step, roast a pan of fingerling potatoes, halving or thirding the bigger ones into bite size, and add those to your meat in the pot.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:56 AM on May 11, 2015

Pour it over a can or two of drained and rinsed chickpeas, add a glug of olive or vegetable oil, stir well to make sure all of the chickpeas are coated, add salt to taste, dump them onto a foil- or parchment-lined pan and roast them in the oven at 400F for 30-45 minutes or until crunchy, stirring about halfway through.

Et voilà! Excellent party snack, super-easy to make, and universally delicious whether enjoyed hot, cold, or at room temperature.
posted by divined by radio at 10:58 AM on May 11, 2015

Common uses in Japan for leftover curry that would serve as finger food are croquettes (mix the curry into the potatoes) or curry pan (doughnut filled with curry). People usually just use it as a base for noodles, though.
posted by Tanizaki at 11:16 AM on May 11, 2015

So, there's an embarrassingly stupid and easy party meatball recipe that's really good that I think could work here.

The recipe is: equal parts chili sauce and grape jelly mixed together with some frozen meatballs and cooked until heated. I just throw all of it into a slow cooker so I can transport/serve it easily. So simple and really surprisingly good considering what it is.

I'm not familiar with your curry mix, but from your description I think it would work here.
posted by phunniemee at 11:22 AM on May 11, 2015

Toss it with popcorn.
posted by Poldo at 1:09 PM on May 11, 2015

Mix the sauce with your favourite meat or vegetable filling and make small savoury pies or pasties with pre-made puff pastry sheets. Nom!
posted by h00py at 5:01 AM on May 12, 2015

We did the meatballs. My husband put some kind of ginger-and-scallion flavoring in the meat itself, and they were delicious! He also invented a bok choy cole slaw that went really great with them.
posted by matildaben at 4:19 PM on June 2, 2015