The Curry Bun is a very popular snack in Japan. I have seen it multiple times in anime and manga, and I've always been curious to try it out for myself. It is traditionally made with a Japanese style curry inside dough that is then fried to achieve a crispy crunchy exterior.
Food Wars is a manga and anime that gained a lot of popularity a few years ago, and it continues to entertain people. It is about a young boy named Yukihira Soma who wants to become an even better chef than his father. His father opened his own family style restaurant, at which Soma has learned about food and how to cook. He also has a very competitive relationship with his father and frequently challenged him (although it was usually to create the worst food combinations). The series starts when his father got a job abroad and suddenly forced Soma to attend an elite cooking school. There he meets many young chefs who also want to be the best.
Each episode is based around a themed competition. They are frequently getting challenges, and need to impress their teachers in order to stay on at the school and progress. Although none of the food I saw in the series was vegan, it was fun to watch them create different dishes from similar ingredients.
In one of the competitions they need to create a unique dish inspired by curry. Two of the supporting characters are the Aldini brothers, who are from Italy. One of the brothers created a curry bun calzone that was influenced by his Italian heritage. In the show the sauce was made purely from tomatoes and spices, and there was cheese inside. I put more of a traditional touch to it and created a curry with a tomato sauce infused with spices, but with lots of good veggies, in order to make it more of a meal than a snack.
In the vegan community there is a chef named Richa Hingle who has created a couple fabulous cookbooks, and has a beautiful blog with many recipes inspired by her Indian heritage. For the sauce I used her recipe for yogurt gravy because I wanted something that you could dip the calzone in without taking away from the flavors in the curry. If you don't like yogurt sauces you can certainly eat this dish without a sauce, but if you are like me and like a dipping sauce definitely try it out!
Curry Bread Calzone
Serves 8
Ingredients
1 Pizza Dough (store bought or homemade)
15 oz. can of Diced Tomatoes
1 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 T. Canola Oil
1.5 C (or 1 15 oz. can) of Chickpeas
4 Cloves Garlic
1/2 inch Knob of Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Mustard
1/4 tsp. Ground Cumin
1/4 tsp. Fenugreek
1/4 tsp. Turmeric
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Powder
1/2 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Ground Coriander
3/4 tsp. Salt
2 Potatoes
1/2 C. Green Beans, Cut
1 T. Tomato Paste
Directions
1. Chop the green bell pepper into small bite sized pieces.
2. Saute the pepper in 1/2 T. Canola Oil over medium heat.
3. Mince the Garlic and Ginger.
4. Add the garlic and ginger to the pan and saute until the pepper is soft. Add 1 or 2 T. of water if the pan gets too dry.
5. Add the diced tomatoes and stir to combine.
6. Peel and chop the potatoes and add to the pan along with the chickpeas.
7. Add the spices and stir to combine.
8. Add 1/2 C. water and cook for 5 min.
9. Add green beans and stir to combine.
10. Add 1 T. Tomato Paste and stir to combine until it has been dissolved in the sauce.
11. Add 1 C. water, stir to combine, and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, approximately 15-20 min.
12. Cool a bit so that it is warm but will not melt the dough.
13. Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
14. Take out your pizza dough and cut it into 8 equal portions.
15. Take one portion and roll it on a clean, floured counter or cutting board, until it is a circle (or as circular as you can get it. Mine ended up being pretty oblong, but that is fine). Take 1/8 of the curry and put it on the bottom of one of the short sides of the dough, leaving at least 1/2 an inch of space around the edge.
16. Fold the other side of the dough over, press it to seal the edge, and fold the edges up and press down, so that the curry sauce will not leak as the calzones bake. Place the calzone on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and continue this process with the remaining 7 portions of dough and curry.
17. When all of the calzones are placed on the trays (you will need at least 2 trays) brush the tops with either melted vegan butter or canola oil (which is what I did).
18. Put in the oven and bake for 30-35 min until the dough is cooked and light brown.
19. While the calzones are baking prepare your dip of choice or follow the recipe for the yogurt gravy on Richa's website. I think it is light and tasty, and gives a nice extra touch to the recipe.
Food Wars is a fun show, and if you like food based shows, or competitive series to begin with, you may like it. You can watch it on Crunchyroll or Hidive. You can also buy the dvds for the first two seasons. Rightstuf has them, but you can likely find them at many online dvd/bluray retailers. If you buy the dvds or blurays Sentai Filmworks made a dub of the show, so you can watch it in either English or Japanese, whichever you prefer.
Keep in mind that this series has a young teen boy demographic, so there is a lot of fan service (in many of the judging parts of the episodes, girl's clothing is often blown right off because of the fabulous taste of the food). They do give equal opportunity though, and both young and old characters, male and female, have had this reaction, so unless this kind of anime trope really annoys you, it is usually pretty funny when it happens.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as one of the judges on the show did. Let me know how you like it if you did try it out or if you've made curry bread yourself and how you like it!
