My Mother’s Curry

This morning I was going to make karepan, or "Curry Bread". I woke up at 11:00, thinking today would be a relaxing day. You know, a blissful day dedicated to Me, Myself, and I. And the karepan, of course. My brother/dad or both (it's a conspiracy!) decided otherwise. Today in fact was not allowed to be a Tofu-day. It was a whisk-Tofu-off-to-Dad's-warehouse-to-perform-manual-labor-by-packing-14400-(literally)-bouncy-balls-into-boxes.

Oh my goodness. There were so many. 400 boxes of 6 cartons of 6 bouncy "Comet Balls". That had to be taken out of the boxes, checked (for quality control), placed back into the boxes, taped together, and then stacked against the wall. 400 times 6 times 6 = 14400. My arms hurt. And guess what? NO PAY! Well, they did buy us lunch. Ah well, that's what family is for… right?

Correction: my dad gave me and my brother $70 to go buy Bin Bin Konjac coupons. yay!

And so, this post concerns my mother's curry. I love her curry. In fact, I ate it for lunch yesterday. My favorite is CHICKEN CURRY! But sadly, we only had beef in the house when I was making this curry. Therefore, this is beef curry. Please feel free to use chicken instead of beef~! Also partly inspired by my friend Austin, who likes curry with large chunks of potatoes in it.

My Mother's Curry

• 2 medium sized onions (or 1 large onion)
  
• 1 large potato
  
• 4 relatively skinny carrots (or whatever suits your taste)
  
• 2 cups ground beef (or chicken, roughly cut into quarter-sized chunks)
  
• 1 package Vermont curry (I use mild with a touch of honey and apple)
  
• 1 tbsp rice wine (if you have it; if you don't, don't worry about it)
  
• 6 cups of water (more or less)
  
• honey (optional)
  
• apple (optional)

1. Mix the rice wine with the ground beef/ chicken pieces. This gets rid of that icky raw meat smell. Sauté the beef/chicken/whatever on a pan until mostly cooked (the outside should look cooked, but don't worry if the inside is still partly raw). When done, put the beef/ chicken onto a pan and set aside. (leave the fire on and don't wash the pan!)
   
2. Meanwhile, peel onions, potatoes, and carrots. Roughly chop them and place them in separate bowls.
   
3. When the beef/ chicken is done, toss the onions, potatoes, and carrots onto the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 or 2 cups of water into the pan, so that the vegetables are partly simmering in the water. After 10 minutes, pour the contents of the pan into a larger pot (the one you want to cook your curry in), and add the rest of the water.
   
4. Boil the vegetables for another 10 minutes.
   
5. Meanwhile, open the box of curry and take out one of the packages. Open it, and chop it into 6 pieces (or more if you want to; this helps it dissolve faster into the water).
   
6. When the vegetables are done, add the curry sauce chunks into the water + vegetable mixture. Cook over a low fire for about 10 minutes, or until you can poke a chopstick easily through a large potato or carrot chunk. Add two tablespoons and the grated apple if you want to at this point.
   
7. Throw in the relatively cooked beef/chicken into the pot, and stir until mixed. Keep cooking until the curry is the desired consistency, then turn off the fire and eat with a heaping bowl of rice!