Pressure Cooker Japanese Seafood Curry シーフードカレー (圧力鍋)

To me, one of the most underrated Japanese Curry is Seafood Curry (シーフードカレー). All the delicious flavors of various seafood culminate in an amazing umami flavor to the curry. If you love beef and chicken curry but haven’t tried Japanese Seafood Curry, you have to make it today!

The Key Ingredients for Japanese Seafood Curry

1. Seafood Choice

Most of the Japanese seafood curry include 2 to 3 of the following ingredients or all of them. Fish is usually not part of Japanese seafood curry (although Indian fish curry is one of my favorites!).

• Calamari
• Scallop or baby scallop
• Manila clams and/or mussels
• shrimp/prawn

I usually check out what fresh seafood the market has to offer that day to pick and choose my ingredients. For convenience, you can also use a frozen seafood mix if you like all the seafood choices in the bag.

And if you use fresh clams, don’t forget to de-grit (let the clams purge sand and grit) before you cook. You should do this even though the package or fishmongers say “ready to use”. I often taste sand/grit in them, and you don’t want to experience that while eating your delicious curry. I will show you how to do it on this page.

2. Stock Choice

In today’s recipe, I used kombu dashi. This is SO easy to make, and it’s the right amount of flavors for the basic stock for the Japanese seafood curry. If you plan to make the seafood curry ahead of time, soak the kombu in water overnight. It’s good to give plenty of time for umami to ooze out from the kombu.

You might wonder if you can use chicken or beef stock for this recipe. The answer is no, I do not recommend using meat stock for a seafood dish. However, you can use/make shellfish stock. If you choose to make shellfish stock, make sure to buy shrimp with shell and head still attached (and at least 8-10 shrimp).

Simply put shrimp shell and head, chopped veggies (small bits of onion, carrot, celery), bay leaf, parsley (if you have any), and peppercorn in a pot. Pour 6 cups water and cook on a low simmer (not boiling) for 30 minutes, skimming the foam often. Strain, and it’s ready to use. If you would enjoy a rich and bold SEAFOOD kick in your curry, use this shellfish stock instead of kombu dashi.

3. Vegetable Choice

Onions are almost always included in Japanese curry recipes as soft and tender onions naturally sweeten the curry. If time allows, I’d even caramelize the onions. Delicious!

In Japan, seafood curry is often on the restaurant menu during the summer, and it usually includes summer vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, and bell peppers. But today, I am keeping the recipe simple for everyone.

4. Japanese Curry Roux

Supermarkets in Japan have endless selections of Japanese curry roux brands. But for us living outside of Japan, we are lucky if we have some choices. That’s okay, it’s still convenient! Here’s how the store-bought curry roux looks like.

But for those who prefer to make homemade Japanese Curry Roux, I have a recipe for you here. The roux is pretty easy to make, and it’s MSG-free. 🙂

For gluten-free curry roux, you can use gluten-free flour (thanks JOC friends for your feedback!).

“Kakushi Aji” for Japanese Seafood Curry

Kakushi Aji (隠し味) means a secret ingredient. The direct translation would be “Hidden Taste/Flavor”, and I feel like the Japanese like to say “Add this and that for kakushi aji” a lot while they are cooking. Or is it just my mom?

I think the most popular Kakushi Aji for western-style Japanese food is soy sauce. It makes me smile thinking that adding a splash of soy sauce justifies “Japanese-ness” in foreign/western food. We need to squeeze in our familiar taste in the food!

If you want to join the kakushi aji club, add a splash of soy sauce to this Japanese seafood curry. What else can we put in the curry? Check out this post.