Kare panCurry beef buns
Kare pan (カレーパン) is the best-selling savoury bun in Japanese bakeries and convenience stores: a soft, slightly sweet bread dough wrapped around thick, mild Japanese curry made with beef mince (pork mince works too), coated in panko and fried or baked until crunchy. Office workers in Tokyo eat one hot for lunch, and children love them after school. The outside is crisp, the bread soft and the curry rich and gently spiced. For a vegetarian version, fill them with diced potato, carrot and mushroom cooked in the same homemade roux; ready-made curry blocks often contain animal fat, so check the label. Runny filling is the usual mistake, because it bursts the seam, so cook it thick and chill it. Chef's tip: dampen the dough edges and pinch the seam twice, then place the buns seam-side down to rest.



