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

If you love curry rice, it‘s time to try Japanese Seafood Curry! It‘s packed with amazing flavors from the shrimp, clams, calamari, scallops, spices, and kombu dashi. This recipe is so quick to make in the Instant Pot, too.

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!

Watch How To Make Pressure Cooker Japanese Seafood Curry

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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.

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Pressure Cooker Japanese Seafood Curry

4.77 from 13 votes

If you love curry rice, it‘s time to try Japanese Seafood Curry! It‘s packed with amazing flavors from the shrimp, clams, calamari, scallops, spices, and kombu dashi. This recipe is so quick to make in the Instant Pot, too.

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Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

De-Grit Clam Time: 1 hour hr

Total Time: 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 12 manila clams (see my instructions on how to degrit clams as soon as you bring them home)
• ▢ 3 onions
• ▢ 6 mushrooms
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic
• ▢ 1 knob ginger (1 inch, 2.5 cm; peeled)
• ▢ 6 oz medium shrimp
• ▢ 6 oz bay scallops
• ▢ 6 oz calamari

For the Kombu Dashi

• ▢ 3 cups water
• ▢ 1 piece kombu (dried kelp) (2 x 3 inches, 5 x 7.5 cm per piece)

For Cooking

• ▢ 1 Tbsp neutral oil
• ▢ 1 package Japanese curry roux (8.4 oz, 240 g per package; I use a mixture of mild and medium hot spice level; you can make my Homemade Curry Roux)
• ▢ ¼ cup white wine (optional; I recommend sherry, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay; any white wine works)
• ▢ ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper
• ▢ 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• ▢ ¼ apple (I use fuji apple)

To Serve

• ▢ 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice (about 1 cup, 150 g cooked rice per serving)

Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.

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Instructions

 

• Gather all the ingredients. For the steamed rice, please note that 2¼ cups (450 g, 3 rice cooker cups) of uncooked Japanese short-grain rice yield 6⅔ cups (990 g) of cooked white rice. See how to cook short-grain rice with a rice cooker, pot on the stove, Instant Pot, or donabe.
  

To Prepare the Clams (1 hour before cooking)

• It‘s very important to degrit the clams. Follow my instructions (it‘s easy!) on how to degrit clams.
  

To Prepare the Cold-Brew Dashi Stock (1 hour to overnight before cooking)

• To 3 cups water, add 1 piece kombu (dried kelp). Set aside to steep for at least 1 hour to overnight. Then, remove the kelp before using this kombu dashi.
  

To Prepare the Ingredients

• Cut 3 onions in half and then cut the halves into 5 wedges. Cut 6 mushrooms into ¼-inch (5-mm) slices.
  
• Mince 2 cloves garlic and grate 1 knob ginger (keep the juice, too).
  
• Peel 6 oz medium shrimp and devein the back of shrimp with a skewer (the vein runs right along the back so you can insert the skewer and pull out the vein). For step-by-step photos, see my tutorial on how to devein shrimp.
  

To Cook the Seafood Curry

• Press the Sauté button on your Instant Pot (I use a 6 QT Instant Pot) and heat 1 Tbsp neutral oil.
  
• When the pot is hot, add the onion and coat with the oil. Then, add the minced garlic and grated ginger with juice.
  
• Add all the seafood (12 manila clams, the shrimp, 6 oz calamari, and 6 oz bay scallops). Add ¼ cup white wine to deglaze the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. The brown bits (called fond) stuck to the bottom of the pot are where all the flavors are.
  
• When the alcohol has evaporated, add the kombu dashi (the stock you made earlier) and add the mushrooms.
  
• Add 1 package Japanese curry roux (or homemade curry roux) and ⅛ tsp freshly ground black pepper. Use a spatula to push down the ingredients but keep the curry roux blocks on top so they won’t get stuck and burn at the bottom.
  
• Cover and lock the lid. Make sure the steam release handle points at Sealing and not Venting. Press the Keep Warm/Cancel button on the Instant Pot to stop the Sauté mode. Press the Pressure button to switch to the manual pressure cooking mode. Select Low pressure and press the Minus (-) button to change the cooking time to 5 minutes.
  
• For a stovetop pressure cooker: Cook on high heat until high pressure is reached. Then, reduce the heat to low but maintain low pressure for about 5 minutes.
• When it is finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to the Keep Warm mode. Immediately quick release the pressure/steam by sliding the steam release handle to the Venting position until the float valve drops down. Important: We don’t want to naturally release seafood curry because the seafood could overcook with the remaining heat. Unlock the lid and add 1 Tbsp soy sauce and grate ¼ apple into the pot. Mix well and make sure all the curry roux has been dissolved.
  
• Divide the 4 servings cooked Japanese short-grain rice on individual plates and serve the curry either to the side or on top.
  

To Store

• You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

To Reheat

• Leftover curry sauce will thicken into a paste as it cools, so it tends to burn while reheating. To avoid this, stir ½ cup (120 ml) water or more into the leftover sauce until loosened. Then, gently reheat it on low heat. If the sauce seems thin, continue heating with the lid off to reduce the sauce.

Nutrition

Calories: 438 kcal · Carbohydrates: 48 g · Protein: 27 g · Fat: 14 g · Saturated Fat: 9 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 202 mg · Sodium: 532 mg · Potassium: 612 mg · Fiber: 3 g · Sugar: 6 g · Vitamin A: 372 IU · Vitamin C: 10 mg · Calcium: 109 mg · Iron: 3 mg

Author: Namiko Hirasawa Chen

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: instant pot, japanese curry, seafood

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