The pan-ya and bread in Japan

[itch22]

Not exactly, but it does sound good! Or maybe it was. Azuki beans are cooked with sugar to make an but here the mung beans are just soaked, steamed, and then mashed. Perhaps mung beans don't call for sugar. I'll try it and if I think it needs sugar I'll add some next time.

Did anyone ever tell you that you are a Japanese Foodie search-engine machine? You could charge a fee for all the advice you give on Japanese food.

[torakris]

Not exactly, but it does sound good! Or maybe it was. Azuki beans are cooked with sugar to make an but here the mung beans are just soaked, steamed, and then mashed. Perhaps mung beans don't call for sugar. I'll try it and if I think it needs sugar I'll add some next time.

Did anyone ever tell you that you are a Japanese Foodie search-engine machine? You could charge a fee for all the advice you give on Japanese food.

That recipe does call for sugar, after the beans are pureed in the food processor....

I guess my 5 years as a reference librarian has paid off for something, I love research things! when I first left my job and moved to Japan I used to call up my friends and beg them to ask me questions so I could look up the answers and then call them back. It is nice to have a "job" where I am finally useful again. Keep asking!

[itch22]

So it does. That'll teach me for trying to learn how to cook and do my job at the same time.

[Udara]

Hi! I'm delighted to find fellow fans of Japanese pan. I was wondering if anyone has a good recipe for Shokupan that I could try at home? I have not been able to find any Shokupan recipes either in London bookstores or on the web. I've tried standard white bread and enriched bread recipes but have not come close to replicating the light, elastic texture of asian style white bread. Beyond ingredients, is it also the case that the unique pan texture cannot be acheived in a home kitchen and with hand kneading?

[yellow truffle]

I like curry pan. I like anything curry. Even curry udon.

But what is soup curry pan?

[torakris]

I like curry pan. I like anything curry. Even curry udon.

But what is soup curry pan?

eeewwww!

curry pan flavored soup????

[torakris]

Hi! I'm delighted to find fellow fans of Japanese pan. I was wondering if anyone has a good recipe for Shokupan that I could try at home? I have not been able to find any Shokupan recipes either in London bookstores or on the web. I've tried standard white bread and enriched bread recipes but have not come close to replicating the light, elastic texture of asian style white bread. Beyond ingredients, is it also the case that the unique pan texture cannot be acheived in a home kitchen and with hand kneading?

There was some discussion of this further up on the thread, I just noticed all of the characters are mixed up though.

I don't have time to fix it now, but I will try to fix it later and see if I can find any more info for you. I have never really seen recipes for shokupan, it isn't something the Japanese make at home, but I will see if I can dig anything up.

[yellow truffle]

I like curry pan. I like anything curry. Even curry udon.

But what is soup curry pan?

eeewwww!

curry pan flavored soup????

So is it safe to say that you have not tried this.

And is it safe to say that one would not find this in a restaurant in Japan

[torakris]

I like curry pan. I like anything curry. Even curry udon.

But what is soup curry pan?

eeewwww!

curry pan flavored soup????

So is it safe to say that you have not tried this.

And is it safe to say that one would not find this in a restaurant in Japan

nope haven't tried it, actually I avoid anything eaten out of styrofoam containers....

You will NEVER find this in a restaurants,

well maybe I can't say never as this is Japan after all....

[Udara]

Here is a Singaporean take on Curry Pan. Pretty creative, though nothing close to soup curry pan.

Thanks for your help torakris!

[torakris]

If you can read Japanese, here is a recipe for the double soft type of bread:

http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/e-pan/doubl.../doublesoft.htm

couldn't find any recipes in English, interesting additions include mizuame ( a thick sugar sryup) and fresh cream.....

[Udara]

Thanks! This is exactly what I needed. I don't read Japanese, but I'll seek out a translator. I see from earlier discussion you are a former librarian. You definitely know where to find stuff! I surfed the web looking for this for a few days but came up with nothing.

[torakris]

The pan-ya-san truck came around the other day and I pick a couple snacks:

a baguette, doraemon bread (filled with chocolate), pumpkin bread with a wonderfuly spiced pumpkin mix in the middle, and a maple sryup bread that was great!

[helenjp]

Maple syrup bread....was that a glaze, or did it have maple sugar in the bread, do you think? Sounds good!

I was just thinking how the bread shops have changed since I first came to Japan. In 1979 (!) my then-father in law used to divert to Kobeya on his way home, to buy exactly one 6-slice bag of shokupan. He was always full of smiles if we were staying over, because it meant he could buy fresh bread every day!

Out near my then-sister-in-law's place, in a new housing development, the only local shops were a bookshop, a tofu shop, a greengrocer, a fish shop, a toyshop...and a bread shop. The bread shop sold all those staples of Japanese bread shops that you can still see today - the jam-pan, the an-pan, the tsuna/mayo-pan, the animal breads, the yakisoba roll, etc. The mayo was always piped on with a rosette tube, and fooled me more often than I'd like to admit...

Where I live now, there's a Kobeya...of course.

A bread shop called Marsha, totally unchanged for the past 2 or 3 decades, has a loyal following for their sandwich and toasting breads, and makes only a small variety of specialty breads for children's snacks.

A new "artisan" French bread shop specialized in breads made with soy milk...and sign language, judging by their mighty efforts to explain to me the price which was already clearly written on the product! They have a traditional cast iron oven door let into the wall, but I happen to know it's a hatch to the kitchen - a left over from the sushi conveyer belt system belonging to the previous tenant.

Not far away is a sourdough-type shop which recently took over the local bicycle shop - they expanded from a prefab in the back of Dad's garden. Japanese sourdough is *not* very sour, I think the selling point is the natural image - it always goes hand in hand with domestic wheat...and as that has a low gluten content, Japanese sourdough tends to be chewy and low-risen, though with plenty of wheat flavor.

I used to live close to a shop which sold only shokupan, they baked very early, and opened the shop at 6am to queues of diligent housewives who cycled there to buy fresh-baked bread for breakfast. By noon, they would be sold out.

There's another rustic French bread shop not far away, whose sole selling point appears to be high prices...but the bread truck which stops hopefully outside our door every week is about the only exponent of the true, pure, pan-ya style bread shop!

[torakris]

Helen,

Both the pumpkin (which was actually pumpkin and not kabocha like I assumed it would be) bread and the maple sryup were new ones for me. they sound sort of seasonal though don't they?

The maple sryup one was incredible, it was sort of like a cinnamon roll but with some type of maple sryup glaze instead of the butter-sugar-cinnamon, a very good and strong real maple flavor...

[Yuki]

I like the mochi bread with melted chocolate in the middle! But I only know of one shop that sells them and I am thousands of km away from it.........

[Phish]

Here is a Singaporean take on Curry Pan.  Pretty creative, though nothing close to soup curry pan. 

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I have to agree... BreadTalk is pretty amazing. They've even started popping up in Australia as BreadTop. They are "supposed" to be a Japanese bakery. They are very creative with their breads. There are Yam buns, chocolate chip buns, pork floss buns, cheese buns etc...

If you can read Japanese, here is a recipe for the double soft type of bread:

http://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/e-pan/doubl.../doublesoft.htm

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OMG!! Just by looking at the picture, im already drolling!! Now i know how they make that 'M' shape on the bread I've always refered it to Mickey Mouse bread because it reminded me of the ears...

[rajsuman]

Hi,

I've got this book on breads of the world, and every time I take a look at the Japanese curry buns my mouth waters. I'm a kare-pan-virgin, but it looks like something I could easily fall in love with. I've scoured the net for a good recipe, alas, without much success. I'd really appreciate it if someone here could provide me with a recipe and a description of what it should taste like, so I know what to aim for.

Thanks in advance,

Suman

[torakris]

I tried searching for English recipes and came up empty..

lots of recipes in Japanese however.

here is a typical one with lots of pictures:

http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/hituji/bread/curry.html

The bread recipe calls for

280 g flour ("strong"/bread flour/high protein flour)

14 g butter

1 T sugar

1 T skim milk

1 t salt

180ml water (but if it is very hot --in the room--use 150ml of cold water)

1 t yeast

it seems to be a basic bread recipe and the filling can be any curry (lthe less soupy the better ) and most of the ones I have eaten seem to be more of Indian style curries rather than the Japanese curry, with keema curry being a popular filling.

You mix all of the bread ingredients together, lknead, and et it rise, then roll it out, fill it, brush with a beaten egg, sprinkle with panko and allow to rise for the second time. They are then deep fried.

I have never actually made these at home though......

[Hiroyuki]

Since torakris submitted a full recipe, I'll provide some links to simpler ones in which ready-made bread is used, with simple explanations. (All sites are in Japanese only).

http://mbs.jp/emi-go/recipe/recipe33.html

Put some curry on one slice of crustless bread.

Place another slice on top, pasting them together using beaten egg.

Coat with beaten egg and then bread crumbs.

Deep-fry slowly at 160 deg. centigrade.

http://www.siraisi.co.jp/cooking/cooking2.html

(Scroll down and look at the last photo but one.)

Butter rolls are used. A pastry bag is used to fill each roll with curry.

http://allabout.co.jp/gourmet/cookingabc/c...up/CU20040118a/

Similar to the first recipe. The bread is soaked in tempura batter, coated with bread crumbs, and pan-fried.

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Can you get Japanese curry roux in your area?

[rajsuman]

Thanks! The kare pan in my book looks something the pictures in torakris's link. I like the simpler method too, Hiroyuki. I'm tempted to give both methods a try. I don't have access to Japanese curry roux, but I was thinking of making my own filling with some onions, potatoes and curry powder. I can almost taste the filling as I imagine all its various components. Thanks for all your help and the translations. I'll let you know how I get on.

Suman

[Hiroyuki]

Do any of you know of the sweet bun called Siberia (written as シベリア in Japanese phonetic characters)?

It's a sponge-cake-like two slices of bread sandwiching youkan-like bean jam. I liked it a lot when I was a child. I can't find it here in my town.

I had difficulty finding a photo of it, and found this:

http://tdrops.cool.ne.jp/

You have to scroll down and you will see the small photo on the right.

[Hiroyuki]

I found more photos:

http://www.momo1.com/siberiya.html

[torakris]

I found more photos:

http://www.momo1.com/siberiya.html

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Wow, the person who did that website really likes siberia...

I have seen these occasionally in the stores but I never knew the name and probably would never pick it out to eat as I am not a big fan of an (sweet bean paste).

[Hiroyuki]

I found more photos:

http://www.momo1.com/siberiya.html

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Wow, the person who did that website really likes siberia...

I have seen these occasionally in the stores but I never knew the name and probably would never pick it out to eat as I am not a big fan of an (sweet bean paste).

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The an is more like youkan. You should try it. It's yummy!