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!

Pressure Cooker Japanese Seafood Curry 

Author: Namiko Chen

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 12 manila clams
• Sea salt & water for de-griting 
• 3 cups (720 ml) water
• 2” x 3” (5 x 7.5 cm) kombu 
• 3 yellow or sweet onions
• 6 mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 6 oz. (170 g) medium size shrimp
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 6 oz. (170 g) bay scallop
• 6 oz. (170g) calamari
• ¼ cup (60 ml) any white wine (optional) 
• 1 package (8.4 oz, 240 g) Japanese curry roux or Homemade Curry Roux 
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• ¼ apple (I use Fuji apple)
• Steamed rice (optional)

Equipment

• 6- to 8-quart pressure cooker 

Instructions

1. Gather all the ingredients.

Prepare the Clams (4 hours before cooking)

1. Scrub the clams with stiff brush under cold water. Put a wire rack inside a large casserole dish (or a sieve over a large bowl) and place the clams without overlapping each other. The clams need to be raised from the bottom so that sand and grit they purge will be at the bottom of the rack instead of being consumed by the clams again.
2. Make salt water. Combine 2 cups water and 1 Tbsp. salt in a measuring cup and mix well. Pour the salt water in the casserole dish. The water level should be right around the clam’s mouth. Make more salt water if necessary.
3. Cover the top with aluminum foil and keep it in a cool dark place (or fridge in summer time) for 3 hours. This should give clams enough time to purge sand and grit.
4. Now look at the bottom of the casserole dish. All sands purged! Discard the water and place the clams in clean water (not salt water) to de-salt for 1 hour. Without this process, clams can taste too salty from the salt water. After 1 hour, wash the clams carefully with the brush and ready to use.

Prepare the Dashi Stock (1 hour to overnight before cooking)

1. In 3 cups (720 ml) of water, drop 2” x 3” (5 x 7.5 cm) kombu.

Cut All Ingredients

1. Cut the onions in half and then cut the halves into 5 wedges. Cut the mushrooms into ¼” (5 mm) slices.
2. Mince the garlic and grate the ginger (keep the juice too).
3. Peel the 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).
4. Press the “Sauté” button on your Instant Pot and heat 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil.
5. When the pot is hot, add the onion and coat with oil. Then add minced garlic and grated ginger.
6. Add all the seafood (clams, shrimp, calamari, and bay scallop). Add ¼ cup (60 ml) 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.
7. When the alcohol is evaporated, add the kombu dashi (kombu water you made) and add the mushrooms.
8. Add the curry roux (or homemade curry roux) and freshly ground black pepper. Use 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.
9. 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 sauté. Press the “Pressure” button to switch to the manual pressure cooking mode. Change to "low" pressure and press “minus” button to change the cooking time to 5 minutes.
10. If you’re using a stove-top pressure cooker, you won’t have the buttons to press. Just cook on high heat until high pressure is reached. Then reduce the heat to low but maintain low pressure for about 5 minutes.
11. When it is finished cooking, the Instant Pot will switch automatically to a “Keep Warm” mode. Immediately slide the steam release handle to the "Venting" position to let out steam until the float valve drops down. We don’t want to naturally release seafood curry because the seafood could be overcooked with the remaining heat.
12. Unlock the lid and add 1 Tbsp. soy sauce and grate ¼ of apple. Mix well and make sure all the curry roux has been dissolved.
13. Serve the curry over rice.

Notes

Japanese Curry Roux: I use a mixture of mild and medium hot flavors.

White Wine: Sherry, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay are recommended.

http://www.justonecookbook.com/pressure-cooker-japanese-seafood-curry/