The Japanese Curry-influenced katsu curry?

I'm not entirely sure how to properly attribute this delicious curry properly for all of it's cultural influences, but I know at the very least we must give praise to India and Japan. Here's how I go about it:

 

Curry Ingredients: 

• 2 tablespoons canola oil (or other neutral oil) 
• 1 medium onion, diced 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger (I use paste) 
• 2 carrots, diced 
• 2 small potatoes, diced 
• 2 cups frozen green peas 
• 3 cups vegetable stock (i like better than boullion) 
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce 
• 2 tablespoons honey 
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 crispy chicken breast/patty (veggie substitute, maybe some shrimps, whatever you like for protein) 

Roux: 

• 3 tablespoons flour 
• 4 tablespoons butter (or canola oil if you're cooking vegan) 
• garam masala (see below) 
• 2 tablespoons yellow curry powder

Garam Masala: 

I can't find any garam masala premixed blends in my local grocery, but I was able to buy quite a few of the ingredients to make my own.  From what I understand, this spice blend varies anyway.  If you have commentary on improving my mix, please by all means educate me further.  I used a mortar and pestle to grind: 

• 1 star anise pod 
• 4 cloves 
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes 
• 1/3 cinnamon stick 

after grinding fine in the mortar+pestle, I added: 

• 1 tablespoon ground cumin 
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 
• 2 tsp ground coriander Instructions: 

Rice:

I was cooking with brown rice, which takes a 45 minute simmer. So I started 2 and 1/4 cup water boiling, added 1 cup uncooked rice, and let it simmer for 45 mintues. If you have a rice cooker, you'll be just fine with whatever rice you like to eat. This whole process took me about 45 minutes total, so starting with the rice was the right step for me. If I were doing white rice, I'd start it after I got my vegetables simmering in the next step. 

Roux:

You can start the roux whenever you like, just make sure not to burn it. I put the garam masala in a pan - one of the key points to Indian cuisine that I was reading was to toast the spices before you cook with them. so I toasted them for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Then added the butter and stirred well. Added the flour and continued to cook the roux until it darkened a little in color. I didn't want my roux to taste like flour, thus the cooking. This whole process takes about 10-15 minutes, medium-low heat so as not to burn and I can stir between cuttings of vegetables. 

Curry: 

Alright, the good stuff! Heat that canola oil in a pan to medium heat. Get it hot at that level, don't turn it up to high as we don't want to burn the vegetables. Sautee the onions and carrots for 5-10 minutes until the onions start to go clear. At this point, add in the potatoes and continue to cook another 5 minutes. I add in the ginger and garlic and let them sauté for another 5 minutes before adding in the rest of the ingredients. Bring this up to a boil, then reduce to simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes. This will make all of the vegetables tender.

When there are 13-17 minutes left, I'll put my frozen chicken cutlet in my air fryer. I could make my own cutlets etc, but I'm cooking for one. That's a lot of work so I've been buying them frozen. Sometimes, shortcuts are OK.

After your 25 minutes of simmering, you'll stir in the roux and let it simmer cover off for 5-15 minutes (depending on how thick you want it to get) to incorporate. This should thicken it up to a nice, thick gravy style. Serve over rice with your cutlet/patty/shrimp whatever you are serving with. I really love that crunchy stuff: