Japanese chef’s curry cleanup kitchen hack means there’s no reason not to cook a pot right now

A simple solution to one of the only bad things about making curry.

Making a pot of curry is a wild roller coaster ride of emotions. There’s the excitement and anticipation as the roux slowly bubbles and cooks, the rush of jubilation when it’s ready to eat, and the profound, peaceful satisfaction of “Yes, that was the right decision” after you finish stuffing yourself.

But then there’s the dark side of making curry: having to wash out the pot. No one really likes washing the dishes after any cooking session, but it’s an especially big pain with curry, since it takes a lot of elbow grease to scrub the stubborn stuff off the sides of the pot. Even worse, with curry’s propensity to stain whatever it touches, odds are the sponge or brush you use will end up a sickly shade of yellow-brown, gross-looking enough that you’ll need to toss it out.

But there’s a way to avoid the unhappy ending of cooking curry, according to Japanese chef and Twitter user Mugi Rice (@HG7654321), who recently shared a technique for hassle-free curry cleanup, which will also spare your sponge from a premature death.

Step one is to pour a tablespoon of water into the pot you want to wash out, then turn on the heat and bring it to a boil.

This should soften and semi-liquify any bits of curry that were sticking to the pan. Once you’ve let the water boil for a few moments, turn the heat back off, wait for the pan to cool down, and wipe it off with a paper towel.

The pot still won’t be completely clean at this point, but it’ll be clean enough that you don’t have to worry about it staining your sponge, and you can now wash it out like you would any other piece of cooking equipment.

カレーなどを作った鍋の洗い物でスポンジが死なずに済む洗い方

鍋に大さじ1の水を入れ沸騰させる→キッチンペーパーで拭き取る→あとは通常通り洗うだけ。

どうか世の中のスポンジさん達を１つでも救うと思ってRTしてください......#麦ライス pic.twitter.com/db1sqh4uu9

— 麦ライス@シェフ/料理家 (@HG7654321) April 27, 2021

▼ If you’re wondering about the thing peeking out of the pan, that’s Mugi Rice’s mascot character, Mugi Rice-kun.

With curry rice being one of Japan’s favorite make-it-yourself comfort foods, Twitter commenters were quick to show their appreciation for this cleaning tip that removes one of the only bad things about whipping up a batch.

“I pretty much killed a sponge every time I’ve made curry.”
“I didn’t want to ruin my sponge, so I always started by trying to wash the pot out using my bare hand.”
“Another bare-hander here!”
“So many of my sponges died. This tip is really a lifesaver!”

Meanwhile, if what’s keeping you from a curry meal is simply not having a pot to cook it in in the first place, there’s a workaround for that problem too.

Source: Twitter/@HG7654321 via Hachima Kiko
Images: Twitter/@HG7654321
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