クリームシチュー
Obviously, Cream Stew must not have started as a Japanese dish, but like Curry Rice, it is now a comfort food, and pretty easy to make. (There are quite a few favorite recipes that are youshoku, western-style.) Typical home cooking involves using a boxed roux, but as this product contains wheat flour, I do the white sauce from scratch. I've found that stirring in sour cream at the end results in the same rich mouth feel I remember from when I was eating wheat products and could use the commercial roux. This trick works for both Cream Stew and Curry Rice. This is a good use for leftover turkey or chicken. In our house, the boys like egg noodles, which I cook in a separate pot as I can't eat them. For myself, if I don't have any steamed rice handy, I make breadsticks from Chebe Garlic-Onion mix 
http://www.chebe.com/CH-G.htm.
4 Servings
2 cups leftover cooked chicken or turkey
OR
1/2 lb boneless chicken breasts, cut up in 1 inch chunks
salt
pepper
2 tablespoons Peanut Oil? or butter
If starting with uncooked chicken, season with salt and pepper and brown in a 5 quart dutch oven or soup pot over medium heat. Remove and set aside.
1 10 oz bag frozen stew vegetables OR 1 1/2 cups hard vegetables of your choice, cut up in 1 inch chunks. Potato, Carrot, and Pearl Onion are traditional.
If using uncooked vegetables, saute for about 5 minutes.
2 cups Chicken Stock
Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and hard vegetables (you don't want to cook broccoli for a long time as it gets sulferous). Reduce heat to low and simmer covered for 20 to 30 minutes. Skim fat and residue occasionally if any comes to the top.
Once that is going well, start boiling the water for noodles and mix up chebe breadsticks and get them in the oven if you will be using those.
2 tablespoons Butter 2 tablespoons white rice flour 1 cup Milk 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoons Black Pepper
After it has been simmering 10-15 minutes, start making the white sauce. In another saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in flour until it is a smooth paste. Gradually stir in milk. Add 1 cup of hot broth from the stew and stir until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.
1 10 oz bag frozen Broccoli florets or cut Green Beans OR 1 10 oz bag sliced Button Mushroom OR 1 1/2 cups quick cooking vegetable of your choice, in 1 inch chunks
While you are waiting for the white sauce to thicken, add the green vegetable to the stew. When the white sauce has thickened up, add it to the stew. (Add noodles to boiling water, if you are making them.) Cover and let simmer 10 more minutes so the entire stew is nicely thickened.
1/2 cup Sour Cream or whipping cream
Just before serving, stir in the sour or whipping cream.
Some pictures reproduced from Japanese Food For Thought blog. Original post here: http://japanesefoodforthought.blogspot.com/2007/04/japanese-cream-stew.html Another picture from Life of an American mommy living in Japan: http://adventuresofchibamom.blogspot.com/2006/06/cream-stew-for-dinner.html
http://kokonuggetyumyum.blogspot.com/2005/03/white-stew.html
From http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071011193314AAZ9tu3
We say that even after we prepare for making curry, we still have time to change our mind to make cream stew because the ingredients are the same.
Other versions on the web:
- The classic how to use the box - http://foresightedthorn.blogspot.com/2007/03/cream-stew-japanese-version.html
- Chicken Cream Stew - http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/towers/2362/recipeccs.html
- Cream Stew (made with Salmon) - http://zairul.fotopages.com/?entry=981899
- Creamy Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Pork - http://www.house-foods.com/yummy_recipes/recipe_pages/curry_sweet_potato_pork.html
From http://www.kikkoman.com/foodforum/thejapanesetable/10.shtml
After the Meiji government was formed in 1868, it embarked upon a wide-ranging program of national modernization, and one of its early projects was to turn Hokkaido into a major food-producing area. Because parts of Hokkaido resembled the land and climate of northwestern Europe, the government promoted production methods and foods from Europe and America that were new to Japan, such as dairy farming (the traditional Japanese diet did not include dairy products) and raising cattle.
The government invited Western agricultural and animal breeding specialists to Japan; under their supervision, farmers in Hokkaido began growing potatoes, corn, sugar beets, onions and asparagus, among others. They also developed pastureland to raise milk cows, sheep and horses. Hokkaido became an important region for food production, and to this day it supplies the entire country with Western vegetables, dairy products and abundant marine products from the northern seas.
Very funny: "Winter's Potato Chips: Creamy Stew Flavour" - http://www.sfu.ca/dashton/food/food.html
Youshoku - European/American Adapted Japanese Cooking - http://www.justhungry.com/2004/01/yohshoku_japane.html
One page links to Cream Stew:
