Welcome to the first post in a series of easy recipes based on making a second meal from your Hurry Curry of Tokyo leftovers. First up – Kare-Pan (Curry Buns) !

Whether you’ve brought home leftovers from dinner at Hurry Curry of Tokyo, ordered additional takeout curry on purpose, or managed to score extra servings from the catering table at the April Social Media Club of LA event, you know how great Japanese curry tastes on the second day. With a little bit of time and a few extra ingredients you can have an entirely different snack to enjoy.

Several homestyle Japanese dishes work particularly well with leftovers, probably because frugal Japanese mothers first created omurice, yakisoba, and fried rice as bento box dishes based on dinner the night before.

For this recipe, start with leftover vegetable curry. It needs to be pretty thick with vegetables, and not at all runny. If your leftovers consist of more curry than veggies you can stir in the leftover rice as well. Additionally you will need a roll of French bread dough in a can, bread crumbs (ideally panko crumbs, but any style will work) and cooking oil. Usually kare-pan are deep fried, but for this simple recipe you can bake them in the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F.

Open up the tube of pre-made French bread dough and slice into 5 equal pieces. Press each piece into a flat square using your fingers. Place a dollop of curry in the center of a square. Pull the four corners of the dough together and pinch to join them. Next pull the new four corners together on pinch to seal the bun.

Place the panko crumbs in a small bowl and the cooking oil in a second small bowl. Holding the bun by the pinched spot, dip the bun in the cooking oil and then the crumbs. Flip the buns over and place on a greased cookie sheet or a seasoned pizza stone. Bake 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy!