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@maxcriden: I don't have the energy to find it now, but I think someone in the New York Times made his own curry powder for this. It differs from an Indian curry, I believe. Just google around for it. I think it was Sam Sifton who did it.

Get some duck. Season and cook it. When it's cook, shred it.

Season, cook, and puree some duck liver (not foie gras; regular liver here -- heck, even chicken liver would work). Combine the confit and the puree. You want a dry-ish confit with the liver puree coating the confit. Add other ingredients as you see fit -- shallots, onions, nuts (pistachios are good), chives, etc.

Thaw the phyllo completely. Cut it into large-ish squares -- maybe 4" by 4". Cover with a barely-damp kitchen towel to keep from drying out.

Melt some butter.

Lay down one square of phyllo. Brush with butter. Top with another square of phyllo and a glob of the confit mixture. Top with a small glob of cream cheese. Gather the sides of the phyllo into a purse.

Bake in a preheated medium oven until warmed through and the phyllo starts to brown.

Serve as an amuse bouche, if you don't eat them all first!

I remember the best tasting major brands just a few years ago had pork lard AND beef lard in the ingredients. And yes, MSG, like almost everything good does. But now I can't find any Japanese or Korean brand curry with lard in it. I wonder why? It really does miss a certain richness without it, and doesn't taste like the curry I grew up with.

The scary calories are not in the beef (although why use ground beef? YUCK! All the Japanese curry I've had or seen is made with slices or little chunks of beef).

The serious calories are in the curry block! It's called curry ROUX for a reason, it's mostly fat.

As for all your "MSG is Evil people" ... So you think you don't eat MSG? Think again...

Some of the names MSG goes under

monopotassium glutamate
glutavene
glutacyl
glutamic acid
autolyzed yeast extract
calcium caseinate
sodium caseinate
E621 (E620-625 are all glutamates)
Ajinomoto, Ac'cent
Gourmet Powder

The following may also contain MSG natural flavours or seasonings
natural beef or chicken flavouring
hydrolyzed milk or plant protein
textured protein
seasonings
soy sauce
bouillon
broth
spices

Free glutamate content of foods (mg per 100g)
roquefort cheese 1280
parmesan cheese 1200
soy sauce 1090
walnuts 658
fresh tomato juice 260
grape juice 258
peas 200
mushrooms 180
broccoli 176
tomatoes 140
mushrooms 140
oysters 137
corn 130
potatoes 102
chicken 44
mackerel 36
beef 33
eggs 23
human milk 22

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,1522368,00.html

I agree with jperlow. Its scary how much MSG ALL of the Japanese curries have. S&B, House, etc... They are tasty, but they all give me a headache. If you can make them from scratch, do so.
You have been warned...

@Pauper: I've used chicken and pork before, too. Sometimes I do tofu. I did a sort of week-long taste test of all the boxed curries. There are differences. Some are just wretched, others are bland as air. The boil-in-bag stuff is horrible. Metallic aftertaste similar to boil-in-bag rices or what not.

@JBeach: I've never tackled curry from scratch. The S&B box mixes are about as close as I've gotten.

Usually I use chicken or some cubed beef instead of ground beef.

All the different brands of curry cubes in a box taste about the same to me though. They definitely vary in spiciness

As for the peeps concerned about MSG. Yea, I'm sure MSG is just droppin' those Asians left and right. What a health crisis! Oh man!

But hey, that's just me. Stuff could give me cancer for all I care. (All the more reasons to "kill" embryos and research stem cells). The difference between this and something like aspartame is that this is actually delicious and a huge timesaver for when you come home late and don't want to cook.
.

I'm Korean-American and my mom made this stuff for me and my siblings when she wanted to prepare something easy. She usually used chicken and added peas or mushrooms to the onions, potatoes and carrots. I recently learned about the corn syrup and msg, too, which has made me a little reluctant to open the package of "medium" that I have sitting in my pantry.

Oh, despite my Californian health-nutty comment from earlier, I really loved this feature! I thought the photos were a great edition to the recipe--I'll definitely print it out next time I try this. (I eat MSG and corn syrup a lot...I just like to hassle others--food bully, by Adam Roberts's term--a lot).