What's with my curry?

Question

I can never get the taste right.
Here's what i do : I mix curry powder, coriander powder 1/2 of the curry, tumeric about 1/3 of the coriander, some chilli powder into a paste. I then start frying by adding onions, abit of garlic, ginger, cassia sticks, star anise, and some cloves. then the paste and after that the meat. followed by coconut milk and sometimes tamarind juice...as to taste i'll add sugar, salt and light soya sauce.
just before i take it out i would add somemore coconut milk. However i can never get the taste right. Am i missing something ? How do you cook your curry ?
tnx

umm i added sugar so that it wont be overly spicy....

Answer 1

Hi, why don't u try using actual condiments instead of curry powder? That's what we always do in India and believe me, it's not difficult at all. This will also give an excellent flavour to your curry.
Let me give you my recipe, you can increase the quantity as per your requirement by keeping the ratio the same:
Start by heating about 3 table spoons of oil in a pan and slightly frying just a 1.5 inch cassia stick and 2 star anises with 4 cloves. Add chopped / crushed garlic( 7 large cloves) and chopped 1 inch square ginger(avoid ginger paste as it will stick to the pan) and fry till slightly golden.
Proceed by adding 2 - 3 large chopped onions. Add salt to taste so that the onions are fried sooner. stir fry till the onions are soft and start their edges start to curl. Add 5 table spoon tomato puree and continue to fry till the entire things starts to leave the edges of the pan. Then add turmeric powder and let it be fried...and after that add coriander powder and fry a li'l more.
You can also make it smooth by letting it cool and blending it. Should you choose to do so, you can then saute the meat and then add blended curry to it and then let it cook. OR ELSE ...if the meat's tender already...you can add it and let it fry in the unblended gravy.
You can mix coconut milk or ordinary milk or even water to make the curry thinner. You could then add fried meat and let it boil and soak in the curry. Finish by mixing half a tsp, freshly ground coarse brown pepper and garnish with slightly roasted, crushed and dried fenugreek leaves. I'm sure you would love it.
Now...tamarind and milk don't mix well...so if you want it to be a li'l sour..try using mango powder or 'Amchoor' and add a tsp of it with coriander powder. You can let it simmer on the flame and control the consistency by watching the amout of milk that you add to it.
And yes, soya sauce is absolutely unnecesssary...i cannot even imagine adding that to Indian curry!
Curries usually require quite some oil/ghee but there are ways around it as well...contact me for less oily or tomato free curries, i hope that helped. bon appetite !!
Radhika

Answer 2

Omit the soya sauce, stay with all the ingredients you've listed here.

Keep the heat on medium low and enough oil to when frying onions, garlic, cassia sticks, star anise, cloves and ginger, then add the curry paste, fry for a minute or two, then add a little water, to mix everything in that pot. Then you add the coconut milk, sugar and salt. If you adding chicken, add the tamarind juice 30 minutes after the chicken been added.

You should get it right this time.

Happy cooking! :)

ps. this is the way i cook my curry and i add cut up potatoes, tomatoes cut in quarts

Answer 3

If you're going with coconut, you might want to use less powders. Indian curry uses more dry ingredients to get that spicy flavor from aged spices. Thai curry uses coconut and more fresh ingredients to get the spiciness from the natural flavors.

It sounds like your mixing the two of them together. I'd skip the coconut, the sugar, and maybe some tamarind juice. Those add conflicting flavors, sweetness, sourness, and the overall spicy flavor of curry.

I prefer instant curry, but when I do make it from scratch, I don't use coconut milk. I use a thick paste of curry powder and it becomes thick with potatoe starch.

Answer 4

Indian Curry.

Answer 5

Hi

What you need to do is follow a few simple yet basic steps. First, get rid of the sugar.
What were you thinking ???
I personally dont like coconut milk in a curry at all. Any milk based product prevents any spice from really fusing with your food.
What you want to do is start with a sunflower oil base. Fry up your onions till they are golden brown. As soon as they are brown, add the masala, your ground up garlic and ginger and some curry leaves. Stir occasionally. As soon as the curry powder start to hold, or stick to the pot, add your meat. Let your meat simmer in the frying masala. As soon as that starts to hold or stick to the pot, then add your tomatoes, and peas. Pour in a little water and let simmer for a while. Lastly add your potatoes.
The key is to get your spices in the right measure and to get the timing right.
The rest, is a beautiful meal.

Do enjoy.

Answer 6

The secret of the curry is to let the curry powder cook "enough", sometimes people tend to add the other stuff way too quick. It is called "burning" the curry. There are so many ways to cook curry, I am not sure what kind of dish you are making.

Answer 7

Are you indian/south asian? If yes, ask your mom. seriously.

If no, rent of buy the movie, Bend it like Beckham which tells you how to make a kick *** one