Is curry ketchup just ketchup with curry powder?

Question

We use both tomato ketchup and curry ketchup as condiments in Belgium. On the curry ketchup label, amongst other ingredients is "curry (1%)".

So I tried adding curry powder to regular ketchup to see whether I could end up with curry ketchup, but I think the taste was off. The colour was close though.

I know "curry powder" is a spice mix that can differ, but is curry ketchup really just ketchup with curry powder added? Or do they mean a bit of a real curry (the dish)? Or are there other differences? Is it possible to make curry ketchup with regular ketchup?

Asked by Mien

Answer

I suppose the Belgian "curry ketchup" is similar to the German varieties and no, they are usually not only seasoned with curry powder, but also other spices. There is no standard seasoning mix for curry ketchup, but common additional spices are ginger, black pepper, paprika, cayenne or other chili powders. I also think that some brands contain onions.

The brownisher colour of curry ketchup is mostly because of the turmeric in the curry powder, so just adding the powder to regular ketchup will get you a colour match even without the additional spices or ingredients.

Answered by Tor-Einar Jarnbjo

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What's the point of using sugar in savory dishes?

Question

I never get why people add a sweet substance to a savory dish. Especially in something like a a curry or noodles. People say it balances out the flavors. But which flavor is it actually balancing out?

Asked by Uday Kanth

Answer

Hot Sour Salty Sweet

Sugar balances both salty and sour flavors in dishes. Adding just a little sugar makes salty things taste less salty and sour things taste less sour, without actually reducing the amount of salt or acid in the recipe.

For example, the liquid base of the Pad Thai recipe I follow contains chili powder, fish sauce, tamarind, and light palm sugar. The palm sugar balances out the sour from the tamarind and the salt from the fish sauce. Without it, the noodles would come out too sour and too salty.

I don't know the physiological reasons for this. Would be interesting to hear them if someone knew ...

Answered by FuzzyChef

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How do I prevent coconut milk from separating in Thai curry?

Question

It seems like every single attempt I've made at making a Thai-style coconut curry ends up with the sauce mixture separating. Although it usually still tastes good, the coconut ends up looking like it has curdled.

My question is what could I be doing wrong? I've mainly been following the recipe on the side of the curry paste I have (Thai Kitchens brand, IIRC).

1. Stir some of the paste with a can of coconut milk (I've been using Chao Koh) until that boils.
2. Add some fish sauce and chicken broth along with the meat and vegetables
3. Simmer until cooked.

My suspicion is I may be using too much chicken stock. I usually use about 1-2 cups. The vegetables I add(typically bell peppers and onions) will also contribute additional liquid to the curry.

My family and I love this dish, but I would really like to perfect its preparation. What steps can I take to prevent the coconut milk from separating from the curry?

Asked by ddysart

Answer

Even though it isn't really milk (in the dairy sense), coconut milk still naturally separates into a thick cream and thinner liquid like regular milk. As such, when working with coconut milk you should still follow the same procedures you would to make a milk-based cream sauce.

The number one rule when making any creamy sauce is: DON'T LET IT BOIL! Boiling will guarantee that your creamy sauce (including sauces made with coconut milk) will break in some form or fashion. At most, you should cook these at a bare simmer.

Other than that, there are some techniques you can use to keep your curry smooth.

You could use an emulsifier like honey (common in vinaigrettes, where it is used to make sure the oil and vinegar don't separate), added toward the end of cooking.

You could also use a thickening agent, like a cornstarch slurry or a quick roux. Curry paste is also a thickening agent. As a general rule of thumb, when making Thai-style curry I usually cook my vegetables in a little more oil than I think they need, then add the curry paste and sauté that until it has absorbed the oil (along with any dry spices). It will act as a roux for the coconut milk and make sure there are no lumps in the final curry.

Lastly, cooking the curry uncovered at a simmer, stirring occasionally, will thicken it up nicely and help all the ingredients stay together.

Answered by Andy Rice

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How can I save my curry - it's way too oily!

Question

I cooked a chicken curry in the slowcooker last night, I came down this morning and its way too oily. I think because of this the coconut milk has separated a little too.

Any way I can save this, even a little?

Thankyou

Asked by serenskye

Answer

Allow it to cool, then put it in the fridge for a few hours. The fat should rise to the top and harden, making it easier to scoop away.

If you can't wait for it to cool, either skim the oil off with a spoon or use some kitchen paper to soak it up.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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Where can I buy Glico Curry online in the United States?

Question

My wife and I brought back a box of Glico Medium Curry that we purchased on our trip to Canada this past year. I think we bought it at the Daiso store in Vancouver. After trying it for the first time just recently, we both fell in love with it and now can't imagine not having it occasionally. Unfortunately, I can't find anywhere to purchase it, either locally, or online. There are many other brands of Japanese Curry that are available online, but I'm afraid they might not taste the same as the one we had from Glico. Is there somewhere where I can buy this product online, or would any of the other brands that I could get locally be any bit similar? (Such as Vermont Curry, or S&B Golden Curry?) I live in Arkansas.

Thank you!

Asked by dotnetengineer

Answer

Wow, this is hard to find. I know I've seen it in some asian grocery stores, but none of the online groceries that I could find seem to list it, even the venerable H-Mart. No Amazon sellers (usually a good source for odd groceries) right now, either.

Fortunately I found one source for you, eBay seller "hirokojapan" has a persistent listing for Glico Curry Sauce, $5.99 each, $3.95 shipping to the US from Osaka, JP. You select the flavor you want, from Curry, Curry Sweet, Curry Hot, Stew or Rice.

The individual listing link will expire eventually, but future readers can look up the seller directly and see if they are listing a similar item (or message them with a request).

Answered by Sam Ley

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What is an easy-to-make dessert that goes well with Indian food?

Question

We are making vegetable curry with rice and need a dessert to go well with it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer

Not authentic but a rice pudding cooked in coconut milk (cardamom opt) and chilled in individual portions is lovely with fresh fruit at the table. I had it served with passionfruit -lovely.

Keep portions dainty after a full curry meal!

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How can I quickly save a tasteless curry?

Question

I made a curry last night for this evenings meal.

The main components of it are aubergines, yoghurt, ginger, tumeric, cumin and chilli.

After cooking it I tasted it and it is sadly quite tasteless. I think the mistake I made is having too much aubergine for the quantity of spices I put with it.

I won't have much time from when I get home tonight to fix the curry before we eat it.

What's the best thing to do?

Is it safe to just dump a load of raw gingerand spices in or is there a better way?

Edit

It is (supposed to be) an indian curry. It is based on a recipe for a lamb curry. I replaced the lamb with aubergines (without paying too much attention to quantities...)

Answer

Indian curry traditionally has - in addition to the ginger, turmeric, cumin and chili (I assume you mean chili powder) that you used - a generous amount of garam masala, coriander powder, and garlic.

Sometimes you'll see "curry powder" used in recipes instead of garam masala; they are similar but not exactly the same.

Either one of these would be fine, and arguably the most important missing ingredient here. I'm not even sure you could legitimately call it a curry without one of the above.

Depending on your spice tolerance, you might need to add more chili powder as well.

Note that most spices in a curry will need to be heated before they'll really release their aromas (and therefore flavour), so you can't just add them cold, and I definitely don't think you'd want the taste of raw garlic/ginger in your curry, even if it is presently tasteless. Give it a good simmer after adding some garlic (powder is fine) and garam masala or curry powder and you might be able to salvage it.

Or you could try heating the new spices dry, for a very short time, to give them a bit of a head start aroma-wise; just be very careful not to burn them.

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Why add yogurt to curries spoon by spoon instead of all at once?

Question

A few recipes I have might use 5 or 6 tablespoons of yogurt but want it fully mixed spoon by spoon and cooked for 30s before adding the next spoon.

Can't I just dump the lot in and mix well?

Edit: The recipes tend to share the same order: cook spices, add onion & garlic, add browned meat, mix in yogurt, add water, simmer for an hour or more. So it's quite a dry mix when the yogurt is added.

Answer

Yogurt curdles at high temperatures. If you curdle a big lump of yogurt, breaking it up well is hard, and it doesn't taste too well. You want to end up with tiny particles evenly dispersed in the dish. So when you add it a spoon at a time, you can mix it really well before it has had time to curdle.

An alternative method is to do it the other way round. You remove a spoonfull of the curry and dump it into the yogurt, then stir immediately. When it is completely absorbed, you add the next spoon. You continue until you have something like a 1:1 mix in the bowl, then dump it into the still cooking curry and stir.

The second method requires less than 30 s between spoons, but isn't necessarily less work. (You may have to prepare a separate bowl for the yogurt). However, it produces even smoother results. If you have a problematic yogurt (low fat content, high clumping tendency), use the second method.

Edit HenrikSöderlund's comment makes me think that my explanation wasn't clear enough, so here an addition.

The yogurt will curdle a few seconds after it is dumped in the pot. The point is, you don't lumps of curdled yogurt. A lump of curdled yogurt is grainy and sour and doesn't mix well with liquid. Encountering a lump of curdled yogurt in your soup/curry unpleasant in a way similar to encountering a lump of undissolved baking powder in your cake.

On the other hand, A tiny droplet of curdled yogurt is too small to feel as grainy, too small an amount of acid to give you an unpleasant sensation, and small enough to form a suspension with the "broth". That's why you have to break up the yogurt in droplets before it curdles, and this is only physically possible when you start out with a small amount like a single spoon.

It is even more important to do that when adding to the dry-ish mixture described in the edit than when adding to a simmering broth. The broth is below 100°C, the curry base can be much hotter, causing the yogurt to curdle quicker. Also, a liquid will dissolve the yogurt easily and disperse it, but with the dry curry base, you have to rely on stirring only to reduce the yogurt to droplets.

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Prevent coconut milk from separating in Thai curry?

Question

Seems like every attempts I've made at making a Thai-style coconut curry ends up with the sauce mixture separating, making it look like the coconut milk curdled. The taste is still usually good, it just look kinda gross.

My question is what could I be doing wrong? I've mainly been following the recipe on the side of the curry paste I have (Thai Kitchens brand, IIRC). This has you stir an amount of the paste with a can of coconut milk (I've been using Chao Koh) until that boils, add some fish sauce and some chicken broth, along with the meat and vegatables, and simmer until cooked.

My suspicion is I may be using too much chicken stock (I end up using anywhere from 1-2 cups). And that I might be getting liquid from the veggies (typically bell peppers and onions)

My family and I love this style dish, I would really like to perfect its preparation.

Answer

Even though it isn't really milk (in the dairy sense), coconut milk still naturally separates into a thick cream and thinner liquid like regular milk. As such, when working with coconut milk you should still follow the same procedures you would to make a milk-based cream sauce.

The number one rule when making any creamy sauce is: DON'T LET IT BOIL! Boiling will guarantee that your creamy sauce (including sauces made with coconut milk) will break in some form or fashion. At most, you should cook these at a bare simmer.

Other than that, there are some techniques you can use to keep your curry smooth.

You could use an emulsifier like honey (common in vinaigrettes, where it is used to make sure the oil and vinegar don't separate), added toward the end of cooking.

You could also use a thickening agent, like a cornstarch slurry or a quick roux. Curry paste is also a thickening agent. As a general rule of thumb, when making Thai-style curry I usually cook my vegetables in a little more oil than I think they need, then add the curry paste and sauté that until it has absorbed the oil (along with any dry spices). It will act as a roux for the coconut milk and make sure there are no lumps in the final curry.

Lastly, cooking the curry uncovered at a simmer, stirring occasionally, will thicken it up nicely and help all the ingredients stay together.

Check more discussion of this question.

Difference between cooking vegetable curries in a pressure cooker and a wok?

Question

Is the difference only w.r.t time consumed?
Is it better (in terms of taste) to cook vegetable curries in a Kadhai rather than a pressure cooker?

EDIT 1:
Q: Do the spices change their taste when cooked in Kadhai versus pressure cooker?

Answer

What gives spices their flavors are the oils that they contain, along with any water soluble flavors that they might have. In a pressure cooker, your food will cook hot. What that means to your spices will vary as certain spices could grow more bitter or sweeter depending on the compounds inside them. Conventional wisdom says that pressure cooking concentrates the flavors, although that would seem to fly in the face of physics as you aren't reducing while pressure cooking, you are just heating steam at a higher atmosphere to transfer more heat to the food faster.

As for texture, use the one that you like.

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Secret to takeaway curry

Question

It's become something of a quest for me to find a curry recipe that tastes like the curry you get from an Indian Takeaway. I'm getting close with the consistency, but can't get the taste right.

I won't list the various and numerous things that I've tried, but most of the variations that I've tried include:

tomatoes (I've tried fresh, tinned and purée), onion, yoghurt (although this doesn't seem to affect the flavour, so I stopped using it), cumin (tried seeds and ground), mustard seeds, coriander (fresh and ground), ginger (fresh and ground), fenugreek (fresh and ground), garam masala.

I'm pretty sure that I'm missing one or two ingredients that restaurants and takeaways use as a matter of course, but I haven't been able to find it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

EDIT:

I didn't realise that they differ, but I'm in the UK - so that's the takeaway I'm referring to.

I appreciate curry's vary in taste, but there seems to be an underlying taste to all the tomato based ones. For the purpose of clarity, I'm trying to make a Rogan Josh.

Here's a sample of the sort of thing that I've been trying:

• 4 - 5 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 Onion chopped
• 1 lb Diced Lamb
• 2 - 3 Garlic cloves crushed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons of Garam Masalla
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 inch root ginger grated
• Oil

Slowly heat the mustard and cumin seeds until the pop, then add the onions and garlic and fry gently until soft. Add the meat and up the heat to cook. After about 10 mins add the other ingredients and leave for an hour or until the tomatoes have turned into sauce.

Another thing that I've tried is puréeing the garlic, spices, tomatoes and ginger and adding that after the onions are cooked. This helps with the consistency, but doesn't really affect the taste.

EDIT:

The best single answer that I had to this was cream. However, cloves did also make a difference. I still haven't managed to get the takeaway flavour, but thanks for all the suggestions.

Answer

If the English curry is similar to this, you are missing CREAM!

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What causes yogurt in sauces to split? How to prevent it?

Question

A lot of my favorite curry recipes have a yogurt based sauce in them, but on a pretty regular basis when I make them, the yogurt ends up splitting into basically curds and whey. What causes that, and how can I prevent it?

As an illustrative example, last night I made a simple tofu curry as follows:

1. warm evoo in a pan
2. add chopped onion, saute briefly
3. add curry seasonings, allow to warm/season the oil
4. add cubed tofu, toss to coat
5. cook for a while, tossing periodically to lightly brown the cubes
6. turn heat off
7. add plain greek yogurt
8. stir to combine

In the few minutes it took to finish the rest of the meal and start plating, the yogurt had separated so I had a clumpy, lumpy, yogurt soup instead of a smooth creamy sauce.

Answer

You are trying to add the yoghurt at too high a temperature. Let the dish cool to around 75 deg C before adding the yoghurt, and make adding the yoghurt the last thing you do before serving.

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How to ensure that spices reach inside the eggs in the egg curry?

Question

For egg curry, I boil the eggs, shell them, pierce them with a fork and deep fry them. Then I prepare the gravy and pressure cook the eggs and the gravy.

Anything I do, doesn't let the spices go inside the eggs. I was thinking of cutting the eggs into halves but then on pressure cooking they'll split up!

Answer

I have a notion, but it is an educated guess, and may not be practical to use; however, I think it's also a really cool experiment and potentially an elegant solution. It's also an alternative to an extremely long (days or more) soak in flavored liquid.

The Theory

From the Cooking Issues blog, we know that you can infuse flavors into alcohol or water using a nitrous oxide cream whipper. The method is that you put liquid and herbs/seeds/fruits in the whipper, pressurize it with nitrous oxide, then release the pressure suddenly. The gas pressure forces liquid and gas deep into what you're infusing and then when the pressure is released, the gas and liquid are abruptly pulled, out, bringing flavor with it. You should be able to do this in reverse, using gas pressure to force flavored liquid into a peeled, pierced, hard-boiled egg. You'll have to use a pressure cooker or cream whipper.

The practice:

Prepare HEAVILY spice flavored broth, by simmering herbs and spices for several hours to overnight in water. Maybe add a little alcohol beforehand to help extract flavors. Next, prepare lightly hard boiled eggs, peel them, and pierce them with forks until the tines reach some distance into the yolk.

Place eggs and liquid in either a cream whipper or a pressure cooker. Pressurize the vessel, and swirl or shake to help mix. Then allow to sit for a minute or two, and release pressure. If flavor doesn't carry through enough, you might need to allow it to sit for a longer period.

Potential Improvements:

• Try reducing your flavored liquid beforehand for a more concentrated flavor.
• Try it with increasing portions of alcohol; many flavor compounds are more soluble in water than alcohol.
• Use a warmer liquid (warmer liquids dissolve substances better)
• Allow the pressurized vessel to sit for longer periods (may cause problems if using a pressure cooker, as it might overcook)

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Curry powder mix

Question

I mostly make curry from scratch. However some recipes (kedgeree)call for using curry powder. I can never get the mix right.

Is there a standard spice mix substitution?

Answer

There isn't a standard substitution for curry powder; all the blends are subtly different, and may or may not include any of a dozen or so spices.

The standard grocery store curry powders all have turmeric, coriander, and cumin in large amounts, and a smaller amount of cayenne or red pepper. Beyond that, they may include varying amounts of cardamom, mustard seed, fenugreek, asafoetida, caraway, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper, or clove. How almost all of them manage to taste like pallid imitations of real Indian curry blends is anyone's guess.

I know recipes are frowned on here, but in this case I think it may elucidate things. Alton Brown provides a recipe which will probably get you a good ballpark result:

• 2 tablespoons whole cumin seeds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons whole cardamom seeds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, toasted
• 1/4 cup ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon cayenne

Either store together and grind before use (whole seeds store longer), or grind it up into a powder and store that way.

From that base recipe you'll have to tinker with all of the additional spices to get your own substitution.

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Is sweetened condensed milk a substitute for evaporated milk?

Question

I have a recipe for Thai Green Curry that calls for evaporated milk, which I don't have. I do have sweetened condensed milk, will that do?

Answer

No.

Sweetened condensed milk has a 40% sugar content. It is very sweet, suitable for desserts and such. It is entirely too sweet to substituted into a curry.

The consistency is drastically different. Evaporated milk is about the same consistency as heavy cream. Sweetened condensed milk, because of its high sugar content, is more the consistency of a warm caramel.

Also, they are different colors, evaporated milk is white, sweetened condensed is light brown.

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What type of yoghurt should I use for making curry?

Question

I've seen a lot of recipes specifying "yoghurt" when making an indian-style curry, but very rarely do they specify what type.

The problem is compounded for me in that I live in a country where I don't speak the native language, and their concept of what may or may not be yoghurt is possibly different from mine.

Is turkish yoghurt okay? Or should I look for something else? Or does it not even matter?

For reference, I'm intending to make a chicken korma or something along those lines.

Edit: I live in Sweden.

Answer

I think for Indian recipes you should in general look for an unstrained, set yoghurt. There are other factors that determine the final taste and texture of the yoghurt (the bacteria, the type of milk, length of fermentation, …) but you may not have much choice w.r.t. other factors than these two:

Production process: Set yoghurt is yoghurt that's made the traditional way, it's fermented in the pot that it's sold in. Stirred yoghurt on the other hand is fermented before being packaged; it's a more industrialized production process which is cheaper, but results in a more sour, thinner yoghurt. Stirred yoghurt has a smooth, pourable consistency; whereas set yoghurt is firmer. I got a bit confused when I was using stirred yoghurt the first time I tried making raita and the recipe told me to whisk the yoghurt till it was smooth. The pretty sour taste of the yoghurt also didn't go well with the spices, and the juice from the cucumbers made the already-thin yoghurt too watery. You could try fixing both problems by straining the yoghurt a bit and adding sugar, but it's better and easier to just buy set yoghurt. The yoghurt's packaging might say explicitly what type of yoghurt it is, but if it doesn't or you don't understand the language: avoid yoghurt that comes in “milk carton”-like containers, that most definitely means it's stirred yoghurt. A plastic pot doesn't mean it's set yoghurt though, but it's a better bet.

Thickness: Strained yoghurt (like “Greek-style yoghurt” in Europe and the USA) is yoghurt from which the whey has been removed. It's pretty thick and sometimes also referred to as “yoghurt cheese.” In India it's used for example in the dessert Shrikhand, but if a recipe doesn't specify that you should strain the yoghurt, you should assume it's unstrained or briefly strained. Wikipedia says: “In south Asia, regular unstrained yoghurt (dahi), made from cow or water buffalo milk, is often sold in disposable clay pots. Kept for a couple of hours in its clay pot, some of the water evaporates through the clay's pores. But true strained yoghurt (chakka) is made by draining dahi in a cloth.” Should you really only find strained yoghurt, you can probably just thin it back with water or milk.

I should maybe add I don't have first-hand experience with what yoghurt from India tastes like, but I've observed that the ethnic shops in my area and one Indian take-away where I could peer into the kitchen all sell/use the exact same brand of yoghurt, which is an unstrained, set yoghurt with a mild (not too sour) taste.

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