All you need to know about How to cool down a curry
The best thing a foodie can ever eat in your life is a curry. That is why travellers and people all over the world prefer curry whenever they visit a restaurant. Curry is a mouth-watering rich hot, to milder saucy food that brings the right blend of spices to your mouth.
It originates from the Indian subcontinent and is veggies or meat cooked in a sauce seasoned with a mixture of herbs and ground spices. So, before you enjoy a bowl of freshly made curry, it’s time you know what it is and how to cool down a curry and much more.
How is a Curry made?
The foundation of a typical curry recipe is a blend of garlic, onion and ginger. That base is flavoured with plenty of spices and herbs. These spices include cinnamon, fennel seeds, cardamom, mustard seed, cayenne pepper, fenugreek, turmeric and cloves.
All these spices are toasted and finely ground. Other ingredients may include nutmeg, curry leaves, bay leaves, mace, star anise, chillies, and poppy seeds. It is usually prepared as a sauce. Once the curry base is prepared, add the meat or vegetables to the curry.
Allow the ingredient to cook properly and simmer for a few minutes to get the most flavour out of them. Add powdered spices before turning off the heat. The style of preparation and content of curry may vary from one region to the other. The curry dishes are usually spicy and water-based and are eaten along with boiled rice and Indian bread
Which Spice mix is used for a Curry?
There are several spices used for the curry. Each curry recipe uses a diverse blend of spices to make it hot, milder, sweet, or savoury.
Indian Curry
Indian Curry usually uses turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves, and most importantly, red or green dried chillies to bring you the hot sensational curry recipe. There is a long list of other spices too.
Chinese Curry
Chinese curry use sauces like red chilli sauce, dried chilli, soya sauce, vinegar, oyster sauce, black pepper, white pepper, and many more. Chinese savoury hot curries are very famous among travellers.
Thai Curry
Thai curries are made of a mixture of Indian and western herbs and spices—ingredients like coconut milk, water, aromatic leaves, green chillies, garlic, galangal, etc. However, Thai curry is milder spicy most of the time compared to many Chinese and Indian curries. Thai Curry most uses seafood and meat for the curry recipe.
Japanese Curry
The Japanese curry is the simplest of all. It contains potatoes, onions, carrots, and meat. It is made of curry powder or also made through roux and a complex blend of Indian spices.
However, the curry is still less hot and spicy as compared to Indian curry.
Most curries are spicy and hot, but you can learn how to make a curry less spicy or how to make a hot curry milder; here are few tips.
General Rules of Cooling Down a Curry
Here are some very general rules on how to take the heat out of curry. If you think your curry too hot, you can add more vegetables to make it milder. You can also add dairy like cream, milk, yoghurt, or cheese if you look at how to cool down a curry.
You can add acidity or any acidic spice if you wonder how to make a curry less spicy.
You can add a bit of sugar, too, if you won’t make it sweet. You can also add coconut milk and serve with cooling condiments. As different regions of the world offer other curries; each has a different set of ways to cook a curry. Here are some tips for each region.
How to Cool Down an Indian Curry
Indian curries are the hottest and steaming of all curries known globally, but there are ways how to take the heat out of curry.
Use Less Red Dried Chilli or Green Chilli
Indians love chilli, but if you want to cool down an Indian curry too hot recipe, add your taste and keep the flame low
Use Cream or Yoghurt
Indians like thick gravy. If you are looking at how to make a hot curry milder, use cream or yoghurt. That adjusts the taste.
Use Less Garam Masala
A lot of Indian recipes use garam masala. That makes the food spiciest. If you wonder how to make the curry less spicy still using garam masala, add very little of it.
How to Cool Down a Chinese Curry
Chinese curry becomes spicy due to green chilli, red chilli sauce, or hot tomato sauce. There are two prominent that will let you know how to keep the sauce less hot.
Use Less Chilli Sauce
This is one of the easiest ways to keep a few recipes of china mild. If you are wondering how to cool down a curry, use it as per taste and not in excess.
Use Less Hot Tomato Sauce or Ketchup
These two make curry very hot; when you prepare one and look at how to make a curry less hot, add it less than the prescribed recipe. You can also use the milder versions of these sauces.
Use Sugar or Honey
This is very important if you want to learn how to make a curry less spicy, add sugar or honey to make it sweet enough to eat it less hot.
How to Cool Down a Thai Curry
Here are two essential tips on how to cool down a curry that is Thai.
Use Less Mix of Spices
A traditional Thai chef uses 20 different kinds of chillies to make a curry spicy. You have to drop this idea to very few.
Use Coconut Milk
As a traditional Thai curry foodie, you will always add coconut milk or coconut cream. But to find a way to take the heat out of a curry and make it taste milder, add more of it. The curry will steam down.
How to Cool Down a Japanese Curry
To put some heat out of Japanese curry, do one thing. Japanese curries are not the mildest of all. You need to add more vegetables and fewer Japanese sauces and chillies to calm down the taste.
How to Cool Down Other Curries
These are other sauces used in curries when you learn how to make them less hot. In Britain, hot spices or curry are used with Barbeque. To make the curry too hot milder, you need less green or dried red chilli and more sugar and vinegar. You can also use lemon to make your food less hot.
FAQ
What do I do if my curry is too hot?
Adding dairy can decrease the heat in your curry dishes. For instance, cream or yoghurt can impart a cooling effect and balance the spiciness of your curry.
How do I tone down spicy food?
You can tone down spicy food by adding nut butter or nutty paste of either almond or cashew. Even coconut paste, tahini paste and starch can help to reduce the intensity of chilli.
How do you sweeten a curry?
With a generous pinch of salt and sugar, you can sweeten your curry.
Salt will bring out the sweetness of the spices that you use in curry. Sugar will help balance the bitterness.
What is the world's hottest curry?
Phaal curry is the world’s hottest curry which is made from the hottest chilli named Bhut Jolokia.
Conclusion
Starting from India, the hottest in all curries till Japan, you need to use less chilli or herbs that do not steam the taste of the curry. But who does not like the curry that is hot, and if you do, forgets these ideas. You do not always have to bother with how to make a hot curry milder!
Andy
Ever since I started cooking I’ve been fascinated by how different people’s techniques are and how they best utilise the ingredients around them. Even the person living next door will have their own unique way of frying an egg or cooking a salmon fillet.
This fascination led me on a journey across the globe to discover the countless practices and traditions the world of cooking has to offer. I thought you’d enjoy and find value in sharing that journey with me so I created Cooked Best!