When your curry sauce just won’t thicken…The Solution!

We were looking forward to making a curry with our Long Peppers…

I have found dried long peppers here but not the fresh ones…The long Pepper is called Dee Bplee Pepper…is eaten fresh as well as dried it has a unique fragrance whose official name is Piper Chaba…Popular in Indian Cuisine they are quite rare elsewhere…Luckily I was able to source a plant and they are growing nicely…as pictured.

These peppers grow on vines throughout SE Asia and belong to the same family as whole peppercorns and betel leaves.

Anyway, I digress we were excited that we could pick enough of these long peppers and make a curry…The curry was made with pork ribs BUT do you think that sauce would thicken ..it would not the meat was cooked and falling of the bones and the sauce was thin and runny…

We ordered takeout…

The Solution…I removed the meat with a slotted spoon and once cool I covered and put it in the refrigerator and left the offending runny sauce to cool down and decided I would deal with it tomorrow…I wanted to reduce it down and thicken before adding the meat back to the curry sauce…

It got me thinking though if a runny curry sauce is a problem for you then I would share my solutions…I wanted to reduce it down and thicken before adding the meat back to the curry sauce…

Remove the lid from the pot and simmer briskly…

I had mine on number 2…This is the best solution and I think if the meat still required further cooking it would have worked the best and retained all the flavour of the curry…for me this time it didn’t …Take 2…

Coconut milk or yoghurt…

Is an ideal way to thicken a curry…especially if the curry is a little too hot the coconut milk adds a nice taste and reduces the heat of the curry…Yoghurt adds a nice tangy taste to the curry…Adding the coconut milk worked just fine and it didn’t change the original taste that much just maybe it wasn’t quite so red hot…

Adding mashed or softened boiled potatoes to your curries could help thicken and add some bulk to them.

This will also help to mellow the spices. In case you’ve added a bit too much salt to your curry, a few spoons of well-mashed potatoes will definitely rescue it! You could also peel some eggplants, roast them, and blitz them in a blender, adding this would give a creamier and smoother finish to your curry.

Adding ground cashews definitely works…

As do ground nuts like peanuts or almonds, Ground cashews and almonds are integral to some iconic recipes and dishes, like the butter chicken, of India. The addition of these nuts lends a thicker and creamier texture to the curries. Peanuts are usually a standard addition to a number of dishes of South-East Asian and Chinese cuisines; adding ground peanuts to your curry could give it an oriental feel.

You could add puréed onions and/or tomatoes….although this thickens curry sauce wonderfully it does change the original taste…

Or you could go with one of your pantry staples like cornflour or arrowroot… About one tablespoon of cornflour or arrowroot for every 2 cups of liquid would do the trick. Using arrowroot would impart a better keeping quality to the curry once it’s frozen. Or you could go all Asian by adding a bit of rice flour, giving it a more authentic touch!

The method you use to thicken a runny curry depends on whether what you are using will change or enhance the original taste of your curry…which you need to bear in mind when thickening the curry sauce.

Pork Rib Curry in a Southern Red Curry Sauce…The recipe to follow on Friday…

Thank you for joining me today see you tomorrow for my Culinary A-Z where it is all about the letter R…

 

 

35 thoughts on “When your curry sauce just won’t thicken…The Solution!”

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  7. Tabula Rasa

    I normally take off the liquid with a ladle and boil the heck out of it until i think that if I add it back in it will be about right. Cornflour works well for a little bit of thickening but too much and it gets that nasty Chinese takeaway gloopiness. I like the idea of cashews or coconut milk but suspect that it would not go with a lancashire hotpot 🙂 There is one more way as well to thicken a sauce at the end off cooking which is monter au beaurre which basically means whisk in a lot of chilled butter right at the end to get an emulsified glossy sauce. Great in a restaurant…not so great for the waistline!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      Boiling the heck didn’t work with this one.. Sigh.. Normally it does just not this time it just needed the coconut milk but no not for a hotpot… Butter is a good tip.. Thanx Lucy x

      Liked by 1 person

      2. CarolCooks2 Post author

        As did we its the only way.. but it saved cooking yesterday’s dinner which was delicious… Hubby went back for seconds and he is not an out and out curry man.. Lol x

        Liked by 1 person

  9. marianbeaman

    I don’t know about curry sauce, but I do know that corn starch helps gravy to thicken if you dissolve it in ice-cold water. And I do know that removing a lid or leaving it on does make a difference with some recipes. 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  10. johnrieber

    Always great ideas Carol! Usually my problem is I put TOO much thickener in my sauces…my heavy hand gives me something too thick – but at least there are options there to thin it out – and give me extra for later!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      I try not to use a thickner as most sauces self thicken if simmered with the lid off for the last half hour of cooking time… this time it didn’t thicken but I think the ratios in the recipe were wrong there was far to much liquid for the cooking time so will adjust that next time as the curry was lovely..different but very nice 🙂 x

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