Four Ways to Thicken Your Curry Sauce — Zainab Jagot Ahmed (2024)

FAQs

Four Ways to Thicken Your Curry Sauce — Zainab Jagot Ahmed? ›

Two tablespoons of flour (30 mL) mixed with two tablespoons (30 mL) of a cooking fat like butter can thicken curry. Remove a cup of curry (240 mL) and mix it with your flour and cooking fat mixture. Return the curry to the main pot and mix it in to thicken your curry.

Two tablespoons of flour (30 mL) mixed with two tablespoons (30 mL) of a cooking fat like butter can thicken curry. Remove a cup of curry (240 mL) and mix it with your flour and cooking fat mixture. Return the curry to the main pot and mix it in to thicken your curry.

For each cup of liquid, you want to thicken, start with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and mix equal amount of cold liquid and stir until smooth paste forms. Then, whisk the slurry into the hot, simmering liquid that you want to thicken. Bring to a boil and simmer until any starchy taste has been cooked away.

To thicken curries naturally, consider using ingredients like coconut milk, yogurt, ground nuts, or pureed vegetables such as tomatoes or onions. Alternatively, you can create a slurry with cornstarch or flour and water and stir it into the curry to achieve the desired consistency.

The actual sweetness and creaminess of such curries meanwhile, usually comes from fried onions and either cashews and/or dairy products. Instead of (or in addition to) onion, ground coconut may be used. White poppy seeds and/or watermelon seeds are also used in some creamy sauces.

How to thicken sauce without flour or cornstarch? ›

Gums: You can also use vegetable gums, such as xanthan gum or guar gum, to thicken sauces. Xanthan gum and guar gum are very powerful, so use minimal amounts—too much can make the sauce slimy or unpleasantly chewy. 7. Potato starch: You can use potato starch in place of cornstarch with a one-to-one ratio.

Though it's virtually flavorless, cornstarch is easily one of the most vital ingredients in a Chinese kitchen, with multiple uses, including thickening sauces, gravies, and soups.

Add one tablespoon of cornflour to two or three tablespoons of cold water and stir. Pour the mixture into the sauce and allow to simmer until the sauce begins to thicken. Which doesn't take very long. Ideal for Indian curries and can be used as a cream substitute (which is also thickens sauces).

Too much liquid or broth is added during cooking. Short cooking time or not enough simmering time for the sauce to reduce. Low-heat cooking: you need medium-high to high heat to cook off excess liquid. Cooking the curry with the lid: all the evaporated water will collect in the lid and get added back into the curry.

Although the aroma of a spicy dish is wonderful when it's freshly cooked, many people say that Japanese curry tastes even better the next day! Traditional Japanese stewed dishes are often left to cool down once made, to allow the ingredients to soak up the flavors — which is why people also leave curry out overnight.

There are plenty of situations that require the thickening power of a pantry starch: your pie filling, soup, sauce, gravy. Cornstarch, tapioca starch (also known as tapioca flour), arrowroot, potato starch and plain old wheat flour are typical options.

Methods for thickening sauces, soups, and stews include reductions, emulsions, and suspensions. Reduction concentrates liquids and flavors by simmering and reducing the volume through evaporation. In meat-based sauces, naturally occurring gelatins help to add body.