Thickening a Curry?

[WhiteGiant]

I've been making a couple of curries recently, and I'm struggling to thicken the sauce, any suggestions?

[r_j_k_p]

use less water

or althernatively leave the lid off and the water will evaporate

[Colossous]

If its a creamy based suace - try some ground allmonds (as long as you like the flavour !) and if its more tomato based then put some red lentils into the sauce and it will thicken nicely.

[shaffaaf27]

plain natural yoghurt

[Terbinator]

Daddys sauce.

[jimbouk]

So long as you're not in a hurry then I'd go with the 'leaving the lid off' trick. It's always better to cook things like curries for longer than to try a quick fix.

[Syd]

So long as you're not in a hurry then I'd go with the 'leaving the lid off' trick. It's always better to cook things like curries for longer than to try a quick fix.

Just my two pennies worth on Curry Sauce

Agreed - by cooking it down you will reduce the water content and naturally thicken the sauce, as well as that the 'bulk' of the dish, ie veg will gradually break up and thicken the sauuce if you are cooking for a long time.

What sort of currys have you been cooking? As there is also an argument that some have a natively thin sauce - ie alot of Thai dishes using coconut milk, mmmm making me feel quite hungry!!!

I also find that at home I tend to use Lamb in tomato based dishes as it as a really rich depth (due to its fat content) to the flavour
Whereas Coconut based sauces seem to work better with seafood/chicken as the richness(fat) is in the sauce.

Oh and BTW Terbinator, daddies sauce................... lol

[Clunk]

Lentils.

[0iD]

Lentils.

+1, generally what I do as well.

[Lucio]

Depends on what you're making the sauce from. Since I tend towards tomato based sauces, simply cooking it till the excess water has boiled off works for me.

[Barakka]

Rice Flour - ideal for thickening any sauce, stir some in just before serving.

[shubh]

If gravy is too thin, gradually add a paste mixture of cornstarch and water, stirring constantly. Chinese usually use cornstarch/cornflour to thicken gravy and sauces. One of my friend, Charlien who is working as an adviser for pragmaticoutsourcing.com is offering her consultancy for many restaurants.

[Moby-Dick]

or go for an onion based sauce ( this is what a lot of indian restaurants do )
start of with a bucketload of onions , chope reasonably finely and slow cook till they are very soft. Add a tin of tomatoes then mash or blend until its the consistency of wallpaper paste.

[Zak33]

Lentils is best for added bulk too.

Cooking for longer to reduce the stock works as described.

BUT,,., for emergency thickening

Mix 1oz of plain flour with 1oz of butter in a little bowl, or a mug, or whatever you've got handy, using a metal spoon.. one it's being stirred, the cold butter will soften for the flour to blend with it...

then add small amounts of that to your curry/sauce/soup or whatever, stir and watch it thicken... judge it after 2 minutes, once the flour has absorbed the liquiid.. and add more if needed

It's a cheats version of a roux, but going backwards. Brilliant in soups.

[Infinite]

Some corn-flour or potato-starch. Dissolve a table spoon in water in a bowl then slowly stir into the sauce.

Basic Asian cooking knowledge.

[WhiteGiant]

Thank you all, I like the idea of the onion/tomato paste style stuff particularly.