The spice in a curry or other hot meal comes from the chilli used, and is caused by a crystalline alkaloid called capsaicin, which is found in chilli peppers. As a rule of thumb, remember the smaller the chilli, the hotter it will be.
There is nothing worse than serving up a curry that is going to burn the digestive systems of our friends, most of us like hot spicy food, but too hot is not a great look. There is nothing worse than guests trying to be polite as sweat streams down their faces! Probably they will be cursing you the next morning as well as they may have a bad case of “Ghandi’s Revenge”
In this article we look at ways to cool down a curry that is just a tad to spicy.
Curry not yet served up
- One of the easiest methods to cool down a curry thats just too hot is to add coconut milk.
- Add fresh lemon or lime juice. This will help to reduce some of the hotness because the citric acid will counteract some of the alkalinity of the capsaicin.
Curry already served
- Drink milk with the spicy meal or serve savoury yoghurt such as a cooling mint Raita, with cucumber and a little diced onion
- Banana and coconut are two further foods to serve as accompaniments to curry which are known to help make a fiery curry more palatable.
These methods can be used to turn a Curry thats a bit too hot into something edible, if however your curry is even hotter than that the only other solution would be to create another sauce altogether. And this time go easy on the chilli!
I just bought a pre-made sauce from the store… and I was drinking milk with it but it was just tooooo hot. Found this and added lemon juice to the mixture not eaten and then thought I might as well add it to what I am eating… and it works!! I am thrilled cause I was having so much trouble eating it ha ha
I made a curry with regular curry powder, way too hot! Added the coconut milk as per suggestion and it worked a treat! So pleased this was my first attempt at cooking curry and i was serving it to my father (who is the king of curry) and i wanted to show him that his training had paid off! lol… Thanks so much for the hint!
If you find that the curry is to hot the best thing to add before surving is aprox 100ml of natural yougart and a squeeze of half a lemon!!!
The coconut milk really works for too hot curry sauce. I tried it!
By adding lemon juice really works. What I would like to know is – is there anything that can be done if too much salt is added to a curry ?