Chicken Curry and Beyond - The CurryFocus Blog

In the last newsletter we told you that we were changing the way the recipe categories work so that you could find the perfect recipe more quickly.

We have now done this and have started to update the categories in the Curry Focus recipe database.

If you click on the “Recipes” link, you’ll see the first results of this change. We’ve made the categories appear in 2 columns and in alphabetic sequence. And there are now more categories (and more to follow).

So if you want to see all of the Vindaloo recipes, you just click on the “Vindaloo Dishes” link.

And we’ve made a couple of small changes to two more pages. If you click on a recipe that has been reviewed, you now see the taste and heating ratings near the top of the page (just check out the Pork Vindaloo recipe to show this). And if you click on the Print button the recipe page, you’ll also be shown the taste and heat ratings.

We are now looking to add more options to the search function. At present, the search works on the recipe name and the recipe ingredients. We’re looking at changing this so you can also search on the website blogs - there is a lot of information in the blogs that is currently a bit hard to find.

We hope you enjoy the upgraded functions.

If you think of any changes to the website you would like to see then just let us know.

Latest Articles

Thai Green Chicken Curry Recipe Review
Changing the Heat of a Curry
Thai Chicken Curry With Vegetables Revisited

Top 5 recipes for last month

1 Chicken Biryani
2 Chicken Bhuna
3 Chicken Jalfrezi
4 Easy Chicken Curry
5 Poppadoms

Why not tell us the recipes that you like? You can submit a new recipe here and a restaurant here.

I had some friends around for dinner the other night and they requested a Thai curry.

Reading through the great Curry Focus curries, I found one that I had made and reviewed before, but which I had forgotten to note the heat rating. It was Thai Chicken Curry with Vegetables.

I’m very aware that not everyone likes hot, spicy curries and it is important that people know what they are in for if they cook a curry.

So I decided to make the curry again.

The recipe was easy enough to follow and the dinner guests arrived just as I started to cook the rice.

As before, the curry was stunning. It was a typical Thai curry, being light and having a great coconut taste. And it was spicy, medium to hot. Overall it scored 8.5 out of 10, which was down slightly on the 9 that it received the first time that I made it.

What I found interesting was that I followed the recipe but not exactly – I am definitely a lot more relaxed about cooking curries than I was a year ago. The chicken stock came in a packet of 375ml (12 fl oz) and I used it all. And I forgot to buy carrots so substituted courgettes (zuccini).

You really must try this recipe if you like Thai curries.

The main curry ingredient that gives its “heat� is chilli.

And, generally speaking, the more chilli you put into a curry, the hotter it becomes.

There are several ways that chilli gets into curries – as chopped fresh chilli, chilli powder and curry powder (curry powder contains chilli).

We have a couple of great articles about why chillies are hot and the Scoville scale of chilli heat that will give you a good background on chillies and their heat.

Having read these articles, you’ll see that the type of chilli also affects the heat level.

Now we’re not going to get into a debate about whether you should use fresh chilli, chilli powder or curry powder – that is your choice.

The trick is to settle on one type of chilli, or brand of chilli powder or curry powder (you don’t usually know what types of chilli are in these products but most producers try to keep their products consistent).

If you use fresh chillies, you need to decide whether to use the seeds as well as the flesh of the fresh chillies.

Once you’ve chosen your chilli (with or without seeds), chilli powder or curry powder then it’s a matter of quantity.

If you make a curry using just one chilli and the curry is mild then it’s a certainty that following the same recipe but using 2 chillies will result in a hotter curry – using 3 chillies will be hotter still.

And if you follow a recipe and the result is too hot for your palate, then using less chilli will make it milder.

It’s all down to personal taste and experimentation.

And you need to be sensible about the curry heat. If you like hot curries but are cooking for somebody that likes only mild curries, you need to tone down the heat or cook 2 separate curries with different heat levels.

There’s a great article that you can read about how to cool down a curry that’s too hot.

If you’re holding a curry dinner party, you can make a few small curry dishes with a range of heat levels so people can find something that they really enjoy.

Here’s one last word advice. If you’re guessing about how much chilli to put into a curry, then err on the low side because nobody is going to enjoy a curry that is too hot.

Happy eating.