From rushing your onions to confusing heat with flavour, curry experts reveal the most common cooking mistakes that could be holding back your homemade curry.
To celebrate National Curry Week (5th-11th October) home cooks across the UK will no doubt be rummaging through their spice cupboard in an attempt to recreate their favourite curry dishes. But according to the experts at Aagrah Foods, some surprisingly simple mistakes could be the difference between a curry that tastes rich, aromatic and full of flavour and one that’s a flavour fall.
Drawing on decades of experience creating authentic Kashmiri cuisine, Aagrah has revealed the most common mistakes people make when cooking curry at home, along with simple ways to get better results.
1. Rushing the onions One of the biggest mistakes happens before the spices have even entered the pan. Onions form the foundation of many curries, and chopping them in a uniform fashion and giving them enough time to cook is essential for developing depth and sweetness. Turning up the heat to speed things along can leave them burnt or undercooked. Aagrah’s tip: Take your time to cut onions neatly as this will help them cook evenly and be patient when cooking them, they need to be properly softened and golden. This really is the foundation stage of the dish, it’s not something to rush through.
2. Don’t assume more chilli means more flavour A curry doesn’t need to make your eyes stream and be painfully hot to be packed with flavour. Think of chilli as just one part of a much wider flavour profile. Aromatic spices, herbs, garlic, ginger, tomato and carefully cooked onions all contribute to a curry’s character. Aagrah’s tip: Decide how hot you want the finished curry to be, then focus on balancing the other flavours around it. You can always add extra chilli if you think it needs it, but reducing heat is much harder. Each type of chilli brings its own to the flavour. Kashmiri chilli powder (a combination of 4/5 different chillis) is far better balanced than just chilli powder which is fiery.
3. Adding every spice in the cupboard into the pan Less is more, is a thing when it comes to blending spices. Mixing too many spices without considering how they work together can leave a curry tasting muddled rather than rich in flavour. Aagrah’s tip: Follow a tried-and-tested combination of spices and learn what each contributes. A well-balanced handful of ingredients will always deliver better results than adding a little of everything. Most curries will have salt, chilli powder and turmeric as base spices with others added to build the profile.
4. Not giving the sauce enough time A common mistake is to serve a curry as soon as the meat or vegetables are cooked. But the sauce itself needs time for its flavours to develop. Aagrah’s tip: Give your curry time to simmer gently. You’ll often notice the sauce becoming richer, thicker and deeper when you give it time to cook for longer – don’t rush the process. A sauce is truly done when you can see the oil come to the surface (that doesn’t mean it’s burnt onto the pan!)
5. Forgetting to taste as you go Following a recipe to the letter is a good skill, but ingredients aren’t identical every time. Tomatoes can differ in sweetness and acidity, chillies vary considerably in heat, and seasoning requirements can change depending on the ingredients you’re using. Aagrah’s tip: Using a clean spoon each time, taste at different stages of cooking and make small adjustments. Before adding more chilli or salt, ask what the dish actually needs – it could be sweetness, so add honey or acidity so squeeze in a bit of lime, or richness so add some ghee or it could simply need more time to develop.
Alternatively, you could leave the recipe development and spice blending to the experts.
A sixth mistake could be thinking cooking from scratch means starting completely from scratch! Creating an authentic-tasting curry at home doesn’t have to involve buying a cupboard full of individual spices or spending hours preparing a base. Handily, Aagrah has created a range of tarka pastes packed with decades of experience and tried-and-tested recipes, giving you the perfect foundation to create restaurant-quality meals at home.
“Making curry is obviously embedded in my DNA, but I really learnt to do this properly before I went to University, but I often see enthusiastic home cooks making mistakes and think that they are super easy to correct with the right guidance. The main thing is to give yourself enough time, don’t rush. Slow the whole process down and develop an understanding of spice flavour combinations, I promise it will make a huge difference. And if you still can’t quite get it right, we’ve done the hard work for you and you can grab one of our tarka pastes from the supermarket.”
