STI: Curry with no powdery taste

Feb 22, 2009

Curry with no powdery taste

By Chris Tan 

 

Q) How can I make curry without the 'powdery' taste?

 

Theresa Foo

 

A A powdery mouthfeel in curry gravy may be due to a few things. Firstly, the curry powder may have been adulterated. I once had some that was apparently bulked out with wheat flour or bran, judging by the nasty, gritty, starchy curry it made.

 

Other adulterants reportedly found around the world include cereal starches, and, heaven forbid, sawdust. The moral of the story: Find and stick to a trusted brand or grind your own.

 

Secondly, the curry powder must be cooked in oil as a first step - known as bhuna in Hindi - to bring out and meld the flavours of its constituent spices before liquid is added.

 

If it is done properly and with appropriate quantities of the ingredient, this results in a well-integrated gravy.

 

But if there is too much liquid in the pan when the powder is added or if the unfried powder is just added straight to liquid gravy, powdery clumps and a slightly raw aftertaste are inevitable.

 

Frying curry powder, or curry-powder-marinated meat, over too high a flame can scorch the powder, creating a rough, burnt-tasting residue.

 

Dhershini Winodan, chef and owner of the Chat Masala restaurants, starts a basic curry by frying onions in a little oil until they turn pale golden, then adding some garlic and frying until that softens.

 

Then, add some chopped tomatoes, stir in the curry powder, either dry or mixed to a paste with just a little water.

 

She says: 'The tomatoes act as a 'buffer' between the hot oil and the curry powder, so the latter doesn't scorch. Fry, stirring constantly, over a low to moderate fire until the oil separates again.' Lastly, add the meat and liquid and simmer until tender.

 

In traditional bhuna technique, a relatively strong heat is used to saute the ground spices, over which water is sprinkled as needed to ward off scorching. By frying onions and tomatoes in the pan simultaneously with the curry powder, and reducing the heat, Winodan's method maintains a minimal amount of liquid so that the spices still fry - as opposed to boil - but with a much reduced risk of scorching.

 

Take note that many Asian ingredients, when pounded into curry pastes, act as natural emulsifiers and/or stabilisers to thicken and smoothen gravies, such as cashew nuts, candlenuts, poppy seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and tomato paste.

 

Dough it right

 

Q) How do I make puff pastry dough without the butter coming out of the chilled dough each time I roll it?

 

Wong Hua Ming

 

A A puff pastry is made by encasing butter in a simple flour dough, and then rolling out and folding it many times, to create multiple stacked layers of the two components.

 

When making it at home, two things are crucial: Keep the pastry cool at all times and make sure you begin with dough and butter that are of equal malleability. Too-hard butter will tear the dough, too-soft butter will melt under the pressure of rolling and leak. Dough that is too soft will over-stretch and bunch up unevenly and dough that is too stiff will not roll easily.

 

At every stage, roll with gentle but decisive strokes, lifting the pin off the pastry just as it reaches the dough's limits - if it rolls over the edge and onto the surface, you risk smearing and sealing the edges of the layers together.

 

Sprinkle over only the barest minimum of flour to prevent sticking and brush off any excess as you fold. If at any time the pastry feels too soft or you can sense the butter melting, immediately put it on a tray and chill it until it firms up.

 

Doing too many turns makes the layers of butter and dough too thin and physically fuses them together, so you get a flaky rather than puffed texture.

 

If you're using a three-fold turn, where you fold the dough into thirds each time you roll it out, then do five or at the most six turns. If you're using a four-fold turn - quadruple layers each time - then do four or five turns. Stick to the lower number of turns if you're new to the recipe and chill the dough between each turn, especially if your kitchen is warm.