Here's a good question from Amy, who wants Indian food but needs to have it less spicy.
I like to eat Indian food on occasion but generally find it too spicy. I have acid reflux so I need to avoid spicy foods as well as other loves like coffee and chocolate. I'm wondering if I can make my own curry powder and omit the spicy spices that are included in it. Would it still taste good? Any ideas or tips? Anyone have a recipe for a non-spicy curry powder?
Amy, we have good news. You can easily cook Indian food with heat levels exactly to your taste. In fact, this question reminded us of a post from a week or two ago:
• Good Question: How Do I Cook With Curry Powder?
In that post we answered a question about why curry powder didn't make a soup taste very flavorful. The answer there is similar to what we would say to you: spice levels as well as flavor are built from the ground up in Indian sauces and curries. Usually the heat level doesn't come from finishing powders at all. It comes instead from whole peppercorns and chilies cooked with the onions and garlic in the base of the sauce.
Most curry powders and garam masala mixes are not actually very spicy. Their ingredients include mild, fragrant spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and ginger.
So, when you are cooking Indian food, adjust the heat level in the base of the sauce by leaving out black peppercorns, dried chilies, and fresh peppers. Here is one recipe you can easily adjust, since we show it to you step by step:
• Weekend Cooking: How to Make Curry
If you still would like to make your own masala powders, adjusting them to your taste, here are a couple recipes:
• DIY Garam Masala
• Beef Curry mix
We do recommend trying these! After all, freshly made spice mixes are excellent and will always be fresher and better-tasting than storebought mixes. If you want to make them less spicy, leave out any black peppercorns, chilies, and chili powder.
Related: Good Question: How Can I Make a Good Mango Lassi?(Image: Flickr member 神酒 Coal licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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Red curry is burning hot, just FYI. I like the paste but only in teeny tiny amounts.
Making your own should be tons of fun. I bet your kitchen smells divine after.
This is the mixture I use for my couscous tagine recipe minus the cayenne pepper (which is where the heat comes from). Of course, tagine is Moroccan, not Indian but the spices are similar and it's easy to make.
Combine equal amounts of ground ginger, ground cumin and paprika. To that mix add one quarter the amount of turmeric. You may season this spice mixture with salt as well.
You could also look for a pre-made curry powder that is not hot. There is quite a range of powders but there is a fair amount of heat in all of them. Jamaican curry powders can be fiery and Madras is medium.
Blimey, that curry above looks delicious.
I rarely use premixed curry powders, just because my Indian cookbooks mostly have the spices listed individually. I find that they ALWAYS call for too much chili powder--so, I finally learned my lesson and drastically reduced that spice--by a third/fourth. Now my dishes are edible. You can even try leaving the pepper out altogether. The spices are so flavorful, I find I don't need the heat.
Good luck!
You could start with recipes that aren't that spicy to begin with. Korma's and butter chicken comes to mind.
Hey, like ValHalla said above, most of the cookbooks have the spices listed individually. I highly recommend Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking by Raghavan Iyer, or his latest book 660 Curries. Both of those not only spell out recipes easily, but also offer suggestions for substitutions for hard-to-find ingredients.
A creamy curry like a korma would work well if you can't do spicy.
(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Navratan-Korma/Detail.aspx) I have a dairy allergy so I skip the paneer and use coconut milk instead of cream. It's delicious.
that picture makes my pregnant belly ache for curry!!!!!!!!!
good post! its absolutely correct, just hold back on the chilis and hot spices at the start, and it will cool it down. my SO is indian so we end up cooking indian a lot, my tounge has learned to take the abuse but when we have guests we will usually tone down the spices. Indian cooking is usually not a science anyway you can make a lot of adjustments to taste - any given recipe has 100's of valid and popular variations.
I also wanted to throw in that some dishes can be served with a whipped yogurt type thing that people can mix into their curries to adjust the spice level (the more you add, the creamier and milder it gets). We dont use it/make it a lot so i am not very familiar with it but i think it is called raita.
My husband was recently diagnosed with GERD literally right after stocking up on indian spices etc from Jackson Heights! Leaving out the chilis has helped, but he still seems to have problems with asofetida, that very pungent yellow spice that makes indian food taste indian. Also, you might rethink very buttery dishes. And if you make raita, use low-fat or non-fat yogurt. Too much fat can also be an irritant. Good luck!
http://www.wellfednutrition.com
Red curry paste, as well as green and yellow curry pastes, are Thai, not Indian.
But again, if making your own, just leave out the hot chillies -- paprika makes it red, and you can use sweet for that.
http://www.recipezaar.com/Red-Curry-Paste-133926
http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/ingredients/curry_paste_-red.htm
I just posted my mom's chicken curry recipe and suggest omitting the green chilies and the red chili powder to make it mildier. http://ru-full.blogspot.com If you want more precise recommendations, email or make a comment, and I can help you out.
I would also recommend you look into South Indian cuisine--sambar is a delicious lentil soup with plenty of spice, but without all the heat, which is just delicious with brown rice or idli or dosa.
One common misconception about Indian cooking is that it is all "curries." In South India, as well as in Gujarat, many people are vegetarian and the way certain vegetables, or subzi, are prepared don't require a great deal of heat, but have amazing flavor. Lentil flour dishes like dhokla are also quite tasty, without the acid churning heat. Simple dishes like Kichdi, which include lentils, rice, peas, potatoes, a bit of garam masala, turmeric, cumin, coriander, etc., are one pot dishes that are best served with yogurt or buttermilk and easy on the stomach, but are in no way bland.
Hope that helps . . .
My boyfriend (who is British) says that "Chicken Korma Curry" is the equivalent of baby food... meaning that it's not spicy.
Patak's has a really easy curry paste that you can use - their mild is not SUPER spicy, but does have a bit of a kick.
-Ruth
i second ruppooson's recommendation of sambar, it has become one of my favorite meals and is relatively easy to make (maybe 30 min if you have a pressure cooker for the lentils). It is a great comfort food for a cold day.
It is divine with idli (rice cakes) if you can find them (making them is fairly time consuming from what I have seen when looking up recipes), most indian grocery shops sell frozen ones that you can steam in the microwave.
I'm Indian myself (south Indian) and would highly recommend you check out the other regional cuisines (as previous posters have pointed out). Try Gujurati or South Indian food. Lots of flavor and you can vary the heat level. We have a small child so we make everything pretty mild but it still tastes good (and it's authentic).
I suggest checking out "Quick Indian Cooking" for some recipes which are authentic and tips on cooking properly. Just omit the whole chilis and it should be spicy without heat.
http://www.quickindiancooking.com/
One thing about cooking powdered spices is that you need to roast them, but it's important to first mix them with water into a paste so that they don't burn. A lot of Indian cooking requires you to cook off the "raw" flavor of spices, but you don't want to burn them (hence the making of a paste that you can cook without burning).
As a side point, my hubby has acid reflux and find DGL Licorice really helps: http://www.bodyandfitness.com/Information/Herbal/Research/dgl.htm.
Better for you than antacids anyways!
Dum Aloo is a dish that we cook often because it is easy, filling, and delicious! You could easily leave out the red chili and replace it with paprika. Here is a similar recipe I googled:
http://www.spicytasty.com/veggie-entrees-sides/dum-aloo/
this is a recipe for aromatic, tangy and spicy salmon curry which is not that hot. Even my 15 months old toddler can enjoy.
http://lekkertje.blogspot.com/2009/03/salmon-curry.html