Please help me with my curry

[MabelBee]

I have made a huge batch of this recipe to freeze:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/72617/chickpeas-with-tomatoes-and-spinach

With other types of food I am quite good at working out what I need to add for a depth of flavour but I really don't know where I'm going wrong with curry. When I added the amounts of spices from the recipe it just tasted so watery and weak, so I ended up putting loads more of each spice in just to create some flavour. I also added curry powder, probably a tbsp or two (I doubled or maybe even tripled the recipe). So now I have some heat and spice but there is a flavour missing and I have no idea what it is. Does anyone have any suggestions? I know it's probably not a real curry recipe, but it seems to want to be a curry. It's just lacking depth, which I always find when I try to make my own curry.

Try a tablespoon of fish sauce. I know it sounds weird but it won't taste remotely fishy but will really round out the flavours and spices

I always do my curries in the slow cooker now, just seems to add that depth of flavor to recipes.
If you don't have a slow cooker, maybe try a low simmer to reduce the wateriness a bit.

I find curry needs plenty of salt and a little sugar to bring the flavours together

Did you fry the spices

Salt! There's no salt in the recipe. Fish sauce is an excellent idea but if you want the dish to stay vegan try some marmite or a stock cube plus salt to taste. Tip: DH always adds 'secret ingredient' when he cooks and it tastes amazing HP sauce.

Good luck !

Sugar (or powdered sweetener) and lemon juice help bring out the spices.

Also, next time I’d add in the spices with the ginger and garlic and cook off for a few minutes, the recipe says a few seconds...

I make a lot of curry. If I were doing that recipe I would put in loads more ginger (more like a piece to fill the palm of your hand), quite a bit more spices, a tablespoon of cumin e.g. Adjust the chilli accordingly. The most important bit is frying the ginger, garlic, onions and spices. That's where all the flavour is happening. I do my garlic, spices, sometimes onions in one of these: www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-CH180-Mini-Chopper-300W/dp/B0000C6WPC/ref=lp_514965031_1_1?s=kitchen-appliances&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1523611066&sr=1-1

Try curry paste (from a jar) instead of curry powder. Be careful with fish sauce if putting in salt - it is very salty. We use rice and oven baked naan breads to serve with curry. I think I found the curry recipe on the good food website.

Try some mango powder if you can find it (easy to find here but I know not everywhere!) I swear by it but if you can't find it a little bit of sugar often helps.

...be careful not to burn the spices and for heat use fresh ginger instead of ground ginger. The spices lose flavour over time once opened which could be the reason if it's bland.

I knew before i read the ingredients it would be salt that was missing

fried onion and ketchup lol

I sometimes put Dolmio in my curries. Not authentic at all but tastes noce.

A tbs of gravy granules works wonders for me.

Curries need a lot of salt to bring out the spices

Spices lose intensity of flavour if sit in your cupboard for ages

Use a lot of onion, garlic and ginger.

I added apple juice and cream to my curry yesterday, as it had a bitter powdery edge despite my having cooked the spices first.

make sure you soften and almost caramalise the onions .always add more garlic than recipe says.
sugar and lemon juice brings out flavour.
salt and pepper.
dollop of ketchup or tomato curries use some dolmio
splash of Worcestershire sauce.
do you fry the spices before hand.
I find fenugreek and cumin give the best depths of flavour.

Wow, thanks all. I have cumin, fish sauce, lemon juice, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, marmite, veg stock, so I'll give it a long simmer and add a few things with some tasting in between. I don't have dolmio so maybe a bit more tomato puree. I might have salt somewhere because that seems to be key.

Do you know, I do know to do the spices first but only when they are whole rather than powdered, so I didn't do it with this one. I did buy fresh in case it helped but it didn't. And did use lots of fresh ginger.

I'll give it a whirl, thanks again everyone.

I had a similar problem yesterday.

I made three curries from a lovely receive book that I have used before and they curries have been delicious. This time they were bland and boring. The family were very critical.

I could not understand what I had done wrong. I then thought to check all my spices, they were all old and had lost flavour. I am going to buy new ones today and then make one of the curries again to see if that makes a difference, I am sure it will.

Dolmio in a curry?

I use Neven Maguire's beef kofta recipe. I use smoked paprika instead of standard paprika.