Making your own curry from scratch may seem easy, but can be tricky for a novice cook. Because individual spices can vary greatly in terms of pungency, you can wind up adding too much or too little of a spice even if you follow a recipe closely. Fenugreek is closely identified with curry, in the sense curry powder is what comes to mind for most people when they smell it. An excessive amount of it will overwhelm other flavors, in addition to making any dish very bitter. If you do wind up using too much fenugreek (in curry or another recipe), you may be able to rescue your meal with one of the fixes below.
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Dilute
If you have a highly concentrated flavor, the first step to fixing it is almost always to dilute. When used correctly, dilution can work in most situations where a dish appears to have been ruined by too much of a particular spice. If your curry has too much fenugreek, add more liquids and more of the ingredients that are not fenugreek.
To get around the problem of having too much food, you can try removing half the ingredients and then bring it back up to a full recipe with all the non-fenugreek components.
Add creamy ingredients
Dairy products like yogurt often show up in dishes that include fenugreek and can be effective tools for masking the spice because of their blandness. Aside from dairy, other creamy options include coconut milk and coconut cream; both are often included in curry recipes. If your recipe already requires them, adding a little more should not have a significant impact on the flavor profile.
Because dairy and coconut milk will mute all of the spices in your dish, you may need to adjust the levels of all the other ingredients aside from fenugreek.
Sweeten
One good way to cancel out the extreme bitterness that excessive fenugreek use can bring is to use a sweet ingredient in moderation. With many dishes that include fenugreek, you can add small amounts of sweeteners without any adverse effects on the overall flavor profile. Your sweetening options include palm sugar, cane sugar, and even honey.
Add other flavors
While adding another flavorful ingredient may seem counterproductive, dried mint can counteract excess fenugreek in a dish. In some cases, it can completely mask the taste. Fennel seeds are also effective at eliminating the strong smell that comes with overuse of fenugreek and are often used to freshen the breath after meals containing it.
The combination of ground coriander seed and lime is yet another way tone down the flavor of fenugreek. Use 1/4 teaspoon of coriander and the juice of one lime. Of course, you will need to add these ingredients in small amounts and taste after each addition to make sure that you are not overwhelming your dish with them.
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- Cooking With Fenugreek: Learn the dos and don’ts of using this spice in the kitchen.