Greasy curry

Lightscribe

Hope this is the right forum for this question.

I've been cooking a chicken curry recently and while it tastes great I always end up with a layer of orange grease on the surface of it.

I use Pataks Tikka Masala paste with fresh onions, garlic, peppers and chicken fillet with a tin or two of light coconut milk (depending on how big of a curry it is) and a sprinkle of cumin and curry powder.

Would anyone have any pointers on how to prevent this grease from forming? I presume it's the curry paste as I don't use much more oil.

Sinus pain

It’s definitely the curry paste - why not make your own curry using your own spices and use less oil?

con747

Any oil you do use will end up like that after the paste is added and the curry is cooked so it's a combination of both. I never found Pataks pastes overly oily and use them for a quick easy curry when not making one from scratch. You can just skim it off with a spoon or try the other methods you will find online.

Cork Boy

The oil didn't magic out of thin air. It's just separated (generally a sign that it's properly cooked) and floated to the top. You can either spoon it off or stir it back in.

Anyway, with curries, there's no such thing as having too much oil. Rather it sounds like you have too little naan ;-)

tangy

Cork Boy wrote: »

The oil didn't magic out of thin air. It's just separated (generally a sign that it's properly cooked) and floated to the top. You can either spoon it off or stir it back in.

I used to see the phrase "when the oil comes back" in curry recipes. Can't find it now though with a quick online search.

Lightscribe

Cork Boy wrote: »

The oil didn't magic out of thin air. It's just separated (generally a sign that it's properly cooked) and floated to the top. You can either spoon it off or stir it back in.

Anyway, with curries, there's no such thing as having too much oil. Rather it sounds like you have too little naan ;-)

Thanks for the responses so far.


I've tried spooning it off but I end up taking bits of veg etc with it. I don't mind the oil too much myself but I did one recently to give to someone else and it just looks unpleasant when it's cold to have a layer of orange grease on top of what is a very tasty curry.

con747

Lightscribe wrote: »

Thanks for the responses so far.


I've tried spooning it off but I end up taking bits of veg etc with it. I don't mind the oil too much myself but I did one recently to give to someone else and it just looks unpleasant when it's cold to have a layer of orange grease on top of what is a very tasty curry.

You can try using a slice of bread when you have cooked the dish and just lay it flat on it soak up the fat but be quick or it could fall apart into it. The fat you have on top might look unsightly when cold but will infuse more flavour back into the dish when reheated. There are other methods like the ice cube one as well you can look at online.

lenscap

Lightscribe wrote: »

looks unpleasant when it's cold to have a layer of orange grease on top .

When it is cold like you said, that would be the easiest way to remove the grease.
You could pop it in the fridge and let the grease go hard and it might be easier to spoon off.

L1011

tilt pan slightly, big ball of kitchen paper on the end of a tongs is a method I've seen used in numerous videos, not done it often myself though

For certain spices, all the flavour is going to be in the oil as the flavour compounds are fat soluble.

Just a thought, but I bought one of these because I was having similar issues with gravy. I find it impossible to add the bits and juices from a roast dinner to a homemade gravy without it tasting like grease/oil.

So i bought one of them and you just pour the contents into the jug, leave it for a minute and when the oil floats to the top you can pour the good stuff into a pan then get rid of the rest. This might work for a curry if you carefully ladled the top couple of cm into the jug?

the beer revolu

The oil is part of the dish.
Leave it there.