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Indian cuisines are popular for their tantalising flavours; however, not everyone can nail them. Most foods have bursts of flavours that include tanginess, sourness, heat, sweetness, or a mixture of all of them. This not only satisfies our taste buds but also our minds.
Cooking is an art, and just like art, there are different colours and textures to the dishes. However, not everybody can make the best use of ingredients every time. Sometimes, the taste of the dish varies, and the slightest difference in ingredients can ruin the taste and texture of the dish. A common problem that happens while making a dish is that it ends up becoming too sour. The too-sour taste is the result of using lemon, yoghurt, tamarind, tomato, or vinegar. For instance, Kadhi is popularly known for using yoghurt and giving it a sour taste. But sometimes it can turn too sour. What should you do then? Throw it away? Absolutely not.
We have easy hacks that can solve culinary setbacks like these. Take a look:
- Dilute The Dish
The simplest and best thing you can do to adjust the sourness is to dilute the dish. Add some water or stock to the dish and allow it to evaporate while cooking. This helps in balancing the flavours, thus reducing the sourness. However, make sure you adjust the other flavours after diluting, and it can bring about changes in other flavours. For Example, if you are making Kadhi and have added too much curd to it, you can dilute it by adding water.
- Add Sugar
It is one of the most effective ingredients when it comes to adjusting the flavours of any dish. Sugar can also reduce the sourness of any curry. Start by adding half a teaspoon of sugar and giving it a nice mix. However, if you still find that the dish is sour, you can add more sugar. You can also add jaggery or honey instead of sugar. For instance, if you’re making mango chutney and the sourness of the mangoes has made the curry tangy, add enough sugar to balance the taste.
- Use Baking Soda
It is useful for removing the sourness from any dish. The alkaline nature of baking soda eliminates the acidic taste of the dish. However, note not to add too much baking soda, as it has a strong taste and can overpower a dish, which you’ll not want. In Khatta urad dal, if the sourness is too much, add a little bit of baking soda while giving it a boil.
- Add Cream
Owing to its high fat content, cream can tone down the sourness in a curry and add volume to it. The creamy and smooth texture helps eliminate the tangy flavour. If you don’t have cream, you can use milk, which gives the same result. But remember to add it only after the curry is cooked completely and the heat is turned off to avoid the curry curdling or splitting.
- Add Some Veggies
If nothing works at all, add some cut veggies to the curry. Vegetables like potatoes and carrots are effective in absorbing the sourness and neutralising the acidic flavour of the curry. Also, these veggies will add a natural sweetness to the dish and give a contrasting texture to your curry. This can effectively work for sambar. If the sourness is much more than you desire, you can add veggies like potatoes and carrots.
