Curry too hot?

[Quizmonster]

I've heard of various 'remedies' for making a too-hot curry milder...add yoghurt or cream or butter or lime juice etc...though I've never used any of them. (Personally, making a curry milder is a blasphemy.) However, I have some guests coming on Sunday who - I know - will have problems with the heat-level that suits me. Problem is...I'm hoping to use curries I've already made to my spec! My question is, therefore, whether any of you have used any of the treatments I mentioned or do you know of something even more effective? Cheers

[incitatus]

serve yoghurt with the curry. advise your guests to spoon it over the surface and eat it like a muller fruit corner. this really does work. so does adding fruit in any form:mangoe, lime, apricots. in fact a paste made from liquidised dried apricots stewed in tea is a north african approach to this problem, and much nicer than it sounds. Also i would advise having cups of tea on hand: the tannin counteracts the chilli oil in the mouth much more effectively then beer or water. And who serves wine with cyrry?

[nykkieberry]

My mum puts sliced banana on the top of curries or serves natural yoghurt with them so that they are less hot for my three year old.

[chijiki]

Serve the wonderful cool and refreshing Asian yoghurt drink Lassi with the meal.
Recipe for mango lassi:-
3 cups plain yoghurt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup of tinned mango
half cup water
half cup sugar
blend all ingredients in blender
pour into a jug over ice cubes
Tick and creamy and very tasty it will cool the palette. This is a favourite drink of Asians and very often served with their meals.

[Cetti]

Something I've used for years is creamed coconut in a block. You just cut off a piece and add it to the curry about 10 mins before the end cooking. Made by Bart Spices.

But as you're having a posh 'do' a small jug of their Coconut milk (comes in tins) would be better to hand to your guests. The taste of creamy coconut adds a wonderful flavour - and I think actually enhances a curry. Yes, I'm a wimp as well. ;-)

[johntheplamf]

You could also try a couple of bottles of Black tower before the curry, You won't bother about how hot the curry is then.

[Headtime]

If I accidentally make a curry too hot, I find that if you add marmalade (or mango chutney) to it cools it down but makes it tastier also.

[Quizmonster]

Thank you all very much for your helpful answers...all have been noted for future reference. (Consider yourselves universally three-starred. I won't actually star the individual answers, because - to me - that always appears as if it's a bit of a cop-out...along the lines of: "Yeah, give 'em all three!" Nevertheless, that's what I intend.)

In the end, I stirred yoghurt with a little coconut-milk into the one 'offending' curry and received no complaints, nor did any guest appear to have steam coming from their ears! Cheers to all.

[Cetti]

That's good news QM - I suspect we've all been dying to know how things turned out. From your answer it looks like your friends are still just that!! ;-)

[kpcurry]

Throw a couple of raw potatoes into the curry and let them cook. They will absorb a lot of the spiciness. Remove before serving.

[ijoke4u]

Yeah your right....Lime and/or butter works great in cooling the curry down...