Sugar in Indian curries?

Question

I've seen that sugar is used to balance out other flavors in a dish. I was just wondering if I could add a little sugar to a spicy curry(chicken curry, for example). Would that take away the authentic flavor? If no, then how much can be safely added before it becomes too sweet?

Answer 1

There is nothing inauthentic about using sugar in an Indian dish, even a savory one. For example, Gujarati cooks often add raw sugar (jaggery) to daal and curries. Quoth Wikipedia:

"It is common to add a little sugar or jaggery to some of the sabzi/shaak and daal. The sweet flavour of these dishes is believed to neutralize the slightly salty taste of the water."

And here's an example Gujarati potato curry recipe, which includes a tablespoon of sugar.

As for how much to add, that's a matter of your taste and the level of acidity and/or saltiness in the dish. My Gujarati friends in Boston like stuff rather sweeter than I would personally prefer, so be cautious.

Answer 2

It depends on your ingredients, as you allude to, sugar can help balance some flavors. For example half a teaspoon of sugar can help counteract the acidity of tinned (crushed) tomatoes if you're using them in a curry.

Answer 3

yes, adding a little bit of sugar and lime juice always give it an extra flavor and freshness, specially if it is a heavily spiced curry.

Answer 4

I have a recipe book for cooking curries 'just like an Indian restaurant'. The most glaringly obvious point is that just about every curry (except cream-based ones like kormas) start off with tons of onions, sweated for hours.

This releases a lot of natural sugars from the onions, so most restaurant curry sauces do have an underlying sweetness. Obviously most home cooks don't have hours to spend sweating onions, so naturally their curries don't taste quite the same. Adding sugar recreates the sweetness somewhat. Their are other factors (like adding half a tin of ghee to every curry), but it does help and there's nothing wrong with it.