How do I thicken my yellow curry?

[TwoSocks]

There is a recipe in the January 2013 issue of Bon Appetit Magazine for a yellow curry. It sounded good, so I made it for dinner last night. I used a bit more potato than I should have simply because I wanted to use it up, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly as written. T he only problem was that the sauce was quite thin and wattery, which is not what I expect from a curry. I once had a delicious green curry recipe from a recipe book/instruction manual for an electric walk, but I didn't like the huge amount of prep work that was necessary, not to mention that there were tomatoes in the recipe, which doesn't seam very authentic to me. My question is: What are some ways I can thicken up the sauce in my curry? The problem wasn't that there was too much sauce, but that it didn't really hold on to the meat and vegetables. I'd prefer not to stir a bunch of cooked rice into it, and I'd prefer avoiding the tomatoes. Would cornstarch work well enough, or maybe some rice flour? Any suggestions are most welcome, especially from you experienced curry makers.

[Dissie]

I think at this point thats probably your only option is to make a cornstarch slurry to thicken it up. Or you could, put equal amounts of oil and flour in a skillet and, stirring continuously, cook the mixture over low heat until it's lightly browned to cook the flour taste out of the flour. Add about a cup of the thin curry sauce to the flour mixture and whisk until combined. Stir the mixture into the rest of the curry and thicken up over low heat.

[HeatherFeather]

It depends on the type of curry - some are almost like a soup and others are thicker and more sauce-like. I have seen all sorts of different veggies in curries, including tomatoes.

With the more soupy types of curry, I serve it in a bowl with rice on the side. Not sure if this is the traditional way to eat it or not, but I then serve the rice and ladle the soupy sauce over the rice so it soaks it up (without completely saturating the rice - I like pockets of plain rice too).

I do think you could add a cornstarch slurry or you could puree some veggies and add them to thicken it. Perhaps puree some cooked potato, since you said you had to use them up.

[Sue]

In southern Indian cooking, coconut paste is added to do some thickening. You can also add vegetables that thicken, such as bindi (okra).
And just mentioning that tomatoes are an essential part of making masala sauce (curry masala) and the sauce is allowed to simmer until the tomatoes break down. That too is a thickening trick: reduce the sauce via simmering longer. Just be aware that if you add coconut cream, the longer it cooks, the flavor can diminish. It's best to add the coconut milk to the sauce and add the thick cream at the end topreserve taste.