Spicy food question?

Question

I love to cook Indian and Chinese food at home. We often have guests round who always say they have enjoyed the food.

However, my wife doesn't like her food as spicy as the rest of us, so, is there any way she can tone down her meal when it is on her plate so it's not as hot?

It would be awkward to cook seperately for her and a shame to cook the whole dish to her level of spicyness.

Answer 1

add yoghurt, it always helps, or have salad with drssing

Answer 2

Yogurt or a raita - diced cucumber in yogurt. Your wife can smother her plate with it and the other guests can enjoy it as an accompaniment. If you cook really spicy food the day before and then re-heat it, you'll get the flavour of the spices without the heat. Then everyone should be satisfied.

Answer 3

Our family was full of people that couldn't have what everyone else was having because of something or other.. So we would just cook it like normal and set aside a portion for them before we added whatever they couldn't have :]

Even if you add the spices in the beginning of cooking you could keep it at her level until the end, separate some for her and then bump the rest of the pot up a couple of notches ^^

Have fun cooking!

Answer 4

Is the food creamy? Like Chicken Tikka? You can marinate her chicken seperately with a much milder marinade and then spoon a little sauce over hers at the end. Or I have taken a Chicken Tikka skewer and rinsed it after cooking, then took a bit of sauce and mixed it with sour cream or yogurt to cool it down some.

Anyhow, by adding cream or sour cream you can tone it down a bit for her. I have to do it for my 6 year old all the time, but there's hope. Her brother now tolerates the spice just fine, he's 12.

Answer 5

With Indian food, natural yogurt is great for toning down the spiciness, or if you're having a dinner party you could make raita which works wonders.

If you're doing Chinese you may find it easier to tone down the heat of the dish itself and serve  the food with chili sauce or something like that. Rice tends to tone down heat more than noodles so you may find that helps.

Answer 6

cook to the way the wife likes it take her serving out then add as many spices as you want,remember to heat the wifes up or you will be inn the dog house.happy cooking.

Answer 7

Its always usually like that - someone in the family doesnt like it as hot.

what i do is, cook as normal, however, dont add chillys till you removed a bit of the curry into another pan for the person who doesnt eat chilly.

once you done that, you can add chillies at the end onto your pan, and not on your partners little pan.

also what i do is cook something hot and spicy, but as a side dish i make a mild curry

i.e i would cook a hot chicken bhuna, and as a side dish i would make tarka dhal or spinach bhaji as they are not hot at all. if anyone finds the chicken curry hot, least they have another dish they can have

or you can also make mint sauce which your wife can add on the curry when she has it.

mint sauce goes nicely with indian curries.

Answer 8

Just add the pepper/hot spices down to the end and take hers out before you do that so she gets the whole flavor without the heat.