Topic: Low-salt curries; how can you make them taste as good as restaurant ones?

[ELW]

Rajah all purpose seasoning is 67% salt plus msg......& works a treat on anything as the name suggests...anyone used it in a base?

[curryhell]

But curries and salt -- well, personal preferences apart, there is one rule that I have never seen documented elsewhere, yet to me it is vital : as the heat goes up (i.e., the chilli content), so must the salt.  At the time when I was still eating Bangalore Phals as my everyday lunchtime or evening treat, I soon learned that nothing ruins a Phal more than upping the chilli content without upping the salt to match.
** Phil.

thanks for that little nugget Phil.  I'll be giving that a go next time i do myself a phall.  It's amazing what you pick up on here ;D

[Curry Barking Mad]

Rajah all purpose seasoning is 67% salt plus msg......& works a treat on anything as the name suggests...anyone used it in a base?

Yes ELW, I regularly use it in place of salt in a base. if I'm making a base that requires 2 teaspoons of salt then I substitute it for 1 tablespoon of APS.
Mick

[ericbristow]

Thanks for all the responses. Sadly I have to report that no, I'm not the real Eric Bristow; you know how sometimes when registering on a forum you just put the first name that comes into your mind?

Anyway, I'll try and find myself some low salt recipes on here for now; though Phil's chilli/salt ratio comment is a little off putting as I do tend towards the spicier end of the spectrum!

In the meantime I'm off to the "introduce yourself" part of the forum, having realised I've done things back to front and should have gone there first...

[976bar]

I agree that curries need salt, it's a vital ingredient to enhance the flavour.

MSG for me only goes about half way.

Lo salt is not as good for you as you think, so I now only buy pure sea salt. I have learnt to cut back a little on salt but will never succumb to a curry without it

[alarmist10]

Hi EB.....and welcome to the best curry site on the web!

Like you, I also have high blood pressure and so lots of salt is just NOT allowed.  Since I joined the site a few weeks ago, I have cooked lots of different curries using Cory Ander's recipes - Madras, Jalfreizi, Bhoona, Vindaloo - substituting 0.25 teaspoon of salt in each of the recipes.  The results are still excellent and to my mind  the quality of the dish hasn't suffered through the absence of salt.

Don't let it put you off enjoying a good curry!
al.

[PaulP]

I saw the doctor last night and my blood pressure is too high. On his advice I've ordered a home BP test kit and will test myself over the next few weeks and report back to the doc. My only hope to avoid medication is to lower my sodium and increase my potassium levels so I'm going to have to get some lo-salt (or equivalent) instead of saxo ordinary salt and eat more food containing potassium. As it is I'm already a bit careful about eating salt.

I'm not writing this looking for sympathy but rather to see of anybody has tried using lo-salt (or similar) products in their BIR dishes and how it tastes?

Cheers

Paul

[ELW]

I use lo-salt now & again tbh i can't really tell the difference between that & the sea salt i normally use..there is also no-salt which has no sodium but does have flavour enhancers...haven't used it but I would imagine this would be pretty good in curry...If I cut the salt content little by little I never notice, i think this is the approach by the food indusrty in general, in bread etc...only problem is when I do a side by side comparison with a bir dish due to the amounts used...in fact now that youve brought this up  i'm going to check my own levels

[fried]

The missus is on Cortisone at the moment and so can't have any salt at all. I don't normally add any extra, but she does like a bit.

I made a kinda fusion curry using CA's Vindaloo recipe but using Pat Chapman's special Balti base since I had some in the freezer. So a creamy/ vindaloo thing. It was good and I didn't miss the salt, even the missus thought it was good. I live in France and the TA stuff is pretty poor to dire, so she's only really tried curry a couple of times in the U.K.

She offered some of the sauce to a friend the following lunchtime who turned their nose up at  it , being without salt. Eventually the friend had a taste and pronounced it as good as Indian food she'd had in the U.K.

The French might not know much about curry but I was pleased as punch. It might give a taste but it's possible to make something O.K without the salt.

[curryhell]

The missus is on Cortisone at the moment and so can't have any salt at all. I don't normally add any extra, but she does like a bit.

I made a kinda fusion curry using CA's Vindaloo recipe but using Pat Chapman's special Balti base since I had some in the freezer. So a creamy/ vindaloo thing. It was good and I didn't miss the salt, even the missus thought it was good. I live in France and the TA stuff is pretty poor to dire, so she's only really tried curry a couple of times in the U.K.

She offered some of the sauce to a friend the following lunchtime who turned their nose up at  it , being without salt. Eventually the friend had a taste and pronounced it as good as Indian food she'd had in the U.K.

The French might not know much about curry but I was pleased as punch. It might give a taste but it's possible to make something O.K without the salt.

Well done mate.  You can start to educate the french on "proper" cooking now, albeit without salt.  Welcome to the forum.