Adding spiciness to indian curry at the end of cooking

Question

When making Indian curries, I usually lightly fry the spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, and kashmiri chili powder), as most recipes state that this is needed to get rid of the "raw" taste. Sometimes though, towards the end of cooking after I added salt, I want to make the dish more spicy. Is it OK to simply add chili powder? Two possible objections to this are

1) The chili powder won't lose its raw taste since its not fried.

2) The chili powder won't dissolve in the curry, as this takes more time.

Is any of these true? And if so, is there any other way to make the dish more spicy without continued cooking? How does adding chili powder compare to adding green chili paste? And is it possible to add other spices besides chili powder (for example to add cumin powder to get a stronger cumin taste)?

Harlan · Accepted Answer

You probably can't fix the sauce, but the common ways to add heat/spice/flavor to a S. Asian dish after it's cooked are to mix in a tempering oil and to use spicy pickles. The former's easy -- heat up oil and spices in a pan until fragrant, then stir into the dish. You're cooking the spices at the temperature of the hot oil, which is much higher than the temperature a water-based sauce can attain. The latter's easy too -- buy some nice spicy lime pickle at the Indian grocery store!

Correct answer by Harlan on July 12, 2021

vagabond · Answer

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to add red chilly powder at the end for a couple of reasons:
1) The trick of spices are they season and coat the vegetables or meat in the food. Usually once spices like coriander, turmeric, and red chilli powder are added, you want to cover you food and simmer for the required time or saute on high heat. Also, in the intial stages, the oil from the seasoning is still slightly coated on the veggies. The heat acts well on a mix of oil and spices to ensure even seasoning of your veggies.

2) If you have a liquid(y) gravy, adding red chilli powder in the end will result in floating and separation of the powder. Stirring will not help at this point and prolonged boiling or heating will over cook your veggies.

Some Indian spices are deliberately added in minor quantities towards end of the cooking:
a) Garam Masala powder  (b) Mango powder
 Garam masala's raw flavour is an intentional taste in Indian cooking. Raw Mango powder is pure tanginess and no sharp flavors. So there's no risk of uncooked spices with it.

The overarching principle is to cook your spices well in Indian cooking.

guess123 · Answer

Green chilli to spice it up towards the end works really well. Put in a few and simmer for a few minutes...it doesn't seem to conflict with the other spices.

BigBrownBear00 · Answer

It is possible to adjust nearly any Indian dish at the end of the cooking process. If you only want to make it spicier then heat oil with fresh chili's (or chili powder) in a separate pan. Once fragrant you can incorporate into your dish.
The next level is to go beyond just chili's. You can heat oil and then add ginger/garlic paste in addition to a variety of spices (garam masala, cumin, coriander, etc) and then incorporate it into your dish once fragrant. This will massively elevate the flavor if it's lacking. This is an old Indian mom/grandma trick that is used regularly.

Adding spiciness to indian curry at the end of cooking

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