What a great recipe! First time I have made any curry! It tasted just right until I added the final touches....

Shame I just ruined it by putting in 1 tsp of garam marsala at the end instead of .5tsp.

Does anyone know how I can get it "back". I made a huge batch so I could freeze a load. It tastes bitter. My maths was a bit out as I was doing a big batch and I think I have spoilt it all! My Husband just ate a portion for Dinner with no comment but then he eats anything :)

You can make a bowl of smooth, 'basic curry sauce' and add that to it. You could also add a cup (or 2, depending on how much you have) of peas too. It is just a question of diluting the taste of garam masala, isn't it?

However, if it isn't too bad, I would leave it as it is and put it down to experience.

Mamta

If I find that I have been too heavy handed with one of the ingredients in a recipe, the best solution (if you have the time, ingredients and a freezer!) is simply to make another batch - completely missing out the over dominant ingredient and then combine them together.

However in overcautious' problem, just by adding double the amount of garam masala (a delicate & fragrant mix if you use http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=1) it does sounds odd the recipe suddenly tasted so very bitter, could it be the yogurt suddenly destabilising?

My question would be what garam masala you were using?

I'm sure we could all admit to being be there (or near) several times in our culinary journey, as Mamta so wisely suggests, chalk it up to 'experience'.

However, I would add a note of caution. Garam masala was always used as a combination (and the mix was probably always variable) of very aromatic spices, the ones that need to be extracted into oil before giving of their best. This usually means adding to the dish at the beginning rather than at the end of cooking, the latter is a relatively new thing (perhaps last 50 years)? It is similar to adding pepper and salt (and the ubiquitous corainder leaf) to everything.

A good analogy is the adding of chillies to a dish. The heat (and colour) are only soluble in oil, and cooking finely chopped chillies in oil near to the beginning of cooking results in a 'warm glow' in the mouth, rather that a blisteringly hot 'shot' of raw chilli if added at the end.

Also, Karvey's remark is pertinent; there are several traditional mixes, usually based on green/black cardamom, cassia/cinnamon, nutmeg/mace, cloves and black pepper. My favourite, and everyday GM is cassia, mace, green cardamom and cloves, with black pepper added separately from a pepper mill. This is extremely aromatic (it clears the sinuses very effectively :?) and produces wonderful flavours, but they need extracting into oil.

Shop bought GM invariably contains other (cheaper) spices, as well, such as cumin and coriander, which really need cooking to change their flavour, to become more palatable. So you can see that just sprinkling GM on food at the end of cooking just adds raw spice flavours, which can be bland and bitter.