How can I improve a dish with badly cooked spices without recooking?

Question

I am living in a place where the food (namely curries) served is so bad I lose my appetite by just smelling it. I've tried making it taste better by adding some chilli powder, salt, and onions but it hasn't helped. I don't understand why it still tastes bad may be I am mixing in wrong quantity or wrong ingredients.

I asked my friend why is the food tastes bad, and he said that spices need to be cooked to release the flavours and the person making the dish is not cooking them properly so the raw spices are causing a bad taste.

So is cooking necessary for all spices to release flavour? How can I tell whether that's the problem, and how can I improve a dish with badly cooked spices without recooking?

What do other people do with the same food? Ask them as they may have ideas to improve the taste. — , Mar 20 '17 at 15:36
Is it food other people are preparing ("where the food served is too bad") or food that you're preparing yourself ("maybe I am mixing in wrong quantity or wrong ingredients")? If you are preparing food yourself, are the meat/vegetables that you're used to available in the area you are now? (Is the quality of the raw produce the same?) If not, are you having to improvise with ingredients that you haven't used before? Are you following a recipe at all, or just making it up? What are the tastes that you like/dislike, bitter/spicy etc? — There's a lot more detail you'd need to add to the question. — anotherdave, Mar 20 '17 at 15:38
food is not prepared by me i am mixing the ingredients in cooked dish to improve its flavour i am not specific about flavours i just want to make it little balanced — Jeevansai Jinne, Mar 20 '17 at 15:42
OK. So what's wrong with the dish — undercooked? Burnt? Too bland/spicy? Long time between being prepared & eaten? & what scenario are you 'fixing' the dish in? At the office/at home? The fact that you've tried adding onions makes it sound like you can do more than, for example, simple reheating & seasoning. To be honest though, it sounds like a losing battle though if you can't improve the base quality of the dishes themselves — anotherdave, Mar 20 '17 at 15:49
Welcome to the site @JeevansaiJinne, unfortunately your question is not something we can answer in its current form. You are asking how you can make food taste better which has too many answers. There are entire books about that. Also, we don't understand the question as there are many things that are not clear. — GdD, Mar 20 '17 at 16:03
May be the reason for bad taste could help i asked my friend why is the food tasting bad he said that spices need to be cooked to release the flavours and the person making the dish is not cooking them properly so the raw spices are making bad taste — Jeevansai Jinne, Mar 20 '17 at 16:16
sorry if i annoyed everyone with improper question edited it — Jeevansai Jinne, Mar 20 '17 at 16:52
Thanks for editing! I don't think anyone's annoyed. I edited a bit more to try to clarify and focus the question - I think it's a reasonable thing to ask, though unfortunately I'm not sure if I know of a good answer. — Cascabel, Mar 20 '17 at 17:00
NOTE: The way of handling spices that is described in the question will be rather confusing to westerners not knowing the methods of indian cuisine. The problem OP describes IS a valid issue in making indian dishes. — rackandboneman, Mar 21 '17 at 08:33
@rackandboneman True, but if you haven't tempered the whole spices long enough, or you haven't properly cooked something like turmeric while still at a frying stage, I'm not sure that it's something you can adjust after the fact. If it's something like "too much chilli was added", you could suggest adjusting salt to try & compensate. Agree that the concern is valid, though the only answer I can think of (with the level of detail we have from the question) is "Sorry, there's nothing you can do". — anotherdave, Mar 21 '17 at 13:42
IMO, it would be easier to answer if the question was much more focused, e.g. — "When khichdi is made to my tastes, it has a really good balance between the spice from green chillis and cloves, with salt and a little sweetness from peas. Here is a sample recipe for khichdi that I like. When I get served it in the college canteen though, it tastes far too sweet (too many peas), the cloves are missing and the turmeric tastes raw. How could I adjust this dish, to make it taste better? I've a microwave available, but no other cooking equipment, and can season with salt/pepper/chilli powder". — anotherdave, Mar 21 '17 at 13:48
What I meant is that the whole question is puzzling to anyone who doesn't know anything about indian or indian influenced cuisine. — rackandboneman, Mar 21 '17 at 17:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '17 at 17:07

If there are truly offensive aromas (eg burnt smell) in there that you cannot mask with other aromas, or if there are serious textural flaws (brutally adstringent mouthfeel, unpalatably hard pieces...) the dish is beyond help.

If there are aromas missing - add aromatic seasonings, herbs, spices (probably in oil).

If the dish is too diluted (tastes watery, does not stick well to grains or bread...), try reducing it (cooking it down) or thickening it.

If aromas seem to be present but subdued, try adding fat (eg butter or coconut oil) or acid (vinegar, lemon) or sugar.

If there is too much bitter/metallic/strawy taste, it could be missing salt. Or be oversalted, ironically.

If too salty: try diluting it.

If it is too sour, add sugar; if cloyingly sweet, add an acid.

If it somehow isn't fun to eat even if all the elements are there, try adding umami (MSG, nutritional yeast, soy sauce...).

OK, undecided whether to leave this answer on (which is well fit to the original wording, but confusing once the question was clarified...) — rackandboneman, Mar 21 '17 at 08:31

How can I improve a dish with badly cooked spices without recooking?

1 Answers1