Is There An Alternative To Mustard Powder For The Tomato Curry?

Our answer

Nigella's Tomato Curry With Coconut Rice (from KITCHEN) is a quick and spicy vegetarian dish. The curry sauce has two types of heat, from mustard and from hot chilli powder. Nigella used English mustard powder as it is a good store cupboard ingredient.

It would be possible to use ready-made English mustard instead of mustard powder, but you would need to adjust the quantities. Usually mustard powder is mixed with an equal volume of cold water to make ready-to-use mustard. Mustard also loses some flavour over time after it has been mixed with water, so ready-made mustard will not be quite as pungent as mustard powder. We would suggest starting by using 2 teaspoons of ready-made English mustard and add it to the pan with the chopped tomatoes. If the jar is brand new and just opened then you may prefer to use only 1½ teaspoons. After the tomatoes have simmered for 20 minutes, taste the sauce. If you feel that it needs a little more "kick" then add ¼ teaspoon of extra ready-made English mustard and taste again and keep tasting and adding mustard until the sauce is to your liking, before continuing with the recipe.