How to cook Chicken Korma

I would have done this earlier in the week for you but TLH and I have wrenched Katyboo's Chaise Longue of Death™ from beneath her and hauled it from Leicester down to Surrey so that we can languish on it together and pathetically moan and drip from our noses while simultaneously (and in stereo) frightening the cats with the volume and intensity of our sneezing - it's an impressive sight.

Last Sunday we went over to my brother's as they had decided to hold a surprise Starting School party for R, their eldest and the future Messiah, attended by as many close relatives and friends who could fit into their house.  TLH and I took the one ukulele we had at the time (we now have two - one each!) and entertained the troops with our less than perfect renditions of such favourites as 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' and 'Daydream Believer' and, in return, came away with the cold germs that my brother's baby was wearing on a fetching crust around her nose that would, in turn, take a couple of days to 'germinate' and then explode out of our own heads.  We've been in seclusion in the west wing of Jones Towers since Tuesday to keep from spreading it further.  It's pretty bloody virulent - I mean, TLH didn't actually go anywhere near the baby but still managed to catch it.

I've been forced to cancel tomorrow's pitch at the regular craft market in Alresford, Hants, that I attend as it was difficult enough to get up this morning at 8am never mind having to get up tomorrow at 6am.  Oh well, while I could (as always) do with the money, this now means a lie-in (hooray) and I don't need to spend any more time pricing up earrings and putting them on my VenerableBead website in readiness for tomorrow;  I can do the rest of them when I feel better (double hooray!).

This does mean, of course, that I now have the leisure to do a post - with pictures - showing you all how to make a bloody fantastic Chicken Korma.  Once you've tried this, you will (I guarantee it) never again use one of those readymade jars of so-called 'Korma Sauce' from the supermarket.  This tastes exactly how you would get it from a restaurant.  It's also not for diabetics or those on a carb-free diet.  I use a written recipe but tailor it slightly to my own requirements.

This is a very simple recipe but does call for some preparation time because you have to marinate.  You can either do this the night before and leave it overnight, or first thing in the morning.  In her recipe she suggests marinading for at least 30 minutes or preferably longer.

Like the Northern Beef Curry recipe previously posted, this one is from Anjum Anand's book 'Indian Food Made Easy':

The printed recipe ingredients (click on the pictures to make them bigger):

The printed recipe method:

I use everything she suggests except I use dried crushed chillies instead of fresh ones, but that's it.  So then, let's take a look at the ingredients:

Her recipe is for 4 people so just halve everything (more or less - I'll explain where I haven't) for 2 people.

Two chicken breasts - it's probably easiest just to get a chicken breast per person you're feeding.

This is a 500ml pot of full fat plain set yoghurt.  I use all of this.  The book says 200mls for 4 people but I like a lot of sauce and, to me, 200mls just isn't enough.  You can also use a mixture of yoghurt and cream if you like, but I do find the yoghurt makes it rich enough. Especially if you don't agree with fat-free, life-sapping ingredients.

Our old friends, ready pasted garlic and ginger.

Ground Coriander

Black peppercorns

Green Cardamom pods

Black Cardamom pods

Cloves

Proper, real Cinnamon sticks

Mace Blade

Note: not this -

Or this -

because they'd (a) get stuck in your teeth and/or (b) make your eyes bleed, neither of which will make for a successful dinner party, although it would be memorable.....

Creamed coconut - the stuff that's in a block

Ground almonds

Garam Masala

You will also need - vegetable oil, 1 medium chopped onion, possibly some water, some salt and a boatload of sugar.

Marinade

The yoghurt, garlic, ginger and coriander make the marinade.  Into a dish, put 2 teaspoons each of garlic and ginger (the recipe says 1 tablespoon of each but, remember, that's for 4 people) plus 2 teaspoons of ground coriander (which I do put in, because I like it):

Garlic, ginger and ground coriander

Then dump in the entire pot of yoghurt:

And give it a good stir:

Next, cut up your chicken into bite-sized pieces, add to the bowl and stir in:

Put a lid on it (or clingfilm over it) and put in the fridge to marinate for as long as you want to.

The rest of it

When you're ready to proceed, get a large pan, preferably one that has a lid:

Add a couple of glugs of vegetable oil, turn up the heat to medium and when hot, add the whole spices:

5 Black Peppercorns

5 Green Cardamom pods

1 Black Cardamom pod

5 Cloves

1/2 Cinnamon stick

1 Mace Blade

Sprinkle of dried chilli flakes/fresh green chillies

Whole spices

Give the pan a stir, then add the chopped onion and salt:

Fry until the onions start to turn golden - this can take up to 10 minutes depending on how high the heat is:

Onions starting to turn golden

Then you add the chicken and marinade to the pan:

Give it a good stir, turn the heat up and bring it to the boil, then put the lid on, turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, covered, over a lowish heat until the chicken is cooked.

Depending on the size of the lumps of chicken this can be anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes.  Give it a stir from time to time.

While the mixture is cooking, prepare the coconut and ground almonds.

Creamed coconut, despite its name, comes in a solid block in a box.

The recipe calls for 70g of creamed coconut for 4 people.  I've found that 35g for 2 people isn't enough and I have used the full 70g before.  The packet in the picture had just 50g left in it (as you can see) so I just used that and it was absolutely fine.

The instructions on the box say you can grate it but I've tried it and  you don't want to do that.  As coconut has a high fat content, it starts to melt in your fingers and then just smears itself over the grater, and is a general pain in the arse to use like that.  Do what I do and cut it with a knife:

It's very easy to just cut into little pieces.  Don't get anal about getting the pieces really small because it just melts in the pan anyway.

Chopped up creamed coconut

I also use the full amount of ground almonds as mentioned in the recipe - 3 tablespoons:

So that's the coconut and ground almonds waiting to go in.

By now the chicken should be cooked through.  Cut a piece in half to check if necessary.  Now, DON'T PANIC - the yoghurt will have split in the pan and it will all look most unappetising:

Yuk!

It's at this stage that I take out all the whole spices except for the black peppercorns, although you can remove them too if you can be arsed.  Personally I don't mind the taste of biting into a cooked black peppercorn, but the choice is yours.  The whole spices are easier to see at this stage, before you add the coconut and almonds and it all thickens up.  In our house, biting into a forgotten green cardamom pod or clove is a divorcable offence, so it's worth taking the few minutes to get them out.

The big pieces - black cardamom pod, cinnamon stick, mace blade - are easy to see but it can get entertaining trying to find all the cloves and green cardamom pods.

It's worth remembering how many you put in at the beginning so you know if you've got them all out.  The sharp-eyed amongst you may spot there are only 4 green cardamom pods on the kitchen paper above, and I put 5 in.  I was fishing around with a spoon for a good 5 minutes and couldn't find it.  This makes for an interesting game of Chicken Korma Russian Roulette later.....

Once you're happy you've removed all the whole spices you can find, then add the creamed coconut and ground almonds:

Give it a good stir - the ground almonds will start to soak up the liquid and thicken the whole thing, and the creamed coconut will start to melt.  Cook it for a few minutes to thicken.

Add the Garam Masala - a teaspoon is fine:

Stir it all in and taste it.  This is when you add the sugar.  How much depends on how sweet you want it.  The book says a 'good pinch of sugar'.  The amount I use is a pancreas-alarming 2 tablespoons because I like it as sweet as you get it in a restaurant.  Despite what you might think, neither the coconut nor the almonds have any natural sweetness, they just add flavour.  Anyway, start with a little and increase it until you're happy with it.  Don't forget a bit of salt as well.

And that's it.  Serve with rice and chopped coriander (if you remembered to get it this week, unlike last week....)

PS.  I got the rogue green cardamom pod....

How to make North Indian Beef Curry

Kate, who commented on my last post, requested that I put up the recipe that I use for making proper Beef Curry.

I thought, 'I can do better than that, I can take photos as well!!' So today I made it.

The recipe I use comes from this book 'Indian Food Made Easy' by Anjum Anand:

It's actually a recipe for North Indian Lamb Curry but I don't like lamb (yuk, it's greasy and has a weird aftertaste...) so I make it with beef instead.

Because I'm a lazy mare, I can't be arsed to actually type out the recipe itself, but here it is in the book.  Click on the picture to make it larger. I follow the method but make life easier by using ready made products rather than having to do things yourself - it's much quicker that way.  I should point out that this is a very, very quick meal to get started, but because it's beef I find it best if it then cooks on a low heat for a very long time, like 2.5 hours at least so the meat falls apart.  You can, of course, make this as originally intended using lamb and then it only takes about 35 minutes to cook.  Chicken, I would imagine, would probably be the same.  Pork I don't know about as I don't care for that much so don't tend to cook it but feel free to have a go with it.

INGREDIENTS with pictures for the hard of thinking showing you exactly how I make it:

Black Cardamom pods.  These are important but they're also the hardest thing to find.  If you have Asian shops near to you then you'll probably get them there.  They weren't in any of my local supermarkets but I found them in a farm shop.  Alternatively you can get them online at www.spiceracktrader.co.uk - well, that's what it says on the label.  These are lovely things - they're like giant mutant black versions of your standard green cardamoms but they smell like bonfires.  I reckon they add a smoky flavour.

Green Cardamom pods.  These are your bog-standard ones and available pretty much everywhere these days.

Bay leaves.

Dried crushed red chillies.  Or you can use fresh ones, it's up to you.

Turmeric.  It's yellow.  That's about all I can tell you about it. I wonder why the box seems to have pictures of ginger roots on it? Ah, Google is my friend, it's because it's a member of the Ginger family.  Pretty obvious, really.

Ground Coriander.  Gorgeousness in a jar.  You use this a lot in Indian cooking and in large quantities too.

Garam Masala.  This is actually a mixture of lots of other ground spices, all in one jar.

Ready made garlic paste.  I'm a lazy, lazy mare and just buy it already pounded into a paste.

Ready made ginger paste.  See comment above.

A carton of chopped tomatoes from Sainsbury's basics range.  It has the same quantity as a standard sized tin.

440g pack of casserole steak.  This will make enough to feed two people.

Apart from the above, you'll need vegetable oil, a finely chopped onion and salt.

Shall we get started?

You'll need a large pan with a lid, say, a big saucepan or casserole.  I have a large frying pan that I use:

Into this you need to pour a glug or two of vegetable oil, then add 2 black cardamom and 2 green cardamom pods, and a bay leaf:

Oh, a word about the quantities of spices used here.  The original recipe is for 6-8 people and uses the relevant amount of spices for that amount of people.  When I first made this recipe with beef I only used a third of the quantities of spices listed, because I was only making for 2 people.  I found this was not enough so, over the many times I've since made this, I've gradually increased the quantities until I find I'm now using the quantities she says.  I don't find the flavours overpowering at all, in fact they're just right.  So these are the quantities I'm using here - don't be alarmed.

So, into the pan of hot oil go the cardamoms and the bay leaf:

While they're heating, finely chop a medium to large sized onion and put that in as well:

On a gentle heat, cook the onions until they start to go a golden colour.  This can take a surprisingly long time, as much as 10 minutes, so you might as well find something to do during this - personally I practice my ukulele or go and poke one of the cats.  Eventually they will start to turn colour (the onions, not the cats):

You now add your meat to the pan, stir it around and let it start to cook.  Don't worry about getting all the sides brown, after all you're going to be simmering the bugger for a couple of hours and if the meat hasn't cooked through in that time I'd have a word with your butcher:

This is the fun bit, where you start to add the spices.

We'll start with the two ready-made pastes.  If you want to make them yourself, then you get a couple of cloves of garlic and mash them to a pulp in a pestle and mortar.  Similarly cut off and peel an inch or so of ginger root and bash that to bits in a pestle and mortar.  You now have your pastes.  Alternatively, open a couple of jars and use 2 teaspoons of each. Two teaspoons of garlic paste is about the equivalent of a couple of cloves of garlic.  Two teaspoons of the ginger paste is, I dunno, an inch of garlic root?

So add them to the pan.

Next (although it doesn't matter what order you do this in, this was just the way I did it today), add to the pan half a teaspoon of Turmeric (I have these little yellow measuring spoons that I use):

One tablespoon of Ground Coriander powder:

One teaspoon of Garam Masala:

A sprinkle of dried crushed chilli flakes (it's always a gamble as to how hot this curry will turn out as I never really measure how much chilli flakes to use, I just shake the jar over the pan until I'm happy, but perhaps best err on the side of caution here and don't be too exuberant unless you like to get sweaty when eating it):

And finally add some salt, just a bit, mind.  You can always add more later if you think it needs it.

Normally I would sprinkle all the spices evenly over the whole surface but for the purposes of this post I sort of did them in strips across the meat so you can see the comparative quantities (sort of):

Well, that doesn't really work, does it?  Oh well, just give all a really good stir and you'll see that the dry, powdery spices start to soak up the liquid in the pan.  This is what is meant in the printed recipe where it says the pan goes 'dry':

Next add your tomatoes.  These can be from a tin or a carton.  Anjum stipulates that if you use fresh tomatoes, go for really cheap tomatoes, not fancy ones with loads of flavour.  This is why I use the Basics range:

So you stir all that in:

Put the lid on, turn up the heat to bring it to a boil:

And as soon as it reaches a boil, turn the heat down as low as it will go.  I mean, really low:

And then go and do something else for the next 2.5 hours.

When you come back, it will look like this:

The sauce will have reduced a little, but not very much because the lid was left on, but the flavours will have intensified.  You need to taste it now to check for seasoning.  This particular one, at this point, definitely needed more salt.  And don't forget to fish out the black and green cardamom pods and the bay leaf.

The recipe proper now calls for adding chopped coriander which I would highly recommend because I love coriander, but TLH isn't keen so there's none in this one. And if I remember to buy a packet of fresh coriander, I just add some to my bowl after I've dished it up, but I forgot to get some this week.

Make up some Basmati rice, and serve:

 
The beef is so tender you can cut it with a spoon - yum!

You can, of course, make this go a lot further if you add side dishes and poppadums/naans and pickles but even without all that, this quantity will easily feed 3 people.  Unless they're very greedy, like us, in which case it's two.

Anyway, that's it - I would urge you to try it because it's really very, very simple and tastes as good as a restaurant curry.

Remind me to put up my Chicken Korma recipe sometime - now that really is a cracker....

Perhaps I should just hire a cleaner....

I've been hankering after a freezer.  Like you do.  We have one at the bottom of our fridge but it's only a piddling thing and once you've stuck in some bags of frozen peas, frozen chips, leftover Chicken Tikka Biriani and some pies, there's no room for the vital things like a bottle of vodka.  Plus now I've got the allotment more or less up and running I need somewhere to store my gluts of beans, carrots, kale, etc., not to mention the raspberries and blackberries for immersing in said bottle of vodka.

I'd been idly perusing the aisles (both virtual and IRL) of Currys & Comet and had decided that an upright one about the size and shape of a washing machine would do.  And then, out of the blue, we found that TLH's sister had a taller one just sitting and mouldering, unloved and unwanted, in her garage, so we went to rescue it yesterday.  This was very kind of her as they're not the cheapest things on the planet and this has saved us a few pennies at a time when a few pennies need to be saved.

However, the downside to this (after the pulled muscles and barked shins it took to manhandle the thing into the car and then back out again) is finding somewhere to put it.  You've not seen our garage, have you? Well, it's full.   (I listed everything we had in this bit then took it out because TLH would have conniptions that you'd all want to break in and nick it all.  Yes, even the broken picture frames.  He would have got very stern. So you'll just have to imagine how full it is, i.e., Very).

So *gasp* tidying up and chucking stuff out had to be undertaken.  This would be a major task, make no mistake. TLH got started and I just stood around a bit awaiting instruction.  Then I wandered off because there's no point getting between him and a project, I'd just be getting in the way - but I have to show willing, yeah?

I decided to get on with making dinner - Beef Curry, yum.  I do it all properly, with all the individual spices and powders which means that I don't exactly have a spice rack, I have a spice cupboard which has got pretty much everything you can think of in there, but it's got so full (like the garage) that I can't remember the last time I saw the back of it so, while the beef was slowly cooking away in its tomatoey, garlicky, gingery, spicy sauce (I simmer it for at least 2 1/2 hours so the meat just falls apart) I thought I'd put my Field Archaeology expertise to good use (glad to know all that money spent on gaining two degrees in the subject hasn't been entirely wasted...) and excavate the spice cupboard.

There were some empty packets and forgotten jars with a quarter inch of indeterminate dust in the bottom, and these just got flung out.  But then I found it and even I was shocked.  A jar of mild chilli powder with a use by date that wasn't even in this decade.  Look:



 Yes, that's right, 1996.  It's been in the cupboard for as long as I've been married to TLH and for that reason alone, I put it back.  I don't know why, I'm just a sentimental old thing I suppose (or maybe just a dreadful slattern who can't be arsed to chuck anything away).