curry chronicles

hmm. usually in a soup it's easy to get potatoes to cook through

horseshoe can i have your korma recipe plz?

i like fish curry + i like felicity cloake & this is appropriately fine imo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/mar/29/how-to-cook-perfect-goan-fish-curry

yes! it is madhur jaffrey's recipe; hopefully she will not be mad i posted it on the internet. you heat up 1/4 cup of heavy cream, stir a teaspoon of saffron into it, and set the saffron cream aside for a couple of hours.

the recipe calls for ~5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs, but i usually do bone-in. it's tastier imo. heat 5 tablespoons vegetable oil in a wide pan, like a dutch oven, over medium high heat. when it's hot, add 12 green cardamom pods, 4 sticks of cinnamon and 6 bay leaves. stir once, and then put as many chicken thighs in as will fit. brown the chicken on both sides (i feel like i always rush this step; it takes a while. your kitchen will smell really good though!) then put it in a bowl and brown the rest of it, putting it all in the bowl when you're done.

once you've browned all the chicken, add 2 medium onions, sliced, to the pan. stir and fry till they're reddish-brown (i tend to rush this step, too...i think it takes a good 8 minutes at least.) add 2 tablespoons grated ginger and 8 cloves minced garlic (well, according to jaffrey, crushed to a pulp), then stir for a minute. then add 1/4 cup whole almonds, 1/4 cup golden raisins, 2 tbsp. coriander and 1 tbsp. cumin. stir once, then return chicken + accumulated juices to the pan. add 1 c. yogurt (whisk it first, to even the consistency), 3 tsp salt and 2 tsp cayenne pepper. Stir and bring to a simmer.

Partially cover and cook over medium for 10 minutes. then raise the heat to high and stir the meat until the sauce thickens and clings to the meat. stir in the saffron cream, 1/2 tsp. garam masala* and 1/2 c of water. cover fully and leave on low heat for a while. the cookbook says 5 minutes, but that never cooks the chicken completely, maybe because it's bone-in? i usually just keep checking to see if the meat is cooked through.

*lately i just use store-bought garam masala, but jaffrey hates it and insists you should grind a bunch of whole spices to make your own. she is very detail-oriented and it can be kind of annoying, but the homemade garam masala is better. let me know if you want the "recipe."

xp

this is not my mom's recipe, obvs, but she requests that i make it on eid + stuff which is the best recommendation of it i can give.

wow that is a hardcore recipe, no wonder the short-cut vegan one i've used has been so disappointing!!!!

haha yeah it's supposed to be for parties and occasions. it is not fucking around.

no reason you couldn't make a vegetarian version but i admit i can't figure out how you would adapt it for vegan cooking, not that i know much about tha.

wow I am doing that recipe next time I get a chance

oh, and when you take the chicken out of the pan, you're supposed to try and leave as many whole spices in the pan as possible.

dayo, it is really simple for the level of deliciousness yielded! it's my go-to dinner party dish.

i think it would veganize pretty easily - i would use fake chicken, so obv i wouldn't get all the pan juices so that would affect the taste, but i'd sub out the heavy cream for either cashew cream or coconut cream or a mix which i think would work pretty well.

oh duh, yeah coconut cream would work great, i think!

and soy yoghurt.

actually, it's probably not so hardcore - the cardamon pods and cinnamon sticks freaked me out, though!

or coconut milk yoghurt.

i thought you meant hardcore as in hardcore fatty, which it is.

haha no, it would take a lot more than 1/2 a cup of cream for me to say that!!

the vegan recipe i use is way fattier probably

dayo, it is really simple for the level of deliciousness yielded! it's my go-to dinner party dish.

― horseshoe, Sunday, April 22, 2012 9:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

feel like this is a thing, the 'go-to dinner party dish' (I have a few)

made the horseshoe/jaffrey korma last night, it was just lovely. v diff from restaurant korma I've had & superior, popular w/ my housemates too, kudos & thank you

how would one vegetarianize that korma? just take out the chicken? or do things need reorganizing/supplementing to get maximum flavour?

ogmor! you made my day! so glad it turned out well.

OMG that sounds amazekins. So much dairy, though. ;_; I wonder if you can leave some dairy out if you use the whole ground cashew thing that I've seen in other recps?

horseshoe how many "servings" do u usually get out of that recipe?

i would say a hearty 6 servings, usually.

i think just1n3 suggested cashew cream as a sub for the heavy cream, and on reflection that sounds even better (read:fattier) to me than coconut cream, so maybe that would work out for you, Laurel?

i am just going to post the garam masala "recipe" because why not? and it is really better and then you'll have some potent garam masala in your pantry if you need it.

put 1 tbsp cardamom seeds (some indian groceries sell these separately; you can also de-seed the pods yourself), 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp whole cloves, 1 tsp black cumin seeds, 1/3 of a nutmeg and 1 stick of cinnamon, broken up, in a coffee grinder and grind as finely as possible. store in a tightly lidded jar, away from heat and light.

make sure you are smart and label the gd jar immediately. i never remember to and then i have a bear of a time finding it when i need to make korma and then i end up re-making the garam masala and have about 5 separate mini-containers of garam masala as a result.

caek/laurel, here is how i would veganize/vegetarianize it -

yes! it is madhur jaffrey's recipe; hopefully she will not be mad i posted it on the internet. you heat up 1/4 cup of heavy cream coconut cream or cashew cream**, stir a teaspoon of saffron into it, and set the saffron cream aside for a couple of hours.

the recipe calls for ~5 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs tofu (frozen and defrosted, pressed) chunks marinated in fake-chicken stock and tamari/soy sauce/braggs liquid aminos, or gardein fake chicken strips. heat 5 tablespoons vegetable oil in a wide pan, like a dutch oven, over medium high heat. when it's hot, add 12 green cardamom pods, 4 sticks of cinnamon and 6 bay leaves. stir once, and then put as many {tofu or fake chicken pieces} in as will fit. brown the {tofu/fake chicken} on both sides (i feel like i always rush this step; it takes a while. your kitchen will smell really good though!) then put it in a bowl and brown the rest of it, putting it all in the bowl when you're done.

once you've browned all the {tofu/fake chicken}, add 2 medium onions, sliced, to the pan. stir and fry till they're reddish-brown (i tend to rush this step, too...i think it takes a good 8 minutes at least.) add 2 tablespoons grated ginger and 8 cloves minced garlic (well, according to jaffrey, crushed to a pulp), then stir for a minute. then add 1/4 cup whole almonds, 1/4 cup golden raisins, 2 tbsp. coriander and 1 tbsp. cumin. stir once, then return {tofu/chicken} add 1 c. SOY or COCONUT yogurt (whisk it first, to even the consistency), 3 tsp salt and 2 tsp cayenne pepper. Stir and bring to a simmer.

Partially cover and cook over medium for 10 minutes. then raise the heat to high and stir the {tofu/fake chicken} until the sauce thickens and clings to the meat. stir in the saffron cream, 1/2 tsp. garam masala* and 1/2 c of water. cover fully and leave on low heat for a while. the cookbook says 5 minutes, but that never cooks the chicken completely, maybe because it's bone-in? i usually just keep checking to see if the meat is cooked through.

*lately i just use store-bought garam masala, but jaffrey hates it and insists you should grind a bunch of whole spices to make your own. she is very detail-oriented and it can be kind of annoying, but the homemade garam masala is better. let me know if you want the "recipe."

**soak 1/4 c of raw whole cashews (cashew pieces are too dry) in plenty of cold water overnight. drain and rinse, add to high speed blender with about 1/4 c of water and blend for 5 minutes.

Cashew mixture would probably awesome. Sounds delicious.

That garam masala recp is way simpler than I expected, for some reason.

you could also probably use some veggies as well/in place of tofu, like potatoes and carrots and cauliflower

imo nothing about indian cooking is hard; it's just assembly. sometimes locating ingredients can be hard, depending on where you live (fucking buffalo), but i don't think technique is that difficult.

well i suck at making paneer but that's just me; other people seem to have a fine time

There's absolutely no reason to put vegetables in a perfectly good korma. Get away from that pot.

imo nothing about indian cooking is hard; it's just assembly. sometimes locating ingredients can be hard, depending on where you live (fucking buffalo), but i don't think technique is that difficult.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, April 25, 2012 10:49 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's the kind of one-pot cooking that still has some technique that i find v. appealing.

laurel, cashew cream is - no joke - an incredible sub for heavy cream in cooking. if you taste it raw, on its own, it tastes blah, but the consistency and fattiness is perfect for thinks like gratin, soup, korma. you can also use it as a dessert cream by adding vanilla/maple syrup/coconut oil.

if you don't have a high speed blender like a vitamix, a regular food processor or blender is fine if you'll be using it IN something, however it'll be a little gritty if you're using it straight up as a side for dessert.

i like how it's nut-based; that seems perfect for korma because korma is so nutty! i sort of want to try it next time except i love heavy cream. life is so hard,

malaysian versions of korma def use coconut cream or coconut milk, though; that version would be nice, too; i think. cashew cream seems more indian to me.

north indian, i guess.

xxGod it's like Sophie's Choice sometimes.

I've seen multiple cookbooks that use raw cashews in korma sauce, for sure. This seems like a good middle way. Maybe will actually try! Nothing else to do on Sat/Sun.

oh and of course you could use almond cream. same process but replace cashews with almonds (probably blanched almonds). or you can buy MimicCreme.

i roasted the garam masala a little bit, think it grinds better then too. adding it at the 11th hour seemed curious to me, but it was v fragrant, might try this again w/ other curries.

I'm gonna jump on the horseshoe/jaffrey korma bandwagon tonight!

horseshoe I'm so going to make that

Horseshoe korma report: so far, so good--really not too laborious except for the chicky browning, which just means sticking around while assemble all of the other stuff. If I had a heavy roasting pan (I'm thinking all-clad or le creuset), I could have set it over two burners and browned off all six chicky thighs in one go. In my 12" saute pan, three batches were required.

I'm using five pounds of bone-in, skin-on thighs. I figured the skin would make for a better fond and would protect the meat from the high heat of browning. I'll pull the skin off before it goes back in to the sauce. All that chicky skin left a LOT of fat in the pan (I started with 5 Tbsp veg oil, as in the recipe), so I poured off enough to get back to around the 5 Tbsp mark.

In summary: it would appear I am liveblogging horseshoe's chicken korma.

hey guys tonight i want to make a curry chicken salad but every recipe i have found calls for mayonnaise which i hate or yogurt which tera can't have right now. i would like to use Coconut Milk, any ideas? maybe with pecans or almonds and served cold?

Yes I have plans to try a veganized version next week! Xp

i would use almonds and some golden raisins if you have some. coconut milk should work fine. mayo is wtf. i don't think you can mess it up too bad if you just mix the dressing by adding ingredients a little at a time before putting it on the chicken! do you have a food processor?

now i'm thinking about it and i want to make it! but i only have uncooked chicken and don't feel like cooking it now and waiting for it to cool. maybe i'll cook all of it and save some and make it tomorrow.

I think coconut milk would work as a sub for mayo, maybe not as creamy, but you only need a little really. Some of just1n3's cashew cream would probably be awesome too. Pecans beat almonds im(possibly challopsy)o. (xp)

yeah i think i will try the cashew cream, and i do have a food processor, but what should i process for this salad? also i am using thigh meat.