Korma Recipes?

squeefish

So I've been getting into Indian cooking lately - made some killer butter chicken the other day - and I recall having this dish in my favourite Indian restaurant that I'd like to try to replicate. Googling its various attributes has led me to believe it's a vegetable korma of some sort. From what I remember about it, it was a creamy colour (most of the pictures I've seen of various kormas online seem to be orange-ish, though) and mildly spiced, with a yogurt/cream sauce. Main ingredients were potatoes and peas. Anyone know of any good recipes that resemble this?

Simple is best - I don't want to have to buy a million obscure spices I'll never use again.

Lewisham

Korma is yellowish usually, and is always a creamy sauce. You should be able to find it as a cooking sauce in International Food markets.

squeefish

Unless the sauce is really enormously complicated to make, I wouldn't mind trying to do it from scratch. Just buying it seems a bit too simple. Thanks, though.

Tastyfish

Korma I would have said tends towards a pale yellowy brown, with the main flavour being almonds. Potatos and peas sound a bit wierd but then I never usually get vegetable ones (Potato is 'Aloo' in currys, so you might want to include that in your search). Its not really the most heathly of recipes, but replacing cream with double cream makes an awesome Korma (though I tend to chuck a bunch of chillis in as well).

It feels like cheating, but I'd definitely reccomend getting curry powders (very few people, even from Indian households actually make the whole thing from scratch, and if do you're unlikely to get it quite like the restaurants do - traditional Indian cooking and curry house indian cooking are wildly different beasts, in the UK at least, quite what you get in the US I've no idea). My recipe would be this, its for a chicken korma but I'm assuming you can just replace chicken with pre-boiled potatos;

Cut up two onions, let them fry in a wok/saucepan whilst you cut up the potatos/chicken
When they start going golden add the potatos/chicken (let the chicken seal)
Then add some mild curry powder, and a bit of extra cumin, stir it about so that the potatos/chicken are covered.
Add in a handful of sliced mushrooms and let the spices cook along with the mushrooms
Add about 1/4 pint of stock, and then 200mls (about the same-ish) of cream or double cream and 3-4 table spoons of greek or natural yoghurt
Add in a pepper, and chillis if you want to (I would have also added a bit of dried cayenne pepper at the spices stage). Peas in your case as well
Add a teaspoon or so of tomato puree and most importantly, a tablespoon of mango chutney.
Leave to boil until the sauce is of the right consistancy adn then add a bit of coriander and a pinch of salt.

We're quite partial to having this rice mixed with fresh cucumber and sultanas. I also really can't overstate the importance of the mango chutney, even if you don't like it on its own its a better replacement for the sugar that would often be added instead and lets you really taste the spices. Doesn't actually add any mango taste at all.

If you like mild curries (which I'm guessing from the Butter Chicken and Korma), you might also like a Pasanda and Malaya curries. Vaguely similar to the Korma, but with more fruity flavours.

Djeet

Indian cooking uses a fair number of spices that aren't used so much in traditional western cooking. You'll want to have at least cumin, coriander, turmeric and Garam masala. Garam is a spice mix, you can always just buy the consituent ingredients and mix your own, but I figured you're not interested in that.

From your description I thought you were looking for a recipe to a creamy Aloo Mutter (Indian recipes get multiple spelling when searched for so you might also look for Alu Mattar, and variations). If it was not so orangey then likely you were served a more creamy and less tomato-ey version. If yours was creamy and the recipes you find call for little cream, don't hesitate to experiment.

When trying to cobble a recipe together from google, I've found a good method is to copy down half a dozen or so and look and see what's similar between recipes and go from there.

squeefish

Well, our house is generally pretty well stocked in spices, so those first three (cumin, coriander and turmeric) are fine, as we likely already have them. I can pick up some Garam masala - I've seen it in a lot of Indian recipes, so I don't think it would go to waste.

I'm pretty certain there wasn't any tomato at all in this dish. Will do some googling of those terms you listed. Thanks again!

squeefish

This recipe looks like it might be close to what I had. No tomatoes in it, at least, and it has peas and potatoes and yogurt. For people who know about this stuff: does it look like it'd be any good?

http://ashy-macbean.com/thalis/aloomuttar.htm

EggyToast

Indian food is very much about "what do I want it to taste like" vs. "let's follow the recipe 100%."

Soft vegetables simmered in cream and spices will taste pretty good even if you don't get exactly what you like; I'd suggest experimenting a bit. You may be hard pressed to match something you've eaten at a restaurant, as they typically 'cheat' by using food coloring, lard, tons of butter, and other things that most Americans don't cook with (well we use butter but not to such a large degree).

Some tips: use frozen peas, not canned. Try to avoid canned anything for any stew, as the flavor from the canning may easily seep into the flavor of the dish overall. Also, see if you can get greek yoghurt, as it's runnier than typical american "firm" yogurt, and works better in cooking. Finally, after you have a few dishes under your belt, consider making your own garam masala. It's not difficult, and the beauty of it is you can modify the mix to suit your own tastes. So if you know you like your dishes with a bit more cumin, you just throw that into the garam masala. Same with the peppers -- I use roasted mexican peppers and it lends a nice chocolatey/smoky aroma, instead of just heat like a lot of eastern-style peppers.