Topic: CA's Chicken Korma

[Cory Ander]

CA's Chicken Korma (very mild, sweet, creamy and coconutty sauce)

serves 1-2

Ingredients:

- 300g skinless chicken breast (chopped into approximately 1 inch cubes)
- 60 ml spiced oil (here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3295.msg34667#msg34667)
- 0.5 tsp fresh garlic (pureed)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 200ml curry base (here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3772.0)
- 6 tbsp coconut milk powder
- 3 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
- 0.5 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 100ml fresh single cream
- milk (as required)
- 1tbsp almond meal (or cashew meal) - optional
- fresh chopped coriander - optional

Method:

- Stir the coconut milk powder (and almond meal or cashew meal, if using), into the cream, to make a lump-free paste
- Heat the curry base to a gentle simmer
- Heat the oil in a suitable pan (I use a cast iron wok) until almost smoking
- Add the chicken and fry, for a couple of minutes, on high heat, with continuous stirring, until sealed (i.e. just white on the outside)
- Add the garlic and turmeric and fry, for a minute or so, with continuous stirring (do not burn!)
- Add a ladle of curry base and stir
- Continue to add the curry base, a little at a time, stirring occasionally as the water evaporates and the sauce thickens
- Add the coconut/meal/cream paste and sugar and stir
- Continue to simmer, on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the oil begins to separate (5 to 10 minutes)
- maintain to sauce to the desired consistency by adding a little milk (or cream)
- Add fresh coriander to taste (if using)
- Serve

Notes:

- You can use any other oil (e.g. vegetable oil, sunflower oil or canola oil) rather than spiced oil, if you prefer, but the result may be different
- You can use any other decent, mildly spiced, curry base, if you prefer, but the result may be different
- You can use any other precooked meat (or prawns) - just add it, after adding the first ladle of curry base, and make sure it is heated thoroughly

Here is a photo of the resultant Chicken Korma:

[Panpot]

Looks great CA thanks for posting the photographs too. I like the avaialbity of a Korma alongside a curry it adds something to the overall experience and I love the taste of leftovers next morning especially if there is some Peshwari Nan too.

[pforkes]

Saturday night, so it's curry night (but, then, EVERY night is curry night).

I'm not a korma fan (I like the kick of a vindaloo) but this has a good taste.  I was even able to find the Maggi coconut milk powder at my local new India Supermarket, here in Las Vegas.  They told my to make my own almond powder (I have a Vita-Mix 5200 blender, which spins at 4,000 rpm, but it would not break the almonds down to a fine powder).  So, I went down to the local organic food store (Whole Foods) and bought the almond meal/flour.

This was made exactly to the recipe (using CA's spicy oil and curry base).  However, I used 400g of chicken (each chicken breast was 200g).

I'm going to give a dopiaza (Hansel's recipe) a shot next, i think (unless someone can come up with a keema peas of lamb passanda recipe).

[Cory Ander]

Goodness PF, you don't hang around! 

You DO seem to be having a curry every night! Oh, hang about, so do I!   :-X

I like to mix and match a stinky hot curry with a mild curry...gives a nice contrast, I find..and a little respite!

Looks good, nice photo, thanks for trying it and reporting back 

Regarding almonds, I grind my own (cos it works out to be a fraction of the price).  I just use an electric spice mill and it has absolutely no problems grinding it to a fine meal within seconds. 

Hmmmm...my Zone Alarm is reporting this as a phising site when I do a spell check! 

PS:  I uploaded your pic to the cr0 image hosting site again PF.....any chance of you using it in the future please?

[blanchy]

Tried this a few days ago, was fairly nice and very sweet as expected.

One thing tho, one thing I've noticed with both this and the CTM is that the sauce often comes out a lot thinner than what you'd get at a restaurant. Could this be something I'm doing wrong? Caused by using the KD base? Or not cooking for long enough leaving less time for evaporation? Anything else?
Thanks

[joshallen2k]

Looking good Blanchy.

I would agree with your assessment on the consistency vs. BIR.

I notice also that your Korma has a glossy look, which mine also do. I don't recall BIR kormas with that glossy look.

[Cory Ander]

One thing tho, one thing I've noticed with both this and the CTM is that the sauce often comes out a lot thinner than what you'd get at a restaurant

That's interesting blanchy.  My immediate reaction was that it looked to me to be very thick compared to a typical BIR Korma!   

If you want a thicker sauce, simply cook it for a little longer, on high heat, to evaporate some more liquid.  Or use a little less curry base and/or cream.  Or add more coconut milk  powder and/or almond meal.

[chinois]

Tried this a few days ago, was fairly nice and very sweet as expected.

One thing tho, one thing I've noticed with both this and the CTM is that the sauce often comes out a lot thinner than what you'd get at a restaurant.

What coconut are you using? I found when i switched to coconut flour/powder that sorted the texture out. It thickens it up so much i have to use hardly any base and often add hot water to thin the sauce.
I have only seen it in bangladeshi shops in london so i imagine it's not available everywhere. It's basically dry coconut ground down finely so you could use milk powder as long as it tastes enough of coconut. Maybe a mixture of that and creamed coconut (i.e. block) would be good. Not everywhere uses almond powder but that will help thicken the sauce too.

[blanchy]

I used a Creamed Coconut block for this one, but I have used the cream/cocnut milk powder combo before for the CTM, next time I'll try evaporating the base down as much as possible to see how it turns out.

[Cory Ander]

I used a Creamed Coconut block for this one

Using creamed coconut block, instead of coconut milk powder (if that's what you've done), will make a significant difference to the thickness of the sauce.  The creamed coconut block won't really thicken it whereas the coconut milk powder will.  Try using coconut milk powder blanchy (as per the recipe).