Dear whoever reads this,
I've been wondering about two things, namely how much of a difference it will make to use finely ground raw cashews in a korma recipe (for the family) in place of almond powder and what the best way is to cook chunks of pork for the same korma recipe?

About the cashew vs almond powder;
I have been buying almond powder from the asian grocery store but it has lots of added sugar in it and it doesn't help toning down the sweetness of the korma.
The only other place that sells ground almonds is very expensive and I'll be stuck with a bag of almond powder I won't be using in the short term.
I suppose I could buy a small amount of whole almonds but I already have a bag of raw cashews I could potentially use.
I'm planning to grind the cashews to a fine powder using a coffee grinder that I only use for nuts and spices.

The ground nut powder goes in at the beginning of the recipe so I assume the raw cashew powder will be completely cooked at the end. I could also dry roast them in a non stick tray in the oven before cooling them off and grinding them into a powder.

As for the pork chunks in the korma, I was planning on frying them in ghee in a separate pan and just adding them to the korma when both were done.
Is there a better way than that?

Any advice is appreciated,
Thanks for reading.

I've been trying my hand at a malaya curry, which (according to some people here) is basically a korma with bananas and sometimes lychee added.

I've gotten to a great starting point and made a malaya korma that was so very very close to the malaya my local takeaway makes but it's lacking something.
The texture was spot on though.

Here is the recipe that I used;
Basewas made from Chewytikka's 1 hour base (made in pressure cooker)
Korma recipe was from a user here who pm'd me and tweaked to make it more malaya-ish

ingredients
-1 tbsp vegetable oil and 1 tbsp ghee (use oil if you don't have ghee)
-3 tbsp of coconut powder (used dessicated coconut since that is what my local IR uses)
-2 tbsp of almond powder
-300~400ml base sauce (I used 375 ml)
-half a pureed banana (mine wasn't ripe enough so it added some acidity as well, I can't get my hands on properly ripe bananas at the moment)
-3~5 tbsp single cream
-sugar to taste (I added 1/4 tsp, it was almost sweet enough with the fruit and the coconut)
-handful roasted split cashews

Method
-heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil and 1 tbsp ghee (use oil if you don't have ghee) in a pan with high sides.
-when the oil/ghee is hot add 3tbsp of coconut powder and 2 tbsp of almond powder and fry these for a minute or two to wake them up.
-add 300~400ml base sauce (this is heated before adding)
-add banana puree
-simmer for a few minutes
-add 3~5 tbsp single cream
-add sugar to taste
-add roasted split cashews


So I'm curious what is commonly added to BIR kormas or malayas to deepen the flavour without adding much hot/spiciness (the family doesn't like spiciness, that's why I'm asking).

I've done some reading on the korma subforum but usually nothing else is added.
I did come across one recipe that fried ginger garlic paste in the beginning of the recipe.
I suspect though, that what I'm looking for is somewhere in the spice department.

Any advice is appreciated.

Back in early january I had 2 curries from an indian takeaway in the netherlands.
I want to make something similar at home for people who do not like spiciness/heat in their curries but for now google and this site haven't thrown up much.
Perhaps you guys can help me?

It's a game of "name that curry".
The indian takeaway menu describes them as the following (translated from dutch to english)

Kashmiri curry lamb; lamb cooked with indian fruits (mango and lychee) in a creamy sauce, traditional dish from northwest india.

Malayon curry chicken; chicken fillet cooked in a creamy sauce with nuts, bananas and pineapple.

I'm guessing the malayon is called "malaya" here, can you confirm?
A google search for recipes leads to completely different dishes and to restaurant websites (not actual recipes). 1 google result was this forum so that's how I ended up here.
Google searches for malayan instead of malayon if I don't change it manually, is malayan chicken the same as malaya chicken?

Searching google for "kashmir(i) curry" leads to recipe of rogan josh, which is completely different. Or it leads to recipes using a storebought kashmiri paste (like from patak?) or to recipes that don't look similar at all.
One recipe looks a bit like it might be the one but it lists curry powder as an ingredient. Am I right to be wary of the recipe based on the inclusion of curry powder?
Here's the recipe http://www.curryfrenzy.com/curry/recipes/Chicken-Kashmiri.html

The sauce question;
A few searches on this site mention chicken kashmir and chicken malaya, some people say that they are simply kormas with fruit added.
One person says that the sauce of kashmiri curry is not the same as the sauce of a korma.
I'm inclined to believe the latter to be true for my local takeaway. The texture and flavour don't seem to be the same as most of the korma recipes I've seen.

If it is a simple korma with ripe mango added how does the flavour of the mango seep into the sauce itself? Do they blend a portion of the mango (or use mango puree) with the sauce before adding mango slices?
Or do they add some of the lychee syrup? I'm assuming they used canned.
The same goes for the malaya (malayon) and the banana.
Do they use different spices for malaya and kashmir than they use for korma? Any other ingredients that are different?
I'm hoping someone could chime in on the sauce dilemma.

I can tell approximately what a dish is going to taste like if it's a traditional homecooked indian dish, but I can't do the same (yet) with BIR recipes. Help is much appreciated.

Hi, my name Yvonne and I'm a Dutch woman who likes to cook, read, sew and do yoga.
I'm also a bit of a nerd.

I have eaten and liked dutch indian takeaway, which I suspect is very much like BIR takeaway.
The first thing I had was saag paneer and immediately felt an urge to recreate it in my own home so I found a recipe on the vegrecipesofindia site and have been cooking traditional indian recipes from them for a rather long while now.

But something was missing, I couldn't find some...make that most of the dishes that I loved from my indian takeaway on that site. Not even a vegetarian version.
After some googling it dawned on me; indian takeaway may overlap with traditional indian cooking sometimes but it's a different beast altogether.

So I found my way here, hopefully to learn how to make something that resembles indian takeaway.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Even if it's about wooden shoes or marihuana.