Pages

Sunday 11 December 2011

Recipe XXXVII - Meat Korma: spice up your Yuletide

Yuletide is coming, the only thing to worry about is if the guests enjoy the food you prepare. For the day itself, you'll do whatever, but the day after, when you realise you've got a load of chopped meat in the freezer, there are only two possibilities: a stew or a curry. I know what I'd choose, and here it is...



Ingredients:
500g pork/chicken/beef/whatever
20 coriander corns, crushed in the pestle & mortar
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dessicated coconut
3 onions
A piece of ginger, about 3cm long, 4cm wide
2 tomatoes
2 bay leaves
5 to 7 peppercorns (whole)
5 cloves (whole)
7 pods of cardamom (whole)
1/2 tbsp ground turmeric
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stick of cinnamon (6 cm long)
2 pots of ordinary yoghurt
A sprinkling of garam massala
A handful of chopped green coriander
1 red pepper (optional)
A cup of coconut milk (optional)

Instructions:
Heat a frying pan to a red hot temperature with nothing in it. Take the coriander, cumin and coconut, and dry-roast them for 2-4 minutes or until they go darker. Put the dry-roasted spices in a bowl to wait for later.



Put the onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and turmeric into a blender and turn them into a pulpy paste. Put these in another bowl and wait for later.



Heat some oil at medium power in a frying pan. Add the peppers, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, peppercorns and cloves. Once they are nicely browning, turn up the heat, add the meat and seal it in the oil. Remove the meat and cinnamon from the pan and leave it for later.



Building up the sauce:
Put a dribble more oil in the pan, add the blended paste and let it reduce slowly for 10 or so minutes at a medium heat. Keep stirring. Put in some water now and again to keep it moist and stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan. Now you can add the dry-roasted spices.



After 5 to 10 minutes, add the yoghurt. After another 5 to 10 minutes, sprinkle some salt on the meat and add it and the cinnamon to the pan again. Add some garam massala and green coriander and if you want some water or coconut milk, and leave it to simmer for up to an hour, or until it is done.



Serve it with boiled basmati rice, roast cauliflower and/or some chapatis.

No comments:

Post a Comment