Beef Korma Recipe - A Keeper!

Hello and happy new year! I hope everyone is fine and dandy!

I have been wanting to dust the cobwebs off my blog for months but I just couldn't find my blogging mojo. Not sure why, as I have tons of thoughts running through my head on a daily basis that I would love to share with everyone ... and then I stop myself. I mean, surely there's just so much pictures of food and cooking experiments I can share??

I am excited to share with you a recipe I found on All Recipes which I tried today!

I think it's good enough for me to save it here as a bookmark. It's a creamy and non-spicy version which can be easily adjusted if you'd like a hint of heat. 

For the spice paste

Ingredients A:

1/2 TBSP of coriander seeds

1/2 TBSP of cumin seeds (I used powder)

1/2 tsp of cardamom seeds (Open up the pods - I think I used about 8 - 9 pods)

1/2 tsp of paprika (I used sweet paprika as it was either this or smoked paprika)

3 whole cloves

Ingredients B:

2 TBSP of water

1/8 cup of almond meal

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 TBSP of ginger, crushed

1/4 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Main ingredients

1 medium onion, sliced or diced

600gm of beef

2 TBSP cooking oil

1/4 cup of water

150ml of cream

1 TBSP of plain flour

1/4 tsp of garam masala

1 TBSP of chopped fresh coriander (or as much as you like)

It took me quite a while to pound Ingredients A to a powder as I
don't have a proper mortar. :P

Directions:

1. Grind Ingredients A into a powder. 

2. Blend Ingredients B and combine with Ingredients A.

3. Heat oil in pan to brown the meat. Remove and set meat aside. 

4. Lightly brown onions in pan for 2-3 minutes, and add spice paste. Stir and cook for 4 minutes.

5. Add meat and water to the pan. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes or until meat is cooked through and tender.

6. Stir in cream, flour and garam masala together with meat until it bubbles and thickens. Add coriander and simmer for 2 minutes.

7. Add salt to taste.

*The original recipe calls for yoghurt as well as cream but I omitted it as I didn't have yoghurt in my fridge.

I didn't have 600gm of meat, so I added 4 pieces of chicken drumstick to whatever amount of beef I had. I think if you don't want to wait too long for your meat to cook, just use chicken!

I found the gravy too creamy, so I stirred in another 1/4 cup of hot water to the dish. One bad thing about creamy dishes is that it makes you want to eat it with LOTS of rice! :)

Hmmm ... there wasn't enough gravy!

Tips for future use:

1. Add 1 - 2 tsp of chilli powder to Ingredients A or B for a little bit of heat. This time, I added them at Step 6.

2. Add 2 chopped tomatoes 15 minutes before Step 6. It will cut through the creaminess.

3. Add another 1/2 cup of water (making it a total of 1 cup) as there wasn't much gravy to go around.

4. Probably will taste better the following day when the spices permeates into the meat. :)