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If you love Indian food as much as I do, you probably want to put a quick mid-week curry on the kitchen table, but find it hard to put the time aside to cook it from scratch, or worse - find you've run out of one of the many key ingredients in the recipe. Damn...that fresh ginger looks old and wrinkly or you've annoyingly run out of cumin seeds! Indian cuisine has such an array of dazzling ingredients, keeping them all in stock can require big cupboards!
That's why these curry pastes comes in so handy. These jars can sit in your cupboard alongside a couple of cans of coconut milk or some chopped tomatoes and all you need is to bring home is the key meat or veg ingredient.
These Karimix curry pastes are the best I’ve ever tasted. I’ve worked with Monica (the founder) for over 10 years, her expertise in blending spices is truly remarkable. Together we have developed menu concepts for hotels and restaurants, giving the illusion that the chef must have slaved for hours to scratch cook the delicious meal they’ve been enjoying. Here's our video tutorial to guide you through the method.
Scroll down for the ingredients and full recipe...
Ingredients for the Somerset Foodie Chicken Korma
Serves 4 - Work time: 20 mins | Total time (inc. marinating) 2 hrs
120g Karimix Korma Paste
4 Chicken Breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
6tbsps of Yoghurt
3 large onion, finely diced
400ml Coconut Milk
150ml Somerset Foodie Vegetable Stock
70g Ground Almonds, plus some extra for thickening
2tbsps Soy Sauce
2 Spring Onions, finely sliced
1 Large sprig of coriander, chopped
A little rapeseed oil for frying
A pinch of salt
Ingredients for the Cumin Pilau Rice (optional - it's perfectly OK to serve this with plain Basmati rice too)
Serves 4
200g Dr Nature Basmati Rice, washed under running water and soaked for 20 minutes
475ml Vegetable Stock, fine to use stock powder or cubes
2 Onions, finely diced
4 Cloves of Garlic, crushed
1tsp Cumin Seeds, lightly crushed
1tsp Fennel Seeds, lightly crushed
6 Cloves, crushed
2tsp Salt
Ingredients for the Tomato & Onion Salad (optional)
Serves 4
4 Fresh Tomatoes, diced
½ Cucumber, diced
1 Red Onion, finely diced
1tsp Nigella Seeds
A sprig of fresh coriander
A drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A squeeze of lime juice
Start by chopping the chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks and massage 40g of the korma paste into the chicken pieces. Now add the yoghurt in with the chicken and the ground almonds and combine well. Marinating chicken in yoghurt will give you beautifully tender meat, so the longer you can leave this the better, but if you’re pushed for time, try to give it at least half an hour.
Start by making the korma sauce. Heat the oil in a pan large enough to incorporate all your ingredients. Start by frying the onions for a couple of minutes until they’ve gone slightly translucent and then add the remaining korma paste. Keep cooking for around 5 minutes.
If you are making my recipe for Cumin Pilau Rice, now is the time to get this started. Take a small pan, heat the oil and fry the spices and the garlic for about 20 seconds, then add the onion and gently fry until lightly caramelise – make sure you don’t burn them! It’s fine to get this done and then turn off the heat and set aside until you’re ready to finish cooking the rice which will take about 10 minutes.
Add the chicken breasts with all the marinade to the korma sauce and continue cooking for a few more minutes until the chicken is nicely coated. Add the coconut milk, the veg stock, place a lid on the pan and now gently simmer for around 10-15 minutes whilst you cook the rice.
Now add the rice to the onions, garlic and spices and mix. Pour in the hot stock and gently simmer with a lid on for around 10 minutes. The rice should absorb all the liquid but check towards the end of the cooking time that the pan hasn’t dried out.
Serve up your rice, with a healthy portion of chicken korma, garnish each plate with some finely sliced spring onions, chopped coriander, a little tomato and onion salad.
Glorious!
Ben Tollworthy, Somerset Foodie.
This curry….. now then, where do I start? Absolutely delicious; beats a take away (or even Indian restaurant) korma by miles, which can be too greasy and rich. This was full of flavour and easy to make. I teamed it with the cumin pilau rice and the tomato and onion salad which added a lovely freshness when piled on top. If I’m making something from scratch I always like to make extra to either put in the freezer or eat in the week, so with this recipe I used 4 very large chicken breasts (750g approx) and the whole jar of the korma paste, and kept to the same quantities for everything else. To save on chopping and teary eyes, I pulsed the onions in the food processor. Can’t wait until lockdown’s over to invite friends round for supper; this curry will be on the menu! Thanks Ben
This was the tastiest curry we had in ages. Nothing boring about this korma; it was warm and aromatic, full of flavour. I enjoyed making it. The rice from the kit is delicious. I soaked it for a while and rinsed it and it cooked very well. Yummy, thank you!!!
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Mark
January 22, 2024
Ben has done it again, this is just superb, better than a restaurant. I can honestly say that before discovering Somersetfoodie my cooking was okay, it’s now really very good, thanks to all these utterly delicious pastes and recipes. Ben to appear on Masterchef soon I hope!