Indian Korma Curry

Ground nuts in a few seconds from my Vitamix! You can use a food processor as well.


starting at the top and moving clockwise: garlic, cloves, coconut, cumin, coriander, dry chilies, peeled ginger, and a stick of cinnamon in the center


Cooking the paste, with some added water

Simmer the sauce with the grapes and vegetables


I am very intrigued by Indian cuisine. The aromatic combinations they use are incredible. The styles across India are very diverse and I would probably have to spend quite a bit of time living there and studying before I could really speak with much knowledge on the subject.
At my work, like at Whole Foods and some Schnucks stores, we offer cooking classes to the public. As a Foodie (my job title) I get payed to attend some of the classes. I pick out all the vegetarian classes and go to those. Last week I attended a class called 660 curries, named after a book written by the teacher, Raghavan Iyer. He was extremely informative, and actually gives culinary tours of regions in India! Someday I would love to send myself on all kinds of "culinary vacations."

A curry is just a sauce. It doesnt have to have anything in it to make it a curry.. it is just an Indian sauce. I used to think that curry needed coconut milk, or tumeric, or cumin & coriander... Wrong!

So, learning to prepare Indian food is like learning to cook all over again. Recently I ate at a local restaurant called Clay Pit and ordered a curry, called Korma, and was described as a "sinfully rich cashew almond pistachio cream sauce." To most Americans cream sauce means milk, butter, and/or cream.. but none of these were present. the creaminess was from the nuts. I was mesmerized. I have looked through several books since then, searching for something that comes close. I bought the book 660 curries, but none of them reflected my memory of that sauce. Eventually I came across a recipe in a book I borrowed from a friend. Here is the sauce that I made. The book is called Indian Home Cooking by Suvir Savan, and the recipe is called "coconut chicken with cashews." I am going to put *asterisk* by my additions to the sauce, obviously I did not add the chicken.

1 c raw cashews
1/4 c raw pistashios * (mix the 2 together, then separate 1c from 1/4c, as you'll need 1/4c mixed nuts at the very end of the recipe.)
4 whole dry red chili peppers
1 inch piece cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
3 T coriander seeds
2 t cumin seeds
1 medium onion, coarsley chopped
8 garlic cloves
a 2inch peice fresh ginger, peeled & sliced
1/2 c unsweetened coconut
1/3 c canola oil
1t ground black pepper
2 c water
1 t salt, or to taste
1 zucchini *
couple handfuls of green grapes*
1 red bell pepper*
half a head of cauliflower*
chopped cilantro*

I read through the instructions quickly, and assumed that I knew what to do. Mistake. I need to follow Indian recipes more carefully, since they are new to me. The recipe says to process the nuts until they are crumbs then dry toast all the ingredients from the cashews (just 1 cup) through the coconut. I just assumed that I would cook them all in oil. Wrong. I was supposed to dry toast everything (on the stovetop) until the coconut turns a golden toasty brown, then make a paste (puree) then cook the puree in the oil.
So. I cooked everything in oil, then pureed it in my Vitamix. I am sure it didn't make a huge difference, I loved my sauce, ah well. I was very proud of my Vitamix for pureeing the cinnamon stick amongst the other ingredients. A spice grinder would work too, those run about $20-$40 (but dont last as long as a Vitamix).
Moving on. I made the puree then put it back in the pan and cooked it for a few minutes, stirring continuously and adding water so that it didn't stick to the pan. After a few minutes, I added the rest of the water and continued to stir to incorporate. When it stated to simmer, I added my grapes and veggies and cooked em with the lid slightly on until they were tender. At the end I stirred in the other 1/4 c of ground nuts and served it with naan (Indian flat bread) and jasmine rice. I got rave reviews from Anna and my friend Sabrina, who had dinner with us this night. Awesome! It made quite a bit too, so I got to eat it a couple days for lunch.