Creamy Chicken Korma with Almonds and Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chillies : IHCC

Spice Bazaar, is our theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), where we are cooking from Madhur Jaffrey's recipes. Spices! Love them! I cannot imagine my kitchen without any spices!  I love spices, the wonders of spices, when mixed together in a correct amount, an incredible whole new flavours are created. So for this week's theme,  Spice Bazaar is all about using spices, and I have chose to make Creamy Chicken Korma with Almonds and Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chillies, which I served together with Turmeric Rice, which I made last week.

This is one lovely meal, Turmeric Rice served with Creamy Chicken Korma with Almonds and a vegetable dish, Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chillies.

A delicious korma dish. All the wonderful spices, cardamon pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, ground cumin, ground coriander and garam masala all comes together in one delicious combination. The almonds are pureed together with the garlic and ginger, this is the first time I'm actually using almonds in a curry dish. Though the recipe uses just a little amount of cayenne pepper, about 1/4 teaspoon, I decided to spice it up a little, by substituting it with 1 teaspoon of chilli powder.  It is not at all spicy, I was tempted to add in more of the chilli powder but then my kids will be eating this as well, and also, Korma is usually not a spicy dish. Usually Korma is mild and creamy, and rich with spices. I used double the amount of garam masala, I just love using garam masala in curries, it really gives a wonderful flavours to curries. 

Creamy Chicken Korma with Almonds, one that I would cook again! Everyone was digging in for more gravy! Though it can't be seen from the photo above, there are some gravy actually, and just enough for my gravy-loving family! Note : I'll double up on the spices and ingredients for more gravy the next time!

A simple stir-fried vegetable dish, Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chillies. 

An interesting ingredient here is the usage of 1 teaspoon of raw rice. The raw rice is stired in the hot oil together with some cumin seeds until the rice turns golden. Then the rest of the ingredients are added in (refer recipe below). When this dish was done, I find that it tasted just OK, nothing spectacular. The flavours actually improved about an hour later, when it was time for our meal. It gets tastier! So cook this earlier if you are planning to have it for dinner! We had a fabulous Indian dinner that night, thumbs up from the family!

To see my friends' delicious Spice Bazaar meals, you may visit them here. If you would like to join us, you may get the full details at IHCC's Welcome! page.

I'm sharing this too with :

Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes

Creamy Chicken Korma With Almonds
(adapted from : Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey)
5-6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh root ginger, chopped
50gm flaked almonds
5 tablespoons olive oil or groundnut oil
2 bay leaves
8 cardamon pods
4 cloves
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used 1 tsp chilli powder)
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1.5kg chicken pieces, skinned and cut into serving portions
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons single cream
1/2 tablespoon garam masala (I use 1 tablespoon)
150ml water

1. Put the garlic, ginger, almonds and 6 tablespoons of water into a blender and blend to a smooth paste. Put the oil in a wide pan and set it over a medium-high heat. When it is very hot, put in the bay leaves, cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon stick and stir for 10 seconds. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until browned.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the paste from the blender, along with the cumin, coriander and cayenne. Stir for 3-4 minutes, then add the tomato puree and stir for a minute longer.
3. Add the chicken pieces, salt, cream, garam masala and water. Bring to a simmer, then cover the e pan, turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the chicken is done.

Stir-Fried Cauliflower with Green Chillies
(adapted from : Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey)
3 tablespoons olive or groundnut oil
1 teaspoon any raw rice
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
450gm (1lb) cauliflower florets
1-inch piece of fresh root ginger, cut into fine rounds and then into fine slivers
2 hot green chillies, cut into long slivers (do not remove the seeds)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (I use 3/4 tsp)
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric (I use 1/2 tsp)
freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the oil into a karhai or wok and set it over a high heat. When it is hot, put in the rice and cumin seeds. Stir for a few seconds, until the rice is golden.
2. Quickly add the cauliflower florets, ginger and chillies. Stir and fry for 5-7 minutes, until the cauliflower has browned a little.
3. Add the salt, black pepper, garam masala and turmeric. Stir once and then add 4 tablespoons water. Cover the karhai, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes or until the cauliflower is just tender.