Mission: to Find the Best Coconut Korma

Indian food is so amazingly delicious and inherently vegan.  One of our favorite restaurants is Saffron Valley Street Foods in South Jordan.  I’ve made a few Indian dishes myself, and some of them are pretty good, but there are so many recipes out there and I’m always making alterations so I can never remember which one is good.  

So the goal here is to cook 10 different Coconut Korma recipes, and follow them EXACTLY as written with no substitutions.  After each recipe we will rate them from 1-10, and by the end of the project we will have a winner to stick with!

So here’s the recipe I made tonight:

Coconut Korma #1 from http://www.food.com/recipe/korma-447879

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small white onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fresh gingerroot, minced
2 small yukon gold potatoes, cubed
4 carrots, cubed
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced
6 tablespoons unsalted cashews, ground
1 (4 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons hot curry powder
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup frozen green pea
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 (15 ounce) can light coconut milk
cilantro (to garnish) (optional)

Directions:
On a stove top heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook onion until tender. Mix in the ginger, garlic, and 1 tablespoon of the curry powder; continue to cook for 1 minute. In a separate bowl mix potatoes, carrots, jalapeno, cashews, and tomato sauce then add to skillet with salt and 1/2 tablespoon curry powder. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add the bell peppers, peas, and coconut milk to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes until the consistency has thickened. Put cilantro on top if desired.

Only left out the jalapeno because our kids (and I) don’t like spicy.  And of course, after I got making it I realized I didn’t have coconut milk, but I did use coconut oil.  So much for following it exactly.  I’ll come back and rate it when we’re done!

And just for my own reference, here are the recipes I plan to make this month:

http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-korma-315761

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegetable-korma-curry-7801

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-chickpea-korma-271664

http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-korma-takeaway-style-257818

http://indian.food.com/recipe/chicken-korma-maybe-364394

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegetable-korma-308313

http://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-cashew-and-vegetable-korma-109975

http://www.food.com/recipe/south-indian-vegetable-korma-123481

http://www.food.com/recipe/lamb-meatball-curry-436684

http://www.food.com/recipe/korma-curry-paste-460262

Of course I’ll be using veggies instead of meat, and whatever dairy substitutes I need to.

We just tasted the dinner and the kids and I give it a 7.  I thought it was a little salty (after tripling the recipe that’s a lot of salt) and I should have cooked the potatoes longer, but the sauce was good. Amelia even asked for more after a good sized helping. 🙂 We’ll see what John says.

And the results are in… John gives it a solid 8. 🙂