Bringing the Indian Restaurant Home

One of the best meals I have ever cooked, hands down, last night’s vegetable Korma was a healthy blend of vegetables, spices, and most importantly, textures.

I have made various coconut curries in the past; my love for ingredients from the East is definitely evident in my favorite cuisines, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian. Yesterday, however, I decided to actually follow a recipe. Well, sort of.

One thing that I did do was make sure that I had as many of the ingredients from the recipe as possible, including fragrant Basmati rice and golden raisins. I don’t like any rice, other than Basmati rice, and the rice that we bought at Trader Joe’s did not disappoint.

I had a very special sous chef, the normally way-too-busy mister, to help me chop the veggies. I ended up going off of the recipe, which called for nine different vegetables, and went with cauliflower, red peppers, green beans, and potatoes.

The flavorful base of the meal was one of the most important features though. I made a homemade clarified butter (also made here during my Saag Paneer post) using a lump of Kerrygold, heating it until foamy and then skimming off of the white solids. To the clarified butter, I added a diced white onion and a ton of chopped garlic.

Mmmmm garlic.

To the garlic and onions, I added about half a can of tomato paste and the chopped red bliss potatoes. And then the layering of spices began.

There was powdered ginger (because Trader Joe’s was out of fresh ginger), cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and curry powder. The smells from this pot were incredible.

I let the potatoes cook with the garlic and onions and spices for awhile before adding in a whole can of tomatoes, pureed in the food processor, liquid and all. Once all of that was mixed and had simmered for about 15 more minutes to let the potatoes cook, I added the rest of the vegetables, about a cup of golden raisins, and the finishing touch, 1/4 cup of heavy cream.

I put a lid on the Korma and watched it bubble away as we prepped the rice and other toppings, yogurt and toasted almonds.

Once we were ready to eat, I scooped Basmati rice into bowls and topped it with the Korma, making sure to grab a lot of the liquid. I topped each bowl with toasted almonds and plain yogurt.

I ate FOUR bowls of this! That is far more than I ever eat at dinner, but the blend of spices, the contrast between the soft, sweet raisins with the crunchy vegetables, soft fragrant rice, and crunchy almonds was almost too much. While we were eating we exclaimed many times how good the meal was. Luckily there were plenty of leftovers for our lunches today.

In addition to an amazing home cooked meal, it was so nice to spend the evening in the kitchen with my husband, listening to James Taylor and cooking together. I almost fell asleep after, I was so relaxed.

Today I have some serious brainstorming to do for the blog and other projects, along with a spinning workout and a seasonal Guinness dinner at Landsdowne Pub. I am hoping to get all of my major marathon workouts in early in the week, some say there is another nor’easter headed our way!

I will be announcing the winner of the restaurant gift card a little later today, so make sure to check my next post! Happy Monday!

We love cooking at home on Sunday nights; do you have any special rituals or traditions for Sundays (or any other day of the week)?