BEEF KORMA

Recently, a strange yearning for the sweet taste of the korma gravy engulfed me, which steered me to cook korma for three consecutive days. I posted the recipe for egg korma sometime back. That was the beginning and I didn't realize it when I wrote that blog. So, for the next few days, all we had was varieties of korma. The second protein that I pounced on was beef. Beef korma has been a tradition during Eid-ul-Adha at our place. I remember my mom always prepping two sets of meat, one for beef curry and another for beef korma. You can tell why it was tradition, right? Because we absolutely loved every Eid. So just following few of the steps of my egg korma, I went on ahead with my recipe.

First off, in a pot, I added some oil and spices, frying them in high heat. The spices includes panch phoron, star anise, cumin, dried red chili, cardamon, cinnamon stick, and cloves. Interesting thing about spices is that different combination gives different aroma, allowing you to create your own signature dish. I barely used these spices before, but now I know what I was missing out on. So, once the fragrance of the spices started filling the air, I added in chopped onion and let it cook till it turned translucent. Next went in ginger paste, onion paste, chopped tomatoes, salt, sugar, coriander powder, and red chili powder. Red chili powder isn't absolutely necessary, I just can't get by without it. After everything was well-integrated, I added my new favorite ingredient, coconut milk. At this point, I reduced my heat to medium to avoid burning my mixture. In the next step, you can use yogurt, but I used whipping cream instead. Although in few of my previous recipes I used whipping cream in absence of yogurt, but it is growing on to me. I like the creamy texture it leaves at the end. It may not be the best idea, but if any of you know why it may be a bad idea you can let me know in the comment section. Carrying on, after letting the mixture cook for about 5-7 minutes, I added in the beef and left it covered for 7 minutes. Next I lowered the heat and waited for the beef to completely cook through. Trust me, this was the toughest to wait for. By the time I had the dish, my cravings peaked and it felt heavenly. Exaggerating much? Well it did turn out pretty good and I sided it with some kichuri and rice flour roti. Yes, the crumbly white thing in the picture is a roti. Somehow my frying pan fell in love with the roti and didn't want to let go. Basically this is what happens when you don't take good care of our frying pan. It betrays us. Just kidding! I hope you enjoyed reading.

Ingredients:

3 lbs beef

2 tbsp canola oil

0.5 tsp panch phoron

0.25 tsp cumin

1 pcs cinnamon stick

2 pcs star anise

2 pcs cardamon

2 pcs cloves

2 pcs dried red chili

1 cup chopped onion

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp onion paste

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chili powder

1 cup coconut milk

2 tbsp whipping cream