yay pie!

Okay, this will be my first official Works for Me Wednesday entry (hosted by Rocks in My Dryer) and, most-excellent, it is for a recipe! No picture unfortunately, but I may actually be making it this week sometime and I’ll try and remember to shoot it. This week’s Works for Me Wednesday is your best last-minute-and-I-have-no-ingredients meal recipe.

I’m a total foodie (as just about everyone who knows me is well aware of) and I love all kinds of cuisines. Teo has not explored the gastronomic world as much as I have so I love trying out recipes on him to see if they stick. This one was the first Indian dish I tried and boy did it stick! He even pushed his uber-picky meat-and-potatoes buddy to give it a try (who also liked it). What I love about it is that I almost always have everything on hand because I stock up on frozen chicken breasts, we always have cream for coffee, onions take a long time to go bad, and the rest is just spices. I’ll set up the rice cooker with basmati rice and some frozen veggies in the top to steam and presto, instant well-rounded meal!

This recipe comes from foodnetwork.com. For ease’s sake, I’ll provide a copy here with notes on some ingredient corners that I cut, and it’s not hot-spicy so you will need to add your own heat. OMT, if you ever read this blog, this is the recipe that I made all the time back when we were roommates.

Update: I just added the lovely photo to this post, and its even got some pistachios sprinkled on top for garnish. Yum!

Chicken Korma

• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon julienned ginger (you can keep fresh ginger root in your freezer to prolong its shelf-life but I don’t cook with it often enough so I used the powdered stuff)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 pound chicken, cooked (I usually just poach it)
  
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garam masala, or to taste (you can find this spice mix at just about any Indian grocer and sometimes at the regular grocery store)
  
• 1/4 pint heavy cream (I use half-and-half most of the time since we have it for coffee, it makes it slightly less creamy and slightly more healthy)
  
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped coriander (I don’t bother, it’s a garnish)
  

Heat oil in a large deep frying pan adding chopped onions and fry for 4 to 5 minutes on a medium heat until the onions are slightly brown. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 1 or 2 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric and ground cumin (watch out, this stuff will stain everything yellow!).Turn up the heat and further cook for another 1 minute then add the chicken. It is very crucial that spices are mixed within the pan at this point and stirred to ensure that the chicken cooks with texture and flavor. Add water after stirring the chicken into the spices. Turn down the heat slightly and stir in the garam masala and cream cook for a further 5 minutes. Serve sprinkled with green coriander.