Korma

Korma

Chicken korma
Alternative names	Qorma
Place of origin	Mughal Empire
Region or state	India  Pakistan  Bangladesh  Iran  Afghanistan
Associated cuisine	Mughal cuisine
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	meat, yogurt
Media: Korma

Korma, kurma, qorma or qurma (Urdu: قورمہ; Hindi: क़ोरमा; Bengali: কোরমা; Persian: قرمه; Kashmiri: قۄرمہٕ) is a curry dish originating in the Indian subcontinent influenced by Mughlai cuisine, versions of which later were modified to Anglo-Indian and then to British tastes. It consists of meat or vegetables braised with yogurt, water or stock, and spices to produce a thick sauce or gravy.^[1]

The English name is an anglicisation of the Hindi-Urdu qormā (क़ोरमा, قورمہ), meaning 'braising',^[2][3] the cooking technique used in the dish.^[1][4] All these words, and the names of dishes such as Persian: قورمه ghormeh, Turkish kavurma and the Azerbaijani qovurma or kavarma, are ultimately derived from the Turkic qawirma, " fried thing".^[3] However, korma and modern Turkish kavurma are quite different dishes.^[3]

Korma has its roots in the Mughlai cuisine^[5] of the Indian subcontinent. The dish can be traced back to the 16th century and to the Mughal expansion into South Asia. Kormas were often prepared in the Mughal court kitchens.^[6]

Indian cooks in the 19th century prepared curries for their British masters simplified and adjusted to Anglo-Indian taste. A quarama from Lucknow contained (among other ingredients) ghee, yoghurt, cream, crushed almonds, cloves, cardamom, and saffron; whereas an 1869 Anglo-Indian quorema or korma, "different in substance as well as name",^[7] had no cream, almonds, or saffron, but it added the then-standard British curry spices, namely coriander, ginger, and black peppercorns.^[7][8]

The korma style is similar to other braising techniques in that the meat or vegetable is first cooked briskly, or seared, using high heat, traditionally with ghee, and then subjected to long, slow cooking using moist heat and a minimum of added liquid.^[1] The pot may be sealed with dough during the last stages of cooking, using a technique called dum or dampokhtak. The spices are prepared using the bagar tempering technique, briefly fried in hot oil. in the later stage of cooking, additional spices are mixed with heated ghee and then combined with the sauce formed by the braising. The pan is then covered and shaken to release steam and mix the contents.^[1]

• 
  A chicken korma
• 
  Potol (pointed gourd) korma

In the United Kingdom, a typical korma as served in curry houses is a mildly spiced dish with a thick sauce. It often features almonds, cashews or other nuts, and coconut or coconut milk.^[9] In the early 21st century, chicken korma has repeatedly been cited as the most popular curry in the UK, replacing chicken tikka masala in surveys of public eating habits.^[10][11]

Navratan korma is a vegetarian korma made with vegetables and either paneer (an Indian cheese) or nuts – or sometimes both. Navratan means "nine gems", and it is common for the recipe to include nine different vegetables.^[12][13]

In Indonesia, korma or 'gulai kurma' is traditionally cooked with coconut milk instead of yoghurt, and it can use the sour flavouring tamarind to replace the acidity of yoghurt. The dish fuses Indian cooking with both Arabic and Minang cuisine. The word kurma means "date" in Malay/Indonesian, but the dish does not contain dates.^[14]