Chicken korma

Before you start

• a blender
• soak the cashews in hot water first, or the gravy stays grainy

Ingredients

Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard

• 320gchicken thighs, boneless
• 120gnatural yoghurt
• 40gcashews
• 30mlcream
• 70gbasmati rice
• 2 tbspghee
• 2onions
• 1 thumbginger and garlic
• 1 tbspgreen cardamom, cloves and cinnamon
• 1 pinchsaffron
• 15gflaked almonds

Method

8 steps

1. soak · 20m walk away

   Cashews under just-boiled water while the onions get going.

2. fry · 22m

   Onions sliced fine and cooked slowly in the ghee to a real gold — twenty-odd minutes, not five. This is where a korma gets both its sweetness and its body, and nothing else in the pan supplies either.

3. blend · 5m

   Half the fried onion blitzed smooth with the drained cashews and a little water.

4. fry · 8m

   Whole spices into the remaining fat, then the chicken turned until it is white all over.

5. fold · 6m

   Yoghurt beaten smooth and added a spoon at a time with the pan off the boil. Tipped in cold and all at once it splits, and a split korma never comes back.

6. simmer · 25m walk away

   Cashew paste in, lid ajar, the barest simmer, until the chicken is cooked right through — cut the thickest piece: no pink, juices clear.

7. boil · 12m walk away

   Rice alongside: rinsed, twice its volume of water, lid, lowest heat.

8. finish · 4m

   Saffron rubbed into the cream and stirred through off the heat, almonds over. Salt, and no chilli at all — a korma is meant to stop just short of heat.