Will the real Chicken Korma please stand up?
 

I love Indian food! Well, actually, I have a real problem with hot stuff, so I really dont love it. But I do love Chicken Korma.

There is a hole in the wall restaurant near where I live that has the most incredible Indian food. My favorite dish is Chicken Korma. Here, they make it with a nice rich sauch - they use a nut past, spices, though not a lot of chili or tomato. I have ordered Korma at many other places, and what I get is invariably different. It usually takes one of two forms: One is a cream and nut mixture, with what seems to be little spice. The other is what I would call Mahkni (sp?), with chili and tomato, and usually pretty thin. Neither of these is anythig like what I order at India Cafe.

So, who is in the wrong here? Does my restaurant have it wrong, and I should be ordering something else when I go to other restaurants? Or is Korma just something they tend to mess up a lot in this country?

Very little of what passes for Indian or Pakistan food in the US (or UK) is authentic food recognisable on home ground. Most food has been adjusted by local resturants to represent what they think Western tastes - and their specific customers - desire. Basically there isn't a master authentic recipe. There's also the complication that North India prefers a different korma - it's sweeter - to Southern India - where they prefer a tomato based gravy that is spicier - within which you will experience a fairly infinite variety of personal adjustment. So you have to eat in a place that produces what you personally like or even better make it yourself. It's easy to make your own korma from a jar paste (pataks is good) with which you start with a blended mix of coconut milk/cream and canned braised onions. It also lends itself to slow cooker preperation so you can prep the meal first thing in the morning and let it braise. Korma means "slow braise".

The only common features are likely to be a sweet thick yellow (sometimes restuarants add Heinz tomato soup to make it slightly redder) coloured sauce with yoghurt and sugar and ground almonds!

Korma can be interpreted in different ways. In restaurants other than your favorite, try ordering something like Chicken Tikka Masala; my guess is that you will like it. As always, you can ask for it to be medium spicy, since you say you have a problem with really hot stuff.

FWIW, korma is pronounced kurma, where the "u" is pronounced like the "u" in "put", not like the "u" in "but" or "cut". I do understand that this might be more information than you were interested in!

Masala is Quite different from Korm. Msl is more traditionally based with more chilies nd tomatoes. Korma as I understand it hs. Unique base to it based on nut pastes.

Think of the word 'korma' as the English language uses the word 'stew'.

Beef Stroganoff, Peporonata, Bouillabaisse, Tangine, Ratatouille, Chille con carne, and Lancashire Hotpot are all 'stews' yet every single one is completely and utterly different.

The kormas I normally come across in restaurants are creamy curries, not very hot - sometimes the from yogurt or cream, sometimes from coconut milk - some have nuts and some don't. They slow cook, because you don't want the milk elements to curdle (hence the slow braise).

In addition, lots of other curries use ground nuts in the base, including chicken tikka masala in many places - I use ground almonds in a lot of the curry bases I make at home.

If you wanted another dish close to a korma, try a pasanda. It is very close, usually made with a cashew nut base (I think kormas tend more towards almonds in restaurants) although some places will also add tomatoes to pasandas (but in means always).

I must say, this is an excellent explanation.

The creamy, nutty kormas that we have in the UK (and the US) are virtually unheard of in South Asia. Akin to the difference between China-Chinese food and American-Chinese food, British curry dishes have been adapted to a local taste and only in some cases bear a resemblance to the South Asian counterparts.

Usually, Korma is made from a nut (usually cashews -- sometimes they use almonds to lower the cost) and cream mixture and is not very spicy at all.

Makhani is made from a butter and tomato paste and is usually thin and very spicy. More than likely, you had eaten Murgh Makhani (also called Butter Chicken in Mumbai).

In India, there are more than 100 different variations per dish, so it all depends where the owners of the restaurant are from and how they made it at their house. Also, the dishes eventually take on a western form to please their non-indian customers.

Is Chicken Korma "real"? I can't say I ever encountered a Korma with meat in India but like all travels in India mine are not exhaustive. Korma was vegatables in a gravy that range had characteristics from sweet to creamy to tomatoey to spicy. All were generally topped with nuts.

I found Indian food in India to, generally, not be nearly as spicy as the Americans make it. (Note: I have only been in northern India - Mumbai and north)

It depends.

In the US I can get Veg. Korma "spicy" and "super spicy". In India people treated me like an idiot if I asked for Korma spicy because they, generally, didn't believe it to be a spicy dish. On other occasions spicy dishes were served spicy of a very, very hot nature. I've been told on numerous occaisons default for white looking people is mild. Very mild because we all look alike :) Even on the trains one gets peanuts served with hot chiles.

I've found this in Canada - I've ordered typically hot curries in restaurants, only to be disappointed by how mild they were - I mentioned this once, and the waiter told me that they always dial down the spices for white folk, because they don't think we can take the heat! Now I know this, I do ok, oddly, pointing out I am British usually works, as I think Brits are well known here for liking hot food! I like a good combination of flavour and heat - I like tomatoes, peppers and corriander in my curries, and enough tingle my lips can feel it! I do love that most of the places I go, they are happy to customize any of the dishes, I've had some really great meals after chatting to the chef!

Solution to food served too mild
 

As soon as you realize that the food you asked to be hot was actually too mild, ask the waiter to bring you a green chili. He will bring you a small plate with several green chilis, even if you said "a". With each forkful of food you eat, pick up a chili and bite off a TINY piece. Be careful with this; these chilies really are hot, and you will feel the effects of even a tiny piece on the tip of your tongue. You could alternately chop up the chili and mix up the pieces into the main course, a better course of action if you're willing to take the time.

In the U.S. there will be no charge for the green chilies. I cannot speak for Canada.

I find that sort of thing gives a cruder heat than the more complex heat I find in a really enjoyable curry - I guess you need the other elements, the salt, the sweet, the sour, to balance the heat. I'm generally ok now that I know to specify when ordering. But I am still REALLY looking forward to going for Indian food next month in the UK with a good friend!

I agree with what other posters have said. General Tsos chciken is NOT a chinese dish. It is a dish that has chinese influences invented for the American Palate.
Curry is very much the same. I have had Vindaloo that blasted my mouth (AND OTHER AREAS) out in the UK then had Vindaloo at a restaurant overlooking St Louis Lambert Airport and it was extremely mild much saltier and had much more tomato. The only way to eat authentic food is to go to the country IMHO. As other posters have pointed out, even then there are variations.

True Indian food also uses a lot more vegatables than Western variations - especially are beef and pork variations rare. If there was use of meat it is likely to be goat, lamb and chicken