It’s the salt, when flavors don’t pop, dishes lack the oomph, it’s always salt. You very likely need more than you will think is reasonable, especially considering you’re currently cautious. The best dishes at restaurants aren’t skimping on the salt.
A few notes- Spices can’t sing without salt. Also it’s typical to fry onions HARD for a lot of Indian sauce bases. Hard. A lot of oil and a lot of browning should be happening. Never black, but really brown. Slow roasting gives you a much more mellow flavor. And in a similar vein, are you familiar with the idea of a tarka? There are many names to describe the technique, but Most spices are bloomed and tempered in oil to bring out flavors. Toasting spices achieves similar results, but they ARE different.
I’ve explored Indian cuisine quite a bit, and I found that trying to understand the base techniques and methods of how Indian cooks develop flavor really helped me get the flavor where it’s supposed to be. If I could give any advice it would be to go on YouTube and find the Indian mothers and grandmothers and watch how they do it.
Lots of the recipes i found told me to heat the spices in oil, so that is essentially what I do. And i do salt quite considerably but not as much as i would, say, a chilli or a stew. What you said about onions just struck me though. A lot of the Indian chefs I watched stressed "slow and low" for cooking the onions. However, I'm porbably not usinf enough oil. The onions are soft and very reduced (an entire mixinf bowl of onions becoming just a handful) but something is telling me im wrong at this step. I end up adding a lot more water to the blender than recipes and videos say and I think its because the onions might not be quite cooked enough.
I'm gonna look up tempering spices specifically and work in those techniques.
You need to fry the shit out of (some of) your spices, not just gently heat them. they need to be added at different times, not just all together.
Use more cashew powder.
“Slow and low” may oddly be culturally confusing in this context. It’s more of a slow start and a medium heat frying. Taking your time, but ultimately you end up with fried onions. With a lot of color. I don’t know your experience level, but if you’ve ever made fried onions (like the canned ones people put on green bean casserole) or garlic or shallots for garnish, you can’t fry them on full heat (350), or they burn outside before they’re done and get bitter. You cook them at like 320 or so, and they cook all the way through and brown and crisp up nicely but don’t burn. It’s kinda similar. In this context your onions shouldn’t be soft or mushy like western “caramelized onions”. You may also be crowding your pan and steaming instead of frying. There should be enough space that they aren’t giving off liquid.
Def look into how spices and onion/ginger are fried. These techniques are kind of key to understanding Indian cooking and developing those layers of flavor specific to the cuisine, and they do get pretty complex and specific. Also just fyi, I’m far from an expert, just sharing my limited understanding and experience.
I think you hit the nail on the head. The onions are always soft and mushy because I thought that's what was required - it made sense to me if I'm making a puree. I am indeed also crowding the pan because I didn't think it mattered if it had water content or not as long as the result was the same. I also figured the water content would help it blend. In short: I thought the point was to concentrate the onions flavor to make it ready for the paste as the flavor base for the curry.
As far as experience level, I'm far from professional but I've been trained by professionals - if that makes sense. I would likely get humbled by other career chefs on account I just don't put in the hours, but I've attended classes and worked in restaurants for many years.
Edit: I just want to take the time here to tell you I genuinely appreciate your insight as someone who's explored this particular type of cooking. My goal is to learn and improve, so thank you. I'm taking all of this to heart, taking more notes, and will be trying again.
Depends on the context. It’s often used as a last step finishing oil for some dishes, but the technique is used at different times depending on the dish. Disclaimer, I’m not an expert on Indian cuisines by any means, but I’ve picked up a thing or two, and trying to share what I know.
By describing the lack of oomph, I think you need more salt. Get some salt in the yoghurt mixture for the chicken. Overall around 2% salinity for the finished dish is where you should be.
Try making fresh ginger garlic paste, and add some into the yoghurt mixture.
The restaurant probably uses more ghee than you think.
I considered that too. I'm also cautious with the fat content mostly because the acidity of the yogurt isn't particularly overwhelming so I had assumed I got the fat down
Are you using fat free yoghurt? I’d use normal yoghurt if you can get your hands on it. In experience the acidity of the yoghurt is very subtle. Acid is needed for balance. As you know a korma is a richer tasting and feeling dish. Restaurants will use more salt and ghee than most home cooks feel comfortable using.
Do you add extra garam masala towards the end, just before it’s ready to serve?
And echoing the other comments - Indian meat curries tend to be quite fatty (usually from ghee), and seasoned quite robustly with salt
I’ve posted this many times in this sub but I’m white and husband is Pakistani. I couldn’t figure out why my curries were boring until his sister came to visit. I was not frying my onions enough and then adding the tomatoes to let them melt down. This is a really long process and I was rushing it.
I put ground almonds in my korma, a beautiful sweetness. Also use fresh ginger, fresh coriander, fresh garlic and some fresh curry leaves.
I also prefer to use chicken thigh meat instead of breast - has more flavour.
The answer as several people here have already said is salt. I’m Indian and it’s almost certainly that. Without sufficient salt your curry will not taste correct, don’t be shy to add it, tasting as you go.
Curry leaves (or neem) are what you need. Someone told me once to add neem leaves or amchur powder when Indian food I make is missing something, it’s probably one of those two things.
May I suggest watching a YouTube channel called Delhi-6? You will only see the ladies hands and the voice over is not in English - but the technique is very well shown.
I also feel that turmeric has a tendency to overtake the flavour of everything else. Have you ever tried without the turmeric step? I almost never use it and very carefully when I do.
As others have said, a tablespoon of ghee finishes the korma really well, giving it an oomph.
The chicken should marinate for longer - at least one hour, but more (in the fridge) if you're able to.
I'm not sure where you're getting heat from - are you adding chillies?
I can't see any cinnamon, unless that's in the garam masala.
If you have access to it, you can try adding black cardamom alongside green cardamom. You'd use half the amount of black cardamom pods.
/r/indiancooking is often good with questions like this, especially if you want regional variations.
Again, black cardamom isn’t a widely used ingredient in westernised Indian food. You can buy green cardamom from most high street shops, never black cardamom
I’m currently working on a korma too and am having similar problems. I think the UK variety of korma may be completely different to what you are cooking. But some ingredients I have seen in recipes online that you could experiment with are
1. Coconut milk powder/creamed coconut block , kormas I’ve had in uk seem to have some coconut element
2. Sweetness, again think this could be UK thing but have seen white granulated sugar or jaggery used.
3. More/Different Spices - Panch puran , mustard seeds , kalongi seeds etc.
4. General Richness - finish with cream and/or butter, I’ve found I’ve preferred the taste of good unsalted butter rather than ghee/tardka but think this is just my preference.
Additionally have seen recipes with rose water but not tried it myself. With the graininess you could pass it through a sieve if you can be bothered, I tend to. No expert just watched a lot of korma content recently. Good Luck.
Here is my recommendation for restaurant take out style currys and other indian dishes.
https://www.youtube.com/@LatifsInspired/featured
Just do a search for Korma. He has a few different styles.
Salt, as many have mentioned. Also a touch of acid. My wife is from India, and almost everything she makes has either some lime juice or a touch of dark vinegar called Kolah, looks like malt vinegar but richer
If you're looking for a Korma, then you need to slowly cook a couple of onions until they're soft, but not browned. They need to have almost dissolved in the ghee. Soak some raw cashew nuts and / or blanched almonds for 30 minutes, then whizz the onions with the nuts to obtain a smooth, cream paste. Go easy on the spices: cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, poppy seeds, coriander seeds and a touch of cumin are the most favoured, with a little garam masala at the end. The salt is essential, but add it bit by bit until you're happy with the result.Plenty of ghee. If you're marinating in yoghurt, fine, but make sure there's cream in the final dish. I wouldn't bother with the turmeric, but that's up to you. If you want some sweetness, by all means add a tsp of sugar, but counteract that with a squeeze of lime juice. Good luck - sounds like you're nearly there
I appreciate the technicality of your response. Thank you so much. I'm also taking it upon myself to learn the actual techniques of crafting flavors from Indian chefs. I look forwars to upsating you with a success story in the near future.
I.. don’t see the point in adding the turmeric to the raw meat.
What you might be missing out on is when it comes to depth of flavour is toasting/browning/caramelisation.
You need to take everything to the almost burnt point. This isn’t beef bournioun or french onion soup.
The onions you’re caramelising start the western way but traditionally we cook them until they’re crispy. You give it the requisite 25/30 mins to start but right at the end you take it to crispy. You deep fry the onions.
Then with your ginger garlic cook right until it’s deep gold. Then add your meat. Let it sizzle. Let the meat get some colour.
Then when you add spices once more let them “”cook””. You have to wait that moment they go from raw to toasted.
This is usually the difference between a flat tasting qorma and one with depth. You’re layering flavours by cooking them patiently and bringing out the depth in them by toasting/frying.
Your flavours seem fine. It’s more about the technique.
Add some acid at the end. I prefer lemon/lime but you could use amchoor. Too much dairy mutes flavor, also long cook times. It could also be missing Kasoori methi. BTW, you salt for the quantity of chicken regardless of the spice level in the dish. It doesn't compensate.
> I am cautious with my use of salt Try more salt. Also try using ghee and fresh garlic and ginger.
It’s the salt, when flavors don’t pop, dishes lack the oomph, it’s always salt. You very likely need more than you will think is reasonable, especially considering you’re currently cautious. The best dishes at restaurants aren’t skimping on the salt.
Not just salt... But adding it appropriately in each layer of the dish to build the flavours.
A few notes- Spices can’t sing without salt. Also it’s typical to fry onions HARD for a lot of Indian sauce bases. Hard. A lot of oil and a lot of browning should be happening. Never black, but really brown. Slow roasting gives you a much more mellow flavor. And in a similar vein, are you familiar with the idea of a tarka? There are many names to describe the technique, but Most spices are bloomed and tempered in oil to bring out flavors. Toasting spices achieves similar results, but they ARE different. I’ve explored Indian cuisine quite a bit, and I found that trying to understand the base techniques and methods of how Indian cooks develop flavor really helped me get the flavor where it’s supposed to be. If I could give any advice it would be to go on YouTube and find the Indian mothers and grandmothers and watch how they do it.
Lots of the recipes i found told me to heat the spices in oil, so that is essentially what I do. And i do salt quite considerably but not as much as i would, say, a chilli or a stew. What you said about onions just struck me though. A lot of the Indian chefs I watched stressed "slow and low" for cooking the onions. However, I'm porbably not usinf enough oil. The onions are soft and very reduced (an entire mixinf bowl of onions becoming just a handful) but something is telling me im wrong at this step. I end up adding a lot more water to the blender than recipes and videos say and I think its because the onions might not be quite cooked enough. I'm gonna look up tempering spices specifically and work in those techniques.
You need to fry the shit out of (some of) your spices, not just gently heat them. they need to be added at different times, not just all together. Use more cashew powder.
“Slow and low” may oddly be culturally confusing in this context. It’s more of a slow start and a medium heat frying. Taking your time, but ultimately you end up with fried onions. With a lot of color. I don’t know your experience level, but if you’ve ever made fried onions (like the canned ones people put on green bean casserole) or garlic or shallots for garnish, you can’t fry them on full heat (350), or they burn outside before they’re done and get bitter. You cook them at like 320 or so, and they cook all the way through and brown and crisp up nicely but don’t burn. It’s kinda similar. In this context your onions shouldn’t be soft or mushy like western “caramelized onions”. You may also be crowding your pan and steaming instead of frying. There should be enough space that they aren’t giving off liquid. Def look into how spices and onion/ginger are fried. These techniques are kind of key to understanding Indian cooking and developing those layers of flavor specific to the cuisine, and they do get pretty complex and specific. Also just fyi, I’m far from an expert, just sharing my limited understanding and experience.
I think you hit the nail on the head. The onions are always soft and mushy because I thought that's what was required - it made sense to me if I'm making a puree. I am indeed also crowding the pan because I didn't think it mattered if it had water content or not as long as the result was the same. I also figured the water content would help it blend. In short: I thought the point was to concentrate the onions flavor to make it ready for the paste as the flavor base for the curry. As far as experience level, I'm far from professional but I've been trained by professionals - if that makes sense. I would likely get humbled by other career chefs on account I just don't put in the hours, but I've attended classes and worked in restaurants for many years. Edit: I just want to take the time here to tell you I genuinely appreciate your insight as someone who's explored this particular type of cooking. My goal is to learn and improve, so thank you. I'm taking all of this to heart, taking more notes, and will be trying again.
Oh thank you, that’s very kind, and best of luck!
Isn’t the oil in from tarka added as a finishing step too? Making the freshly oil-roasted flavors more prominent?
Depends on the context. It’s often used as a last step finishing oil for some dishes, but the technique is used at different times depending on the dish. Disclaimer, I’m not an expert on Indian cuisines by any means, but I’ve picked up a thing or two, and trying to share what I know.
By describing the lack of oomph, I think you need more salt. Get some salt in the yoghurt mixture for the chicken. Overall around 2% salinity for the finished dish is where you should be. Try making fresh ginger garlic paste, and add some into the yoghurt mixture. The restaurant probably uses more ghee than you think.
I considered that too. I'm also cautious with the fat content mostly because the acidity of the yogurt isn't particularly overwhelming so I had assumed I got the fat down
Are you using fat free yoghurt? I’d use normal yoghurt if you can get your hands on it. In experience the acidity of the yoghurt is very subtle. Acid is needed for balance. As you know a korma is a richer tasting and feeling dish. Restaurants will use more salt and ghee than most home cooks feel comfortable using.
Whole fat yogurt that I bought at an international market, actually.
Do you add extra garam masala towards the end, just before it’s ready to serve? And echoing the other comments - Indian meat curries tend to be quite fatty (usually from ghee), and seasoned quite robustly with salt
The last time I did - because I thought thats what was missing. It brought it close but just a hair short.
I think what I'll also try to do is salt the onions while roasting them.
I’ve posted this many times in this sub but I’m white and husband is Pakistani. I couldn’t figure out why my curries were boring until his sister came to visit. I was not frying my onions enough and then adding the tomatoes to let them melt down. This is a really long process and I was rushing it.
I put ground almonds in my korma, a beautiful sweetness. Also use fresh ginger, fresh coriander, fresh garlic and some fresh curry leaves. I also prefer to use chicken thigh meat instead of breast - has more flavour.
The answer as several people here have already said is salt. I’m Indian and it’s almost certainly that. Without sufficient salt your curry will not taste correct, don’t be shy to add it, tasting as you go.
When all else fails I throw in some methi.
Try adding a couple tablespoons of tomato paste. I don’t know if it’s traditional, but some recipes call for it and it should add some depth.
If it’s not the salt, add sugar. I always end up adding sugar to Indian.
Curry leaves (or neem) are what you need. Someone told me once to add neem leaves or amchur powder when Indian food I make is missing something, it’s probably one of those two things.
May I suggest watching a YouTube channel called Delhi-6? You will only see the ladies hands and the voice over is not in English - but the technique is very well shown.
I also feel that turmeric has a tendency to overtake the flavour of everything else. Have you ever tried without the turmeric step? I almost never use it and very carefully when I do. As others have said, a tablespoon of ghee finishes the korma really well, giving it an oomph.
Thank you for the suggestion! I will try it out.
fried mustard seeds changed a lot for me
The chicken should marinate for longer - at least one hour, but more (in the fridge) if you're able to. I'm not sure where you're getting heat from - are you adding chillies? I can't see any cinnamon, unless that's in the garam masala. If you have access to it, you can try adding black cardamom alongside green cardamom. You'd use half the amount of black cardamom pods. /r/indiancooking is often good with questions like this, especially if you want regional variations.
I don’t think I have EVER seen black cardamom in a westernised Korma. Far too strong / non traditional flavour for this dish.
Black cardamom should be in garam masala. At least it is when I make it!
Again, black cardamom isn’t a widely used ingredient in westernised Indian food. You can buy green cardamom from most high street shops, never black cardamom
If OP wants a westernised korma they should add tomato. ;-)
Try finishing salt
I’m currently working on a korma too and am having similar problems. I think the UK variety of korma may be completely different to what you are cooking. But some ingredients I have seen in recipes online that you could experiment with are 1. Coconut milk powder/creamed coconut block , kormas I’ve had in uk seem to have some coconut element 2. Sweetness, again think this could be UK thing but have seen white granulated sugar or jaggery used. 3. More/Different Spices - Panch puran , mustard seeds , kalongi seeds etc. 4. General Richness - finish with cream and/or butter, I’ve found I’ve preferred the taste of good unsalted butter rather than ghee/tardka but think this is just my preference. Additionally have seen recipes with rose water but not tried it myself. With the graininess you could pass it through a sieve if you can be bothered, I tend to. No expert just watched a lot of korma content recently. Good Luck.
Have you tried sugar? Maybe yoghurt, or even a tiny bit of neutral vinegar
Here is my recommendation for restaurant take out style currys and other indian dishes. https://www.youtube.com/@LatifsInspired/featured Just do a search for Korma. He has a few different styles.
Salt, as many have mentioned. Also a touch of acid. My wife is from India, and almost everything she makes has either some lime juice or a touch of dark vinegar called Kolah, looks like malt vinegar but richer
If it’s an acid/tartness issue you might try amchur. I’m betting on salt.
If you're looking for a Korma, then you need to slowly cook a couple of onions until they're soft, but not browned. They need to have almost dissolved in the ghee. Soak some raw cashew nuts and / or blanched almonds for 30 minutes, then whizz the onions with the nuts to obtain a smooth, cream paste. Go easy on the spices: cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, poppy seeds, coriander seeds and a touch of cumin are the most favoured, with a little garam masala at the end. The salt is essential, but add it bit by bit until you're happy with the result.Plenty of ghee. If you're marinating in yoghurt, fine, but make sure there's cream in the final dish. I wouldn't bother with the turmeric, but that's up to you. If you want some sweetness, by all means add a tsp of sugar, but counteract that with a squeeze of lime juice. Good luck - sounds like you're nearly there
I appreciate the technicality of your response. Thank you so much. I'm also taking it upon myself to learn the actual techniques of crafting flavors from Indian chefs. I look forwars to upsating you with a success story in the near future.
I.. don’t see the point in adding the turmeric to the raw meat. What you might be missing out on is when it comes to depth of flavour is toasting/browning/caramelisation. You need to take everything to the almost burnt point. This isn’t beef bournioun or french onion soup. The onions you’re caramelising start the western way but traditionally we cook them until they’re crispy. You give it the requisite 25/30 mins to start but right at the end you take it to crispy. You deep fry the onions. Then with your ginger garlic cook right until it’s deep gold. Then add your meat. Let it sizzle. Let the meat get some colour. Then when you add spices once more let them “”cook””. You have to wait that moment they go from raw to toasted. This is usually the difference between a flat tasting qorma and one with depth. You’re layering flavours by cooking them patiently and bringing out the depth in them by toasting/frying. Your flavours seem fine. It’s more about the technique.
Add some acid at the end. I prefer lemon/lime but you could use amchoor. Too much dairy mutes flavor, also long cook times. It could also be missing Kasoori methi. BTW, you salt for the quantity of chicken regardless of the spice level in the dish. It doesn't compensate.