Homemade korma paste – A mild curry paste made with almonds, coconut and spices. Quick and simple to make, ready in just 10 minutes, and full of flavour.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed since starting to cook more is playing around with flavour. I’ve always watched programs like Masterchef and felt extremely envious of anyone who is complemented on their flavours, I want to be that person. I don’t mind if my food looks a mess, or I’ve not used fancy techniques (although if I can achieve those too, all the better), the most important thing is that it tastes delicious.
To me, one of the obvious starting places for my experiments with flavour was curry paste. I’ve cooked homemade curry for years, but I’ve always used jars from the supermarket. I decided to start with korma paste as mild chicken and sweet potato curry is my one year old’s favourite dinner (he’s a pretty fussy eater, but you can hide all sort of vegetables in a curry and it’ll all disappear!). So, for the past few months I’ve been playing around with different combinations and quantities of spices until I found what I think is the perfect korma paste.
I’m always a bit worried about giving my recipes a traditional name, who am I to say that this is a “traditional” korma paste. However, I believe that this has all of the key basic ingredients (cumin, coriander, almonds, coconut) so I think I’m justified. Anyway, regardless of whether you would call this authentic or not, if you’re after a mild curry paste this tastes delicious.
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 inch cube fresh root ginger
- 1 green chilli
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp cardamom seeds - if you can't get seeds buy the cardamom pods and remove the seeds at home. You'll need about 20 cardamom pods to get 1 tsp of seeds.
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
- 2 tbsp ground almonds
- 2 tbsp tomato pureé
- 2 tbsp groundnut oil
- salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat a small frying pan and add the coriander seeds (2 tbsp), black peppercorns (½ tsp), cardamom seeds (1 tsp) and cinnamon stick (½ stick). Toast the spices on a gentle heat for about 1 minute and then add the cumin seeds (1 tbsp). Continue to cook until the spices are golden and you can smell their aroma (approximately 1 minute). Regularly shake the pan to make sure that the spices don't burn. - It's important that the spices don't burn as if they do your paste will have a bitter flavour - not what you're after!.
- Once the spices are toasted, grind to a powder in a pestle and mortar.
- Peel the garlic (2 cloves), deseed the green chilli, and remove the outside of the ginger (1 inch cube). Put them into the pestle and mortar and bash them for a minutes or so until they are squashed.
- Add the desiccated coconut (2 tbsp), ground almonds (2 tbsp), tomato pureé (2 tbsp), groundnut oil (2 tbsp) and cayenne pepper (½ tsp) and grind until you have a paste.
- Season with salt.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Jim says
so glad I found this , I love korma , made this yesterday to make a mushroom , chickpea and spinach korma , it went down really well ,so I’ve bought more stuff and made some more , I’ve filled an ice cube tray with it ,so its in my freezer for next time , X
Honest mum says
Forwarding this to my husband who adores korma, thanks so much! Thanks too for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Vicki, I hope he likes it.
Just putting the finishing touches on a new post ready for tomorrow’s #TastyTuesdays
Emily @amummytoo says
This is perfect! I’m totally inspired to make a batch this week. Thanks for joining in with #recipeoftheweek
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Emily. I’ve had that response from a few people which is so lovely to hear.
I’ll be back for this week’s #recipeoftheweek in the next couple of days.
Sarah (@tamingtwins) says
I never seem to make time to make my own curry paste, you’ve inspired me to try. I imagine you could freeze it as Mel mentioned, maybe I need to make a batch.
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Sarah, I’m glad I’ve inspired you.
It’s a good idea to make a batch but you might need to split the ingredients when you put them in the pestle and mortar otherwise they’ll end up everywhere (I know from experience!!)
Lucy Parissi says
What a great idea. I don’t like cooking with pre-made mixes so this is fab. Now really craving a curry! Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Lucy. Homemade paste is so quick and simple to make I doubt I’ll go back to pre-made paste again. There’s also something very satisfying about crushing everything in the pestle and mortar, a great stress reliever.
I hope you’re feeling better x
Ciara (My Fussy Eater) says
This looks great. I’ve never made my own korma paste so really want to try it. Great recipe!
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks Ciara
As with a lot of cooking I always assumed that it would be complicated and then found its actually really simple and I really enjoyed playing around with the different spices to find my favourite combination.
Mel says
Great food styling by the way lovely! x
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it.
I’ve been trying hard to learn more about it, I know I’ve got a lot more to learn but I feel like I’m making progress.
Mel says
Chicken Korma is my two older ones’ favourite dinner! I usually make it mid week because it is an easy dinner with ready-made paste. I will definitely try making your paste and will be pinning it now so I don’t forget. Can you freeze / keep the paste in a sterilised jar in the fridge?
Charlotte Oates says
Thanks for pinning 🙂
Charlotte Oates says
Oops, hit reply too soon!!
I would have thought that the paste could be stored in the fridge, as other paste recipes often say they can, but I’ve always made it fresh so I couldn’t be certain.
I hope you enjoy it.