My recent short trip to India inspired me to try and cook some more Indian food. After the success of Shahi Salmon, I decided to try my hand at Lamb Korma. It is similar because it also has a creamy sauce made with yogurt and tomato. If you are new to Indian food, too, I can recommend this lamb stew because it is simple to prepare, delicious, and you can easily tweak the spiciness to your own preference.
You can cook it on the stovetop, or get tender and succulent meat more easily by cooking it sous-vide. Lately I have discovered that 24 hours at 74C/165F works very well for all kinds of tough meat to turn it into fork tender, flaky and succulent meat. The texture is like a stovetop (or oven) stew that was perfectly executed, with consistent results every time.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
350 grams (.7 lbs) lamb stewing meat, in cubes, I used neck because of its great marbling
1 onion
about 80 ml (1/3 cup) yogurt
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
2 Tbsp ghee
Instructions
Combine 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste, and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl, and stir to mix.
Add 350 grams of cubed lamb, and stir until the lamb is coated with the spice mixture. Cover and allow to marinate for an hour.
Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee in a frying pan over medium high heat and add the marinated lamb.
Brown the meat on all sides…
…then take it out of the pan to set it aside on a plate.
Add a chopped onion to the pan with the drippings from browning the lamb, and season lightly with salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the onions are golden and you’ve picked up all of the drippings, about 10 minutes.
Add a minced clove of garlic, and stir briefly.
Add 2 tablespoons of yogurt and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
Stir to mix. If cooking on the stovetop, add more yogurt and the meat, cover, and simmer over very low heat until the meat is tender. The dish is then ready to serve (after tasting and adjusting the seasoning with salt).
If cooking sous-vide, turn off the heat.
Vacuum seal the meat with the sauce. This can be done either in a ziplock bag and the water displacement method, or by allowing both sauce and meat to cool completely and using a chamber vacuum sealer.
Cook sous-vide for 24 hours at 74C/165F.
After cooking sous-vide, cut open the bag and dump the contents into a sieve over a saucepan.
Shake the sieve to get most of the liquid into the saucepan. Then put the sieve over a bowl (to catch any juices that will still drip from it), while you finish the sauce.
Add about 2 tablespoons of yogurt to the sauce…
…and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the yogurt has been absorbed and sauce has thickened.
Taste and add more yogurt to your liking, again stirring and cooking over low heat until the yogurt has been absorbed. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt.
Add the meat to the sauce, and allow to warm through briefly.
The lamb korma is now ready to serve and enjoy.
Flashback
Carnitas sous-vide with guacamole with homemade corn tortillas is delicious. I actually should revisit this recipe and see what it’s like with the pork cooked for 24 hours at 74C/165F…
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Methinks this very mild curry is an ideal starting point for those whose knowledge of Indian foods is sketchy. Easy to make on the stovetop, I would certainly prepare 2-3 times the amount as the ‘after’ part is much more delightful 🙂 ! If I make it I use lamb shoulder; to be honest, about double the spices and add turmeric and cloves as well . . . well, my way after decades of eating and cooking curries from all the 23 or so countries in the world which make variations 🙂 ! Enjoy and do try others . . .
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Give neck a try if you can find it. Thanks for the suggestions, I’m definitely a novice when it comes to curries and especially Indian ones.
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No problem about ‘neck’ – shall do – the s’markets here are too ‘posh’ to put it on trays, but I have an old-fashioned country butcher 2kms down the road – he is also the one for tripe, kidneys, calves tongue, milk veal etc ! If you strike a wet Sunday: my favourite curries actually come from Myanmar [Burma] : both ‘sweet’ and hot and Sri Lanka: mostly hot and I love Kashmiri ones: full of flavour but quite mild. Vietnam has some very classy fusion ones . . . and for sheer fun look up Jamaica! Carina Sebastine has lived in the Indies and put me onto that quite unexpected fact about the islands . . .
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This looks delicious! I always thought that kormas are also made with nuts like almonds or cashews. It’s what I usually order in Indian restaurants because they, to me, are the most spectacular dishes. But you just can’t go wrong with seasonings, a little tomato, a little yogurt, and then cilantro, unless you dislike it! Indian food is so much more than any cuisine, to my husband and myself. It’s the smells, the flavors, the hot and cold, the sweet and salty… Wish I could actually try it in India!
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Hi Mimi, yogurt and/or nuts can be used to thicken Indian curries/kormas and to make them creamy and mellow out the spices. I believe it depends on the region whether nuts or yogurt are preferred. Cilantro has actually grown on me a little! It was spectacular on the Azerbaijani lamb stew.
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Somehow I missed the fact that you traveled to India recently. I have cooked very few Indian dishes but I have made one a couple of times called Keema, As I recall it called for ground lamb but I used ground beef, as I often do as lamb is so expensive here. I love all the aromatics in Indian dishes, they are always so full of flavor!
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There was only one post about it and it was during the time of your injury, so it’s not strange you missed it. Beef is not eaten in India, but it is a good substitute in lamb recipes. That piece of chuck you showed before would be fabulous.
Do check out the salmon recipe, I think it’s right up your alley.
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The Syrian Christian Indians of Kerala eat beef as does the Muslim community. Pork however is eschewed by all.
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L’ho già detto che amo il cibo indiano. Grazie, lo farò presto
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The food of India is as diverse as the population, religion, region, economics and politics all having an influence. Korma is a delicious dish that features much more frequently in the west than in India itself
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Your homemade curry blend looks amazing. You’re going to have to acquire a masala daba as soon!
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I really enjoy lamb korma, Stefan. It’s almost a guarantee that I’ll order it when dining in Little India, a neighborhood near here. I’ve also learned to prepare it for myself, following a recipe from a fellow blogger. You can bet I’ll be trying your recipe. In my book, one can never have too much korma — except for right now. Still have to wait a couple of weeks before I can chew with reckless abandon but I’ll get there!
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I am trying very hard not to mention that you could probably chew it already if it were as tender as it becomes if it would be cooked in a certain manner 🙂 🙂 🙂
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LOL. Sometimes you really do crack me up. 🙂
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