Navratan Korma

Begin by prepping the vegetables. There’s a lot of them, I know, but that’s why this dish is crazy nutritious. It’s a veritable rainbow of veggies. (I almost reorganized them accordingly, but I’m not that OCD.)

I can’t tell you how many times I counted to make sure there were in fact nine different vegetables. Carrot was my ninth, but I just used one because my husband has issues with cooked carrots. The nine gems don’t need to be only vegetables, anyway, and may include cashews and raisins among the goodies. You get the idea.

Blanch the vegetables and set them aside until they’re later added to the sauce (often referred to as “gravy” in Indian cooking). Blanching is simply boiling briefly then dunking in cold water to stop the cooking; this also retains the color of the vegetables. I don’t regularly boil vegetables (other than corn-on-the-cob), as it leads to nutrient losses. Indeed, the blanching liquid was mildly colored from the water-soluble phytonutrients and vitamins that had leached into the water. Sounding like a quick vegetable stock, yes? Bonus: no need to waste water! Some of it was used in place of the water called for later in the recipe, and the rest went into the fridge for a future soup.

While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the various pastes. I won’t lie, I found the number of “pastes” required daunting. Perhaps if they’re sitting in your fridge, or you buy them from the Indian store, you’ll be all set. As I was making everything from scratch, I decided to cut a few corners. My online research and comments from other cooks suggested that the cashew paste was key, as was the onion paste. And, once I get out the food processor these things whir right along (pun obviously intended). I followed Sanjeev’s basic recipe for the cashew paste but added water and a bit of almond and peanut butter to make a larger supply in case I needed it. (I did.) Lovely. I improvised my onion paste by processing finely an entire onion with water then simmering it on the stove while the rest of the recipe came together. I believed the reviews that this step is critical in flavoring the gravy: the boiled onion paste is one of the major liquids in the dish, and  chopped onions will certainly not achieve the same effect. I did, however, decide to blow off the garlic and ginger pastes and instead employed several cloves of crushed garlic and an inch of grated ginger root; I felt very okay about it.

Putting it all together is fairly straight-forward and resulted in a richly flavored dish that tasted like the korma I know and love. Almost. Sanjeev’s recipe called for cardamom pods, which I didn’t have, so I used dried cardamom instead. Who knows whether that or my omission of the garlic and ginger pastes were critical factors. Perhaps, but I don’t think so, as I’ve made other recipes of his. His version did not call for a few spices included in other versions, such as turmeric, cumin, mustard (seeds or dry), paprika, or garam masala. Not unlike chili or stews of American fare, there are many different recipes out there, so I played around to achieve the taste I liked: I reseasoning with the spices above plus a dash of cayenne, a bit of palm sugar, additional nut paste, and a cup or raisins, which brought the dish to the glorious flavor profile I expected. (Note: many recipes call for coconut, but I make so many coconut-based curries that I decided to leave it out per Sanjeev’s recipe. I’m glad I did, because coconut is very pronounced and I was challenged to create the recipe without relying on creamy, delicious coconut milk. Do what makes you happy.)

I was delighted I could still see the many brightly colored vegetables. If only this picture were scratch and sniff…