Saffron Chicken Korma and Teaching

Chicken Korma is such a hackneyed restaurant classic that I often hesitate to write about it. This said done right, you get an elegant and comforting dish that is fit for all occasions. A weeknight pick me up, a casual dinner party, or just that weekend meal with family. Like any classic recipe on the Indian table, there are many variations. This simple and elegant variation is what I use in cooking classes.  It uses saffron and cashew nuts, that offers a vibrant color and beautiful texture. Let us talk about classes, the korma and then the recipe! BTW, because of my generous pinch of saffron I call this my saffron chicken korma.

I have been teaching for a while now. And more often than not, I love my classes. But, we all have bad days. This Sunday seemed to be one of them. Tired after running around, the idea of teaching a class did not seem fun.

Why I love teaching people how to cook?

The class prep dragged quite a lot. I organized the spices, got my pots ready and arranged the knives and cutting boards. At3:30pm, my six students came in. They surveyed the ingredients and began to ask questions about the spices and the foods. And then without fail, the magic started. I immersed myself in telling them about the smokiness of cumin. I inhaled the familiar and magical scent of garam masala. The group learnt the importance of toasting spices before grinding them. And, I found childlike delight in their visible surprise at the potency of freshly ground spices. The sensual delight of smelling the spices remains fresh for me, every time I see them through my student’s senses

 

It sometimes transports me to my childhood. As a child, I spent a lot of time watching my grandmother cook. I sat in my corner in her kitchen and chatted with her. She often regaled me with tales of her own childhood and other stories of myths and legends, fairies and heroes but the true enchantment lay in her cooking. I watched and sub-consciously learned, without instruction when to slice as opposed to when to dice and learnt the secrets, scents and colors of the world of spices.

In teaching, I bridge the connection between the past and present. I enjoy teaching both cooking and accounting, just find teaching cooking more fun, it also transports me to a world where I can relieve stories of childhood. I crinkled the curry leaf to gently release its oils before I passed it around for inspection and in the midst of the animated conversation, I felt alive.

 

There is a joy to sharing and talking about something you love so much. There is always a delight in watching (even for the 100^th time) the happiness when someone associates the characteristic  experience the vividness of discovery through their senses and feel a small sense of comfort and feel that I have brought a piece of my heritage across the miles into the lives of yet another group of people. absorb and relish the diversity of the people who are working with me in this exercise.

I love meeting new people and the cast of characters who join me in my suburban kitchen to put together a meal never ceases to fascinate me. Yesterday, I had a doctor who cooked for his family to relax, a young couple whose mother in Texas had found my class as a gift for them, a very widely traveled photographer who had just moved to Westchester from Australia and a mother and daughter who wanted to do something together on a weekend. I love to get glimpses into the lives of these people who I would otherwise never meet. The conversations are personal but never intrusive.

 

Through these conversations, I also learn about other things that they like to cook, other spices and special ingredients that are popular in their kitchen and tips and tricks that often become a part of my culinary mosaic, comfortable settling into my culinary repertoire.yellow in Indian foods with the turmeric or rolls out their first flat bread.

 

The eclectic nature of my student’s backgrounds fascinates me and it also brings home for me the simple observation, that the world today is indeed a smaller place!

About Saffron Chicken Korma

There are several recipes for chicken korma. At heart it is dish that comes to the Indian table from Central Asia. Brought through the Mughals, who also popularized the use of nuts and yogurt in cooking. A classic recipe does not have a lot of cream. In this recipe I use yogurt and cashew nuts. I love the vibrance of saffron so I add a generous pinch here.

Tomatoes are optional in a korma. I have added them in this instant pot variation, but not the one in this post.

A little bit on the nuts, do not use a lot, the ½ cup is plenty to offer you a rich and creamy sauce. Enjoy this delicate and sophisticated dish and you will want to book mark it for days to come.