Today, I have celebrated Eid al-Adha by trying out a new restaurant, one of those where the menu is only in Hindustani, the only drink available is tap water, and the plastic tablecloths are completely worn out and torn at the corners. But the waiter wore an extravagant kurta in rich aubergine tonality, adorned with a palmette pattern that took centuries to refine. I ordered lamb kurma, an original dish in which pieces of mutton are cooked in a surprisingly sweet gravy made of coconut milk, youghurt, cream, and who knows what else. It was rich in calories but extremely tasty.
As I published the photo on Facebook, an expert discussion ensued, asserting that kurma/korma should not be sweet and does not even look like that at all. For further reference, a link was send to me, narrating the history of what, philologically, should rather be called qorma. The term is related to the Turkish qavirma/qavurma. Is this the Turkic verb "kavurmak," meaning "to fry" or "to roast", that influenced Arabic, Persian, and Urdu? Or the other way around, the name of the dish it derived from the Urdu and Hindi word "qormā," meaning "braise"? I do not pretend to get it clear. Be that as it may, the dish is to be associated with a region encompassing Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Iran, and allegedly from there it migrated to northern India. For the rest, the reference source is worth a literal quotation: "The recipe hints towards a mix of Turkish & Parsi recipe, in which the meat is fried, braised & cooked with herbs, vegetables or sometimes even apricots or pomegranate. Qovurma on the other hand is an Azerbaijani delicacy where the meat stew is prepared with dry fruits and sour grape juice/ Verjuice and vegetables. The first mention of korma is found in the scrolls of Dastarkhwan- the royal table of the Mughal emperor of Bahadur Shah Zafar. It is safe to say that by then the Mughlai fusion between the Persian Khormeh, Azebaijani Quovurma & Turkish Qovurma had been born. While there were other versions that were formed such as Awadhi Korma or the variants formed solely on the basis of availability of ingredients. Mughlai korma has dominated Indian curries by large & far. So even so, that it even travelled with the land’s colonisers. The korma we cherish in present day India includes marinated meat/poultry braised with spices, roasted in ghee and khada garam masala. The gravy is formed by cooking browned onions with the meat and adding yogurt or cream to increase its richness. The glaze is formed from the ghee and the fat of the meat." foodism.xyz/food-stories/The-History-of-Korma Comments are closed.
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