Total Gullification, A Batting Collapse and a Form-Recovering Qorma

All right!  I missed a day of posting because I had to take care of a few things.  Sorry about that.  So let me catch up on the cricketing action.  I must admit I'm very angry with the Pakistan team!  The bowling for the 1st SAfrica innings was stunning.  It was pandemonium on the second day.  It was crazy.  It was total Umar Gullification.  3 wickets for 18!  Yes! 

Previous English Gullification

And then Abdur Rehman wreaked havoc with his 3 wickets, with Saeed Ajmal completing the destruction of South Africa with his wicket.  And let's not forget Younis Khan with his extremely economical bowling...I had no idea he had it in him!  He is certainly one of my favourites now!  Yes!  Yes!

And that's not all!  The batting to start off with was good...very very good.  I wasn't too sure about Taufiq Umar a few days ago...boy was I wrong and I'm quite happy to be wrong in this case.

My Apologies, Taufeeq!  Arriba!

Right on, Taufiq, and right on, Mohammed Hafeez!  Mo Ha, I'm liking you more and more.  As we say in French...You rocqued my worlde.

You've got every reason to smile, Kiddo!

Good on ya for your 60.  Younis Khan also batted very nicely, and things were looking up indeed. Yes, yes, yes!

Then yesterday, day three.  Ick.  A bit of a batting collapse for Pakistan. Nooooooo! You got it backwards Pakistan!  The batting collapse is supposed to happen to the opposition, not you!!!What happened, chaps?  You all seemed sort of weak and confused!

Umar Akmal, yesterday afternoon.  True story.

Did you eat plain margarine sandwiches and soda pop for your dinner?  That will rot your guts, sap your strength and make you ugly!!! Come on guys, get your form and fight back!

A terrible lunch for cricket, a terrible lunch for Humanity.

Have some of this delicious Qorma instead and for crying out loud, look alive, man!

Ok, enough of the cricket.  Qorma is a lovely yoghurt-based salan which uses the bhunna method, which I described in the October 19 post.  Now, you may have seen some TV chefs making qorma and they load it up with ghee and cream and ground cashews for some reason.  An old fashioned qorma, like the one I'm showing you how to make, has very little oil and no cream.  All of the flavour and creamy texture comes from the cooking method.  That makes this dish very healthy, very filling, and very delicious.  So enjoy it without feeling guilty!
Form-Recovering Qorma
Ingredients
1 chicken, no skin, cut in 10 or 12
about 1 litre or 1 kg of plain yoghurt (low fat yoghurt also works well)
1 onion,  finely chopped
about 7 cloves of garlic, crushed or very finely chopped
4 cm piece of ginger, crushed or very finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cinammon stick
1 star anise
5 green cardamom pods
5 cloves
5 black peppercorns
1 teaspoon cuminseeds
1 teaspoon (use more or less) lal mirch (red chili powder)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
salt to taste
chopped green chilies according to taste
some chopped coriander (cilantro)
oil for cooking
some water

1.  Heat up 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil in a big pan.
2.  Fry the onion until it's golden and slightly crispy.
3.  Add the garlic, ginger, bay leaf, cinammon stick, star anise, cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns and cuminseeds.
4.  Add the turmeric and lal mirch.
5.  Fry everything for a minute or two, just make sure you don't burn the garlic.
6.  Add the yoghurt, and stir.
Now at this point you might notice that the yoghurt curdles.  Don't worry about it.  You're going to cook it until it changes texture again into a nice, uniform creaminess. 

7.  When the mixture reduces and  starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a bit of water to lift it and keep on stirring.  Repeat this several times, aka the bhunna method, and you will notice that the mixture changes texture from appearing "curdled" to a uniform paste.. 
8.  When you have a nice, relatively smooth uniform paste and you notice that the oil is "leaking" from the mix, add about 3 or 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.
9.  Add salt to taste.
10.  Add the chicken and chopped green chilies.  Add the chilies whole if you don't want too much heat.
11.  Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 1/2 hour.  If you're going to serve the qorma on rice, leave it a bit watery.  If you're going to serve the qorma with bread, reduce it until the sauce becomes quite thick.
12.  Garnish with coriander.

Before I go today, I want to mention something about oil.  When you use lots of oil, everything cooks much faster.  Lots of oil will also make people feel full with much less food.  So I'll let you be the judge on how much oil to use when you're cooking!

Have a good one today, and for crying out loud, I really hope the Pakistan team does something about their batting.  I love you guys, but I mean, come on!!!!

Happy Eating, and Happy Batting!