Butter Chicken

I love this because it's rich and very tasty. But I take this recipe as something I am not going to make every other evening, I like making this recipe once every two months or so. The reason is that I love to eat a rich creamy dish and I don't want to substitute the amount of butter I use in this. So here it is, and I hope you guys like it as much (or more!) than I do. Another thing before I begin. I do not always follow by measurement cups and spoons. I do give a rough measure in my recipes but they are left to the discretion of the cook.

You will need for the gravy:

• Tomatoes 15 to 20 diced (or 2 cans of diced tomatoes, I prefer the vine ripe variety however)
• Oil (1 tbsp) and butter (Honestly, why bother measuring the damn thing. I mean, it's called 'butter' chicken for a reason, right? Use as much or little as you can justify)
• Cardamoms about 5 or 7 (toasted in a dry pan and powdered fresh)
• Mace, powdered 1 1/2 tsp
• Garlic crushed 8 (or more if you dare) cloves
• Ginger about an inch or inch-and-a-half piece grated or pounded using a mortal and pestle

Ingredients for the chicken marinade (to make tandoori chicken): 


Chicken; you may use any cut of chicken i.e. whole, thighs, bone in chunks, breasts (cut into size-able chunks). It's completely and utterly upto you and what cut you prefer.
Ginger; about 3 inches of a root in length and about 1 inch wide
Garlic; 6 cloves
Yoghurt; 1/2 cup Greek variety (or you can hang the yogurt using muslin cloth and give it a dense and rich texture)
Turmeric 1 tsp
Red chili powder 3 tsp
Coriander (toasted on a dry pan and powdered fresh) 3 tsp
Cumin (toasted on a dry pan and powdered fresh) about a teaspoon
Black pepper powder 1 tsp
salt 1 tsp
Cayenne pepper 1 tsp
Oil 2 tsp
Fresh Cilantro
Lime wedge

Heavy cream 2 tbsp

Honey 1 tbsp

Kasuri methi -fenugreek leaves 1 tbsp

Method:

To start things off we'll make the marinade for the chicken because the chicken has to have the full spectrum of flavours pop. Blend all the fresh cilantro, lime juice, garlic, ginger, red chili powder, turmeric, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and yogurt to get a thick marinade mix. After dicing the chicken to the size of chunks you prefer, marinade the chicken and set them aside for at least thirty minutes. You can do this process the night before and leave the marinating chicken for 8-10 hours/ overnight.

After the chicken has been adequately marinated, grill or bake the chicken on 400*F for at least 40 minutes. Once the chicken is in the oven or is being grilled it's time to make the sauce.

For the sauce, we start with butter. And I can't stress this enough, if you think you have enough butter, put a little bit more (or don't, whatever floats your boat!). In a big,shallow pan start melting the butter and add the mace, cardamom, garlic and ginger as the butter is slowly melting. Make sure to not have the heat on high as it will burn the butter and the garlic and yea, no one wants burnt garlic. So as the butter starts to heat up, add the diced tomatoes and quickly but carefully stir the tomatoes so that the aromatics are thoroughly combined. Let this cook on medium heat for as long as you can bear to let the pot simmer. I'd say cook the sauce no less than 30 minutes. Once the sauce looks and smells like a garlicky-tomatoey goodness, pour it into a big bowl and using a hand blender, pulverize the sauce.

Now, using a strainer, strain the sauce back into the same pan. Make sure that there is enough seasoning in the sauce and keep the heat at a simmer. At this point, check to see if the chicken is cooked; if it isn't, give it more time till it's done. If it is, depending on what cut of the chicken you used, make it into bite sized portions and add it to the sauce which should be simmering by now. Now you can add the cream, honey, and kasuri methi to the sauce and give it a good stir. Making sure that the chicken pieces are evenly covered in the gravy, let the curry sit for fifteen or twenty minutes before serving it with hot basmati rice or fresh baked naan.

Curried Pork Stew

This is a fantastic stew that makes in one pot, with all the ingredients simmering in harmony. I never measure my ingredients unless I am baking so these measurements are approximations that I remember using. If you want to change some things, feel free to do so! Also, it helps if you are aware of the rough proportions of spices you prefer to the quantity of meats/ vegetables etc.

For this recipe you will need:

• Roughly four to six pounds of stewing pork, cut into cubes or stew like pieces.
• Potatoes three to four large ones or 6 medium ones; cut into cubes like the meat (optional)
• Three to four large onions (pick your favourites: I always seem to favour the red onions)
• Garlic: think an entire head of one (read: lots!)
• Ginger, roughly a two inch piece of the root, skinned and chopped into medium sized chunks.
• Greek yogurt, about 600 ml
• Mustard/ Grape-seed/ Canola/ Vegetable oil: between 4 to 6 tbsp
• Black peppercorns whole about a tablespoon
• Cumin seeds: 2 tbsp
• Coriander seed powder: 2 tbsp
• Turmeric: 1 tbsp
• Chili powder: to taste
• Salt: a teaspoon full perhaps. I don't usually cook with salt but the onions are large and salt helps the veggies reduce by releasing their moisture.

You will most definitely want to own a mortar and pestle. I highly recommend it because it a simple yet multi-functional tool. You can make any number of pastes or powders with it. Not to mention that the flavours that are released because of the grinding action of the pestle against the mortar are incomparable to anything you can whip up with a food processor. However, I do understand that it is purely my opinion and you may disagree with me greatly. 

Process:

Take the biggest pot you have at your disposal. Coat the bottom of the pot with at least 3 tbsps of oil.

Chop the onions into halves and then into fine slices. Then toss them all into the pot. At this point I would add the potatoes but if you don't want potatoes, that is cool too.

Cut the pork and add into the pot. Take a frying pan and heat it up without using any medium (oil/ butter etc.). Roast the cumin seeds on the dry pan till your kitchen begins to smell like cumin. Take it off the heat and grind it into a fine powder in your mortar and pestle, adding it to the mix in the pot.

Take the peppercorns and grind them to a coarse powder using your mortar and pestle, then add the garlic to the peppercorns and crush them up together. Once the garlic is crushed adequately, add the ginger to the mortar and crush them all together to form a happy medley of garlicky goodness. Add this paste to the meat and onions in your pot. Add a heavy dose of yogurt, I put in about a cup or more. Follow it up with coriander seed powder, turmeric, chili powder and salt.

When all the ingredients are finally in the pot, stir them nicely to combine all of the agents together. After they are thoroughly mixed, put the pot to cook (covered with a lid) on medium heat for fifteen minutes first. Once the fifteen minutes are up, take a peek to see how the stew is doing (is it starting to boil?), turn down the heat to medium-low and give the pot a stir. Once the temperature is set to mid-low, leave the stew to stew for another forty minutes or so.

The stew will be ready by the time the forty minutes are up.
Serve with freshly made rice.

Crustless Quiche

So off late, I have been wanting to have a delicious quiche. The only problem is, I absolutely dislike the crust. I think its too much breading for a little bit of egg. And what purpose other than making the quiche look like a pie does the crust serve exactly? None! So here I am with my crust-less quiche recipe, for all those people who love the taste of quiche but not the crust. Alternatively, you can make it with a crust but you will have to prepare the crust separately and baking it accordingly.

You will need:

• 5 large eggs
• Fresh parsley, chopped
• Button mushrooms, sliced
• Half of a large Onion, chopped finely
• One whole Green pepper
• Half of a Orange pepper
• One Jalapeno, chopped finely
• Bacon, five strips
• Cheese, grated (I used marble cheese, you can pick whichever you like best)
• Garlic, 5 cloves (or less, according to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Garlic powder, to taste
• Smoked paprika, to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Start off by frying the strips of bacon till they are done. Once the bacon is cooked thoroughly, take it off the pan onto some paper towels and let it drain out the excess fat and then break it up into small bits, leave aside.
Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan with the bacon fat, keeping the stove at a high temperature. Note that mushrooms need to be cooked on a high heat setting with a saline grease like butter to give them the melt in your mouth texture. So we will add a tablespoon of butter to the frying pan with the mushrooms and keep on stirring the mushrooms till they get some colour in them, i.e. when they start to brown, they are ready. At this point we will add the onions, peppers, jalapenos, half of the chopped parsley, and the crushed garlic to the pan. Stir constantly to coat all of the veggies with the grease in the pan. If the mix looks dry add perhaps a teaspoon of olive oil to the mix and stir. Salt and pepper the veggies, and cook till the vegetable actually reduce in quantity.
Take the eggs and a mixing bowl. Add the remaining parsley to the bowl along with the eggs, salt+pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Add a tablespoon of water to this and beat well till all the spices are blended. After cooking the veggies for a good 15 minutes you will notice that they are much smaller in quantity. Now take a deep baking friendly dish (I use an 8" square dish), and grease the sides and the bottom of the dish with oil. Remove the veggies from the frying pan, into the baking dish and layer the bottom completely with the veggies and make it even. Then cover the top of the veggies with the shredded cheese. I put a hefty layer on top, because why not! Now pour the egg mix on top of the cheese. You will notice that the parsley remains on top of the cheese giving it a nice look, while the eggs swim to the bottom of the pan, settling with the veggies.
Bake it on 350 F for 20 minutes.

Crust-less Quiche