Been working like crazy over the last couple of weeks. The big deadline is coming up at the end of this week though, hopefully things will get back to normal after that.
So we’ve been making curry! The first recipe we tried was Vij’s family curry recipe from the Vij’s cookbook (available from Amazon). Probably shouldn’t post the recipe but we cooked it exactly as it described, including taking the bones out of the chicken thighs when they were cooked. It was OK, not hot enough though, and it was the kind of yellowish curry that I’m not super fond of.
So last week we tried chicken tikka masala, from a recipe I found on Videojug. It goes like this:
Ingredients (for 4 servings):
- 3 chicken breasts
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- 5 cardamom pods
- 3″ cinnamon stick
- 1 1/2 onions
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 large tomato
- 1 tsp tomato puree (good luck finding this in Canada… we ended up using crushed tomatoes)
- 150ml water
- Small tub of yogurt (or coconut milk)
- Cilantro for garnish
Finely chop the tomato and onions. Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and salt a little. Mix all the spices together with the ginger and garlic.
Heat the oil in a saute pan over a medium heat (I used 6 on our oven). When it’s hot, drop in the cardamom pods and the cinnamon stick for 30 seconds or so to flavor the oil, then remove them. Add the onions and saute until they brown, then add the spices and stir for a minute. Next add the tomato and puree and stir for another minute or so.
Add the water and bring to a simmer. Add salt if necessary (I did). Add the chicken pieces and stir well, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Once the chicken is cooked through, you have the option of adding the yogurt here. I added about half a small tub. Stir it in well and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Rough cost:
- Chicken breasts – $7 (protip! chicken breasts are loads cheaper at Thrifty’s than at Safeway)
- Spices – $1
- Rice – $1
- Tomato, onion, ginger, garlic – $3
- Yogurt – $2
- Cilantro – $2
- Crushed tomatoes – $1 (we had to buy it in a tin, and needed only 1 tsp! We stored some but it’s still a waste. Would love to find tomato puree in tubes here)
Total: $17, makes 4 servings so around $4.25 a serving. Cheap!
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So how was it? Well, it was OK. The sauce was a bit too watery; next time I’ll try 125ml of water instead of 150, and maybe add more yogurt. I’ve read you can use double cream instead of the yogurt, but that stuff’s expensive and unbelievably bad for you! I’m sure it’s nice though. Using the full teaspoon of cayenne made it too hot for Louise, though I liked it. I’d knock it down to 3/4 tsp next time.
Preparation time was around 45 minutes! We didn’t factor that in so we ate later than we expected.
The main problem I have is that neither the curry last week or this alleged chicken tikka masala was really anything like I’ve had in an Indian restaurant either here or in the UK. The “sauce” we end up with is really just small bits of onion and tomato, not a creamy sauce. I’m not sure what to do about this; I asked a friend of mine last week and he suggested just starting with a jar of ready-made curry sauce and adding chillies, spices etc ourselves, and cook the meat separately. I guess we’ll try this sometime but I’m not thrilled at the idea of using someone else’s sauce; it feels like cheating! On the other hand we do that for our pasta and we don’t mind that, so maybe I’m just being snobby.
Anyway, blackened halibut again tonight, finally got my iron skillet so we’re going to try it in that. Looking forward to it, was great last time and I’m hoping for even better results with the skillet!
