Indian Food Extravaganza

While the Hubbs was away it was not a really robust cooking time. I am very good at making dinner for others but if left to my own devices I tend to get hungry and rationalize that eggs and toast or cereal is a perfectly acceptable dinner. So in anticipation of his return I started making a list of things that I would want to make. First up was Chicken Tikka Masala. This turned into a rather large dinner because I ended up getting antsy and just kept cooking. The full menu included:
Chicken Tikka Masala
Spicy Chickpeas with Tomatoes
Apple Ginger Chutney
Naan
Brown Rice
Oh.... and some wine

We had a friend over so this was not just for us, and we had a good amount left over as well. I am not going to include the recipe for the chickpeas because while good, nothing really worth writing home about.


Chicken Tikka Masala
Adapted from about 75 different versions of this dish.....

The day before set up the chicken to marinate
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
bit over a cup of thick natural yogurt (I used whole milk Greek Fage)
1 t fresh ginger, minced
2 t ground cumin
1 t ground cinnamon
2 t chili powder
2 t fresh cracked pepper
Salt

Mix everything together and let it hang out in the fridge over night.

On feasting day:

Tomato sauce/gravy

14 oz can of diced tomatoes tomatoes, juice included
2-3 T Greek Fage plus 5 oz of evaporated skim milk- this replaces the heavy cream that is in most recipes.
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 red chilies, finely chopped
2 t ground cumin
2 t gram masala
1 t ground coriander
1-2 t chili powder
1 t ghee or clarified butter
Salt and pepper

Place chicken bits on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees till cooked through. You can also skewer these and make them on the grill if you would like.

While the chicken is cooking get started on the sauce. Heat a large skillet to medium and melt the ghee/clarified butter. Sauté the garlic and chopped chilies until fragrant. Add the spices and mix till it coats the garlic and peppers and gets a little pasty.

Pour in the canned tomatoes and mix well to get all of the spicy bits mixed in. Simmer uncovered for approx. 10-15 minutes on low heat until the sauces begins to thicken, then add the grilled chicken pieces and yogurt/condensed milk. Simmer for a further 10 minutes, thickening the sauce further and to heat the chicken and cream through.

Apple Ginger Chutney

1 T ghee/clarified butter
1/2 c chopped onion
2 good sized apples, peeled and chopped (I used honey crisp)
2 T minced fresh ginger
1/2 c apple cider vinegar
1/4 c sugar
1 T Cornstarch
2 T water

In a saucepan melt the ghee/clarified butter then add onions and cook till they start to get soft and a bit brown. Add in the apples and ginger and cook for a few minutes then add vinegar and sugar. Bring the whole shebang to a boil. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and water, add it to the saucepan. bring it back to a boil and cook, stirring constantly for about 4-5 minutes. Chill and serve.

Lastly we made Naan. This was really good, not restaurant quality but definitely good given we were making it on the stove top not a clay oven. We used the basic dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five minutes a Day and followed their recipe. Just go buy the book, it is great.

And thank you to Joe, who came over and enjoyed this meal with us!

the hubbs b-day feed

Admittedly this is another tardy (hee hee, tardy) post. My husband birthday was about a week and a half ago and to celebrate this day I tried my hand at a layer cake and a John Barrymore Onion Pletzel. Specifically a chocolate cake with cannoli filling and a coffee buttercream.

I used my super-trusty, go-to "why would you ever make a cake out of box ever again" chocolate cake recipe. The recipe is the Moosewood Collective's vegan chocolate cake It is a snap to put together, literally just dry into wet. I can attest that it is virtually impossible to mess up always tastes wonderful and can be enjoyed by all. The cannoli filling was simply some ricotta sweetened with confectioners sugar. Let me tell you it was pretty hard not to just eat the entire bowl and claim to our guests that 3-layer cakes generally do not have anything between the layers.

The coffee buttercream was a bit of an experiment and lessons were learned. 1. making frosting of any sort on a 90-some-odd degree day makes things a little drippy. 2. Anything with 3 sticks of butter as a primary ingredient will return to a sold butter consistency when cooled. This was a recipe from The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook. Basically the powdered sugar is replaced with fluff in this buttercream. It comes together like a dream and did not taste overwhelmingly of marshmallow. Toss in a little espresso powder dissolved in a bit of hot water, and tada! The cute little decorations are the new fancy-schmancy M&M's.

The John Barrymore Onion Pletzel was my first attempt at any of the sweet dough's from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It was good, but I am not totally sure that it was good enough to justify the sheer amount of butter involved. All in all it made for a tasty and special breakfast when paired with a couple of fried eggs.

That looks like magazine bread!

Those were the exact words uttered by my hubbby after I mentioned that this particular loaf of bread was turning out pretty nice. This is the simple loaf from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. If I do say so myself it is a nice lookin loaf.

Putting off work......

In an effort to not do school work, while also not feeling "idle" I made some feed today. While running errands this morning it was decided that a friend would make some burgers for dinner, so I offered to try my hand at making some rolls. I used the base recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They turned out rather hearty an big but they were a hit with the burgers.

Here are a few before and afters.
Sorry that there are no giant burger pics, but the camera didn't make it to the patio.



After some relaxing and eating of meats, we succumbed to the rain and packed it in. I saw a post on PheMOMenon! about black and white cookies and it peaked my intrest a bit. I have a very special place in my heart for these cookies. They are not my favorite to eat, nor to make, in fact I haven't made them in almost nine years... The last time I made them was a goofball effort for my now hubby's birthday the first year that we were dating. He is a transplanted Long Islander and grew up munching on black and white cookies. As a surprise I decided that I would make a GIANT black and white cookie (a bit bigger than a record/garbage can lid) and ship it to him our first summer apart during college. Ultimately I successfully made and shipped the massive cookie in time and unbroken for his birthday. Needless to say they remind me of the early days of my relationship with him.

I actually had all of the ingredients on hand so I decided to make the cookies. The recipe came together very easily, quickly, and got a prompt and frosting filled thumbs up from the hubby.

goat cheese and date pizza

While at first blush the combination my not sound delicious, but let me tell you it is. This past Friday night the hubby and I tried our hand at making this awesome pizza. We used the olive oil dough recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. We have been having a carbohydrate filled love affair with this book for about a month and we show no signs of stopping. For this dough we halved the recipe and used half of the batch (essentially 1/4 of the dough from a full batch) and it was totally enough for a nice dinner for the two of us.

The hubby giving it the thumbs up.

We stretched out the dough on a floured board then transferred the dough to a nicely cornmealed peel. Added a bit of olive oil, some chopped garlic, crumbled goat cheese, quartered dates, and a few twists of fresh black pepper.

Viola!


All in all it was quite a tasty success!