Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe

Chicken Tikka Masala

National dish of Britain? Debatable. There seems to be more claims that this dish was invented in Britain rather than India. However the name doesn't sound very British. Technicalities aside, this is delicious. 

Going through various recipes, I discovered there are two approaches for preparing chicken tikka masala. One approach involves marinating the chicken, grilling it and then dousing in sauce. Sounds great but too much effort. I preferred the second approach, cooking everything together.

I’ve already posted a recipe for butter chicken/murgh makhani. Chicken tikka masala does not seem to be too different, except for the origin of the dish.

Recipe source: BBC Good Food

Ingredients

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

25g butter

4 onions, roughly chopped

6 tablespoons chicken tikka masala paste (see recipe below, or use store bought)

2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into chunks

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2.5cm cubes

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

4 tablespoons tomato purée

2-3 tablespoons mango chutney

150ml double cream

150ml natural yogurt

Masala Pasta

5 garlic cloves

1 large knob of fresh root ginger, roughly chopped

1 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon garam masala

Seeds from 4 cardamom pods

Directions

1.      Heat the oil and butter in a large casserole

2.      Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook for 15-20 minutes until soft and golden. Add the paste and peppers and cook for 5 minutes

3.      Add the chicken and stir well to coat in the paste. Cook for 2 minutes, add the tomatoes, tomato purée and 200ml water. Cover and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked, about 15-20 minutes. 

4.      Add cream, yogurt and mango chutney and warm through

5.      To make the curry paste: Blend all the ingredients together with a small amount of water or oil to make a paste. Store in a fridge for up to 1 week

Chicken Tikka Masala

Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

Chocolate Cheesecake

This is the first time that I tried chocolate cheesecake. It is quite a nice alternative to the regular cheesecake.

Melted chocolate and cream cheese taste a bit like nutella, I think so anyway, not that I eat nutella. Perhaps if you have nut allergy and can’t eat nutella, try chocolate and cream cheese.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Adopted from my earlier recipe for Dulce De Leche Cheesecake and Kraft

Ingredients

⅓ cup (40g) almond meal

¾ cup (105g) plain flour

¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar

90g butter, chopped

225 grams (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar 

2 tablespoon flour 

1 teaspoon vanilla

225 grams (8 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate, melted, cooled

4 eggs

Directions

1.      To make the base, place the almond meal, flour, sugar and butter in a bowl. Rub the mixture with your fingertips until a rough dough forms.

2.      Line the base of a 20cm-round springform tin with baking paper. Place the base mixture into the base and flatten. Bake at 150°C/350°F until light golden, about 12-15 minutes.

3.      Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla until well mixed

4.      Add chocolate and mix well.

5.      Add eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well

6.      Pour the batter over the base

7.      Bake for 45 minutes or until the center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Chocolate Cheesecake

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake with Orange Glaze Recipe

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake

I had to do this, to try an olive oil cake. I’ve read lots of rave reviews on the flavor that olive oil imparts, and at the same time I wonder why I don’t see olive oil cake in cafes and supermarkets. Maybe it’s because we are still getting used to savoury ingredients in sweet items.

Anyway, this cake is delicious, moist and orangy! But I didn’t notice any olive oil flavor, even though I used a really fragrant olive oil. In future if I wanted to have a cake with some olive oil flavor, I would use olive oil in the frosting or drizzle.

Orange Olive Oil Polenta Cake

Ingredients

3 orange (about 500 grams in total)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

3 eggs

½ teaspoon salt

1 cups sugar

½ cup flour

1 cup polenta

1 cup almond meal (or use polenta instead)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Orange Glaze

Orange juice

Sugar or golden syrup

Directions

1.      Boil 2 oranges in water for an hour, ensuring that the oranges are totally covered at all times. Once boiled for an hour, drain and let it cool to room temperature

2.      Cut oranges into quarters, remove any seeds and puree it in a food processor

3.      Whisk the eggs, sugar and olive oil until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture turns pale. Add the orange puree and mix well

4.      Add polenta, almond meal, flour and baking powder, and stir until just combined

5.      Lightly grease a round 20cm cake pan.

6.      Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake at 160°C/320°F for an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

7.      To make the glaze, extract orange juice from 1 orange, mix with sugar/syrup to get the desired amount of sweetness. Cook over medium heat until it thickens slightly.

Goulash Recipe

Goulash

This goulash tasted good, and it was easy to prepare.

Recipe adopted from Dancing Veggies. As you guessed from the title of the blog, it’s a vegetarian website but my version has pork. The ‘original recipe’ was made with kielbasa style tofurkey sausage. Unfortunately I didn’t have any tofurkeys lying around so I substituted with pork. Amanda from the blog calls her version “The Goulash Gone Vegetarian”. I perhaps should call mine “The Goulash Gone Back to Original”!

I have made something similar with chickpeas and its absolutely delicious. So if you want to have a vegetarian goulash and don’t have any tofurkeys lying around, substitute with chickpeas, tofu or something along those lines. It won’t disappoint, just don’t try serving it to Hungarians.

Goulash

Ingredients

500 grams pork cut into 2 inch pieces 

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 kg tomatoes, chopped

1 tablespoon oil

½ cup stock 

½ tablespoon Hot Hungarian Paprika

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon cayenne powder

1 teaspoon fresh pepper, plus more to taste

Directions

1.      Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the pork and cook until it starts to turn brown.

2.      Add the onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions turn soft.

3.      Add the tomatoes and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently to help the tomatoes break down and to prevent sticking. 

4.      Turn heat to high and add the stock along with the spices, bringing to a quick boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.