The dreaded Valentine's weekend is over. I honestly don't understand the angst around the weekend - I have never been a Valentine's type of person. My belief has been you should be saying "I love you" 364 days of the year and not need one special day to tell the one person you love that you love them............ I also don't get trying frantically to find someone (some stranger) to spend the time with............ shrug - but that's just me.
I however did have a fun weekend!!
Mini me came over on Saturday. We had plans to throw together an Indian feast ........
She even arrived with roses to brighten up our dining table...........
And my job was to "teach" her how to make bread ........It was her bright suggestion we make our own Naan bread. So she brought the recipe (see how neatly I am laying the blame on her - cheeky grin) and some eggs. The rest of the ingredients I did have (being a bread maker)
We used more bowls!! than I could ever have imagined possible and cookie sheets and frying pans............. and it took much longer than I expected from start to finish........ but god it was fun!!!
I had started the chicken earlier and it was simmering on the stove (unfortunately it simmered a wee bit too long and most of the sauce had thickened up or evaporated - and it wasn't spicy enough for mini me )
We burned our fingers tasting the first naan out of the pan........ we tasted - we looked at one another and agreed it just didn't taste like authentic naan.......... BUT we had 13 other golf ball sized dough balls to fry up - so we fried 'em up.
FINALLY we put everything on the table and sat down to our feast..........
I had managed to over cook the rice (who over cooks rice??!!) so it wasn't very good
The curried chicken was a bit dry (having been simmering for most of the afternoon)
and the naan - well it was yummy - but unfortunately didn't taste much like naan - more like a flat fried dinner roll.
After dinner mini me with her tablet and I with my laptop set about googling "authentic naan bread" and discovered there are some differences between recipes when you move from "canadianized naan" to authentic naan - like authentic naan has yogurt in it.
We agreed NEXT time we would follow the authentic naan recipe!!
Then we gossiped about men and folks on fetlife - and good articles worth reading on fetlife - and the meaning of life (we do occasionally get serious!!)
Sunday was a quiet-ish day for me - but I had a dinner date with a friend who actually believes in Valentine's Day and brought me a box of chocolates............
AND the best news EVER - there are only 2 weeks left in February - Hallelujah - and I have something planned for both of the last weekends. Hopefully February will now FLY BY!!
I can't stop smiling after reading your post. I can imagine the "canadianized naan and fried chicken curry".
ReplyDeleteTry the butter chicken curry with naan next time. It takes about 30 minutes or a little less from starting to finishing from the scratch. Let me know if you need the recipe.
Lilac - yes and yes - I would love the recipe:) especially one for tried and true naan :) :)
ReplyDeleteand the butter chicken has to be fairly spicy to please mini me LOL
I completely agree with your introduction and I feel the same for Mother's Day.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot of fun. We even managed not to trip over each other too much in your tiny galley kitchen :)
ReplyDeleteThe curry doesn't have to be spicier next time, it was nicely flavoured (and really...it wasn't dry, just less sauce). I just thought if you'd tamed it down for me that you needed to know you didn't have to do that. Overall it was a nice meal and making the naan that wasn't naan, a fun experience.
mini me
I'm gonna type in both naan and butter chicken recipes here. I'm originally from a country which is between India and China, so I've seen many authentic Indians making naans back in Asia. There was no yogurt though. Here's the naan recipe.
ReplyDeleteAP flour : 2 cups
Salt : 1/2 tsp
sugar : 2 tbsp
Butter : 4 tbsp
Milk : 1/2 cup
Water as needed
Butter for cooking
Flour + Salt + sugar + butter in a bowl and mix until incorporated. Gradually add milk and knead well. Let rest for 10 mins. Make balls and roll out again. Pan fry the naan. Butter the naan before serving.
Butter Chicken curry:
Chicken breast: 3 breast pieces (cut into small cubes)
lime juice : 1 tbsp
canola oil : 2 tbsp
cinnamon powder : 1 tsp
masala powder : 1 tsp
paprika (or chili powder) : 1 tbsp
garlic : 3 cloves (minced)
onion: 1 big onion (minced)
tomato paste: 1 tbsp
35% cream: 125 ml
butter: 50 g
Salt and pepper: to taste
Method: Marinate the chicken cubes into lime juice with salt and pepper.Heat the canola oil in the cooking pot, sear the chicken breast cubes.Once the color of the chicken cubes change, take them out and put them in a bowl. Put the onions, garlic, paprika, cinnamon, masala powder and tomato paste in the cooking pot with canola oil and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. Take everything out of the pot and put everything in the blender and blend well. After everything's blended, put the blended sauce back into the pot and boil and then simmer. Add 35% cream, boil and simmer again, add the chicken cubes back into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Finish with butter after turning off the heat.
Hope the recipes help.
Lilac - thank you SO much for taking the trouble to type out the recipes. I have forwarded them to mini me so she has them too....
ReplyDeleteReally!!! thank you so much for taking the time ......
Thank you Lilac! I'm looking forward to trying these out :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome , Morningstar and AngelsQuest. :)
ReplyDeleteI forgot to write down sugar in the butter chicken curry recipe. About 1 table spoon of sugar while seasoning with salt and pepper. And add a little water to thin out the sauce if it's too thick. It will be the same as the butter chicken curry from Indian restaurants.
Enjoy :)