[CH] Indian food recipe
martino@indcomp.com.au
Fri, 23 Oct 1998 14:36:48 +1000
This has to be the best curry (according to my wife and hey who am I to argue) I have ever made.
Stacks up to any restaurant one. It's definitely not health food but sure tastes good. Serve with
hot garlic naan bread. It's from the 50 best Indian curries cook book I posted about recently. Most
people will probably want to jack up the heat. Creamy yummy though.
Enjoy and let me know how you go if anyone does try it. Have a good weekend.
Martin
Melbourne
Creamy butter Chicken
Serves 4 (huh, says who)
2lb chicken skinned quarters or smaller pieces on the bone. I used
boneless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces.
4-5 tablespoons oil
For the marinade
2 cups full fat yoghurt (told you it wasn't health food)
6 cloves of garlic
1/2" square of fresh ginger
1 teaspoon red chilli powder or more if you like as if you needed telling
1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala powder
cochineal or red food colouring optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lime juice
For the makhani sauce
1 & 1/2 lbs tomato's (I used a 16oz tin)
1/2 teaspoon dried methi leaves
3 oz's chilled butter (see note)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
few drops of vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
salt to taste
1 & 1/2 oz's single cream
First prepare the marinade. Place the yoghurt in a piece of
cheesecloth and leave to hang to allow the whey to drip away (I didn't
bother and no-one died). Puree the garlic and ginger in a blender then
add this and all the marinade spices, salt and lime juice to the
yoghurt and mix well.
Make gashes in the chicken if using pieces on the bone then mix
chicken in the marinade and leave in the fridge overnight if possible
otherwise 1-2 hours, longer = better.
Scald the tomatoes for the makhani sauce and peel off the skin (tin
was easier and worked ok for me). Grind the fenugreek leaves to a
powder.
After marinating heat the oil in a large thick bottomed pot and put in
the chicken with the marinade. Cover and cook over a low heat till
done turning occasionally.
Put the tomato in a frying pan and reduce slightly, 5 mins or so on low
heat. Add the paprika and chilled butter, after the chilled butter has
melted cook for one minute. Taste it, if it has no sourness add a
fewdrops of the vinegar. Add the ground fenugreek leaves and the
garam masala and salt to taste. After 30 secs add the cream and stir.
The sauce is now ready, mix it well with the chicken and serve.
Notes
The butter needs to be chilled as if you cook it for more than three
minutes it turns to ghee and goes horrible. You can cook the chicken
ahead of time but the makhani sauce which only takes 5-6 minutes
should be made when you are ready to eat it. IMHO It's not worth trying all
the low fat alternatives as we love it as it is and I don't think you'd eat
it every day. The recipe originally came from the tandoori oven
indians who used to mix what was left of the tandoori chicken with
the sauces that had dripped of during cooking then serve with cream.
It is a little fussy recipe as you need to go pretty quickly at the end, I
put all the spices on saucers ready to throw in when required.