Butter Chicken

I was having my lunch break from work one time. Then, happened to pass by a nearby book shop and voila - I found this so far amazing cook book on essential asian cuisines. The book is sectioned according to different Asian countries such as China, Indonesia, Singapore & Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Laos & Cambodia, India & Pakistan and a few others - which I think is really good. Actually, I did find a cookbook on whipping simple Italian dishes - which I thought was also very interesting - but ended up buying the asian cuisines cookbook. I think I might actually go back to that book shop some other time and buy that Italian dishes cookbook, too. Anyway, the first dish I did from that Asian cookbook was the Butter Chicken - an Indian dish - using those real spices like garam masala, chilli powder, ground cumin, etc... :-) As my usual habit, when I look through a recipe, I normally check on the ingredients only. This was one of those times, unfortunately. So bought all the other ingredients I didn't have in our pantry. I started at 6pm on a Sunday intending to have it for dinner, with a very excited hubby looking forward to the dish, only to find out that I needed to marinate the chicken pieces for 4 hours first!!!! Yes, I'm sure one could probably get away without marinating that long however, as I am new in this field - I am entirely a slave of the book. Still building up my confidence on trying things a bit different from what's in the book. So - ended up whipping a very easy dish for Sunday's dinner and marinated those chickens overnight. So, lesson learned from this - always read the cooking instructions first so I can plan my time accordingly! Anyway, as my husband's office is near our home, he always comes home earlier than me so, I asked him to do the honours of baking the chicken when he gets home. So, by the time I came home today - the chicken was baked and all I needed to do was pretty much the rest of the instructions in the cookbook - which were straight forward. It was pretty exciting and result wasn't that bad at all - when compared to some of the butter chicken we have tasted in restaurants before. I know it sounds patronising :-) and I only have my husband and myself to comment - but truly, it was pretty amazing considering I've never tried cooking an indian dish before from scratch. My husband normally cooks this type of dish - and he uses those ready made spices, i.e. spices necessary for a certain dish have been combined for you in a packet so basically, all you have to do most of the time is to combine the meat and the packet of spices in a heated pan. The secret, which works for me is to just follow the book especially if it's your first time and you will mostly get it right. So, here goes:

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken thigh fillets

1 tsp salt (I used lemon salt as I had it handy)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup yoghurt

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 cm piece fresh ginger, grated

1 green chilli, choped

2 tsps garam masala

2 tsps yellow food colouring (I used turmeric)

1 tsp red food colouring

1/2 cup tomato puree (passata - as they call it)

1/2 cup water

2 cm piece fresh ginger, extra, finely grated

1 cup cream

1 tsp garam masala, extra

2 tsps sugar

1/4 tsp chilli powder (My husband and I loved spicy food - so I used 1 tsp of chilli powder)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

100g butter

1. Cut the chicken into strips 2 cm thick. Sprinkle with the salt and 1/4 cup lemon juice.

2. Place the yoghurt, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and garam masala in a food processor and process until smooth.

3. Combine the food colourings in a small bowl, brush over the chicken pieces and turn to coat. Add the yoghurt mixture and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours. Remove the chicken from the marinade and allow to drain for 5 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven at 220 degrees celcius. Bake the chicken in a shallow baking dish for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain off any excess juice, cover loosely with foil and keep warm. Set aside.

5. Combine the tomato puree and water in a large jug. Add the ginger, cream, extra garam masala, sugar, chilli powder. lemon juice and cumin. Stir to combine.

6. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Stir in the tomato mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes, then reduce the heat and add the chicken pieces. Stir to coat the chicken in the sauce and simmer for 2 minutes longer or until heated through. Serve with rice.