Text 1789, 110 rader
Skriven 2008-02-03 16:06:48 av Ryan Tucker (28628.cooking)
   Kommentar till text 1479 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
Ärende: Re: Hello
=================
 > What part of Rochester?  My husband Steve (You'll occaisionally see him 
 > here.) grew up west of Rochester in Hulberton (about 15 miles west of 
 > Brockport, about the same east of Albion) so we know the area.  We're 
 > currently in Savannah, GA now, tho we've lived anywhere from eastern NC
 > to CA to TX to Germany to MA to AZ to HI previously. We were living in 
 > eastern NC when Steve joined the Army 25 years ago, hence all the different 
 > places we've lived. I grew up in the Catskills.

We live on the southeast side of Rochester in the Swillburg neighborhood (the 
neighborhood behind the Highland Diner, pretty much)... I've lived in a few 
different parts of Rochester over the years, but never quite as far out as 
Hulberton!

 > We've lived in places with unpronouncable names before. (G)

French doesn't work at all for me.  :-)  A new cornerstore opened this weekend 
a few blocks away called the "Mise en Place Market", and I've relegated myself 
to just calling it "the old Green Grocer"...

 >  RT> We enjoy Indian and Thai cooking (and eating), as well as a variety of 
 >  RT> other tasty things.  Our menu for the last week included chicken
 > 
 > We like a various assortment of foods, partly due to our travels (Steve 
 > spent a year in Korea.) and partly just breaking away from how we were 
 > raised so we could eat healthier.

Ah, healthiness.  I had a lot of meat, pasta, and dairy growing up in the 
midwest, and convenience foods were king.  This has resulted in a decent 
amount of excess insulation.  We're probably eating more "natural" ingredients 
these days, but we still need to work a bit on portion control.  The food is 
too danged good here...

 > Our girls are grown and gone. Rachel, the older one, is married and has
 > a 4 year old son.  She and her husband work for a private charter school in 
 > Las Vegas. Deborah, the younger daughter, is on active duty with the 
 > Arizona Army National Guard. I don't work outside of the home but manage to 
 > keep myself busy otherwise. (G)

I'm finding that things are actually starting to get a little *too* busy for 
me on occasion -- I had to hand off dinner duties tonight to Dawn so I could 
finish my other chores and homework.  Which does, of course, include posting 
of the Chicken Makhani recipe I promised a little while back for Jim.  (All 
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...)

She did, however, just get christen the excellent new garlic press to replace 
the crappy one I bought to replace the mediocre one I broke, so she doesn't 
seem to mind ;-)  (Dinner tonight is Steak and Guinness Pie.)

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Chicken Makhani (Indian butter chicken)

2 chicken breasts, sliced into mouth-sized pieces
2-3 T butter
4 shallots, chopped finely
2 tsp lemon juice
1 T ginger, minced
1 T garlic, pressed
1 T garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup plain yogurt (optional)
2/3 cup cream (optional)
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 tsp hot paprika
Salt and pepper
Slivered almonds for garnish
Raisins, washed
Cilantro

Cook the shallots in butter until they are limp and soft, about seven minutes. 
Remove the onions from the pan when they are cooked, leaving as much of the 
butter as possible. 

Turn up the flame a bit and add the chicken. Cook quickly, browning on all 
sides. 

When the chicken is cooked through, add the spices, ginger and garlic and stir 
for a few minutes until it smells lovely and exotic in your kitchen. Add a few 
tablespoons of water and use the liquid to deglaze, scraping up any bits of 
cooked chicken or spice that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. 
Add the tomato, slide the onion mix back into the pan and set to simmer.
At this point, you can put the basmati rice on to cook.

Once the rice is nearly done, taste the Makhani sauce for spices. It might 
need more salt. It might need that squeeze of lemon juice I nearly forgot to 
mention. Put a few tablespoons of the sauce in a bowl and mix it with the 
cream and the yogurt. Once they are incorporated, put it back into the pan 
with the chicken. Taste again for spices: this is when you decide if you 
really need to add another teaspoon of spicy paprika. Stir in the coriander 
leaves (chopped) and half the almond slivers and serve over hot basmati rice 
with a cold beer. Use the remaining almond slivers to garnish and sprinkle a 
little hot paprika over it too for color and just in case it's not quite hot 
enough!

Serves 2.


Original Source: http://www.toomanychefs.com/archives/001732.php Too Many 
Chefs: My Indian Love Affair: Chicken Makhani

Notes: I often leave out the cream and yoghurt, or use just a bit of yoghurt. 
Check the spices, though.

Notes: Once the chicken is cooked, we usually move it to a bowl to rest to 
avoid over-cooking.  When to put the chicken back in is a matter of active 
experimentation.
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