Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan

In Lawrence, we ate at the Indian Palace buffet. Their food is fabulous, down to the Indian tea which is piping hot and has just the right spices and sweetness. We all loved the chicken tikka masala and were lamenting the fact that there is no Indian Palace in Wichita to satisfy our cravings. So, I set out to try to duplicate at least the naan and chicken tikka masala.

While there seemed to be common themes in recipes, per Wikipedia, "Chicken Tikka Masala is a westernized Indian dish...There is no standard recipe...a survey found that of 48 different recipes the only common ingredient was chicken."

So, I made lots of adjustments from a base recipe and ended up with what I think is pretty close to what we had in Lawrence. If you'd like to try it...

Chicken Tikka Masala - Melody's imitation of Indian Palace
1 cup plain yogurt
1 T lemon juice
1 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or equivalent in thighs, tenderloins, etc)

1 T butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup (or so) onion, diced
3 T sugar
2 t ground paprika
1 t ground cumin
1 t salt
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t cayenne pepper
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped, optional, for garnish

1. In a bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 1 t salt, and black pepper. Stir in chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Or several days, if you don't get to it). Or, if you don't marinate, sprinkle salt, pepper and lemon juice on chicken before cooking.
2. Lightly oil grill grate. Grill chicken until juices run clear, approximately 5 minutes per side. (Until it reaches an internal temp of 165*).  (Or roast in 375 degree oven until internal temp reaches 165 degrees). Let rest five minutes, then cut into bite-sized pieces.
4. Meanwhile, melt butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion until onion is translucent. Add spices and saute briefly. (I let the sugar get liquidy/start to caramelize). Add tomato sauce and cream. Stir to combine. Add chicken and heat through. Simmer until slightly thickened. If it becomes too thick, may add extra water. Garnish with cilantro, if desired. Serve over rice.

Naan - Manjula
3/4 cup warm water
1 t yeast
2 t sugar
2 cups flour
1 t salt
1/8 t baking soda
2 T oil
2 1/2 T plain yogurt

1. Mix yeast, water and sugar and stir to dissolve. Meanwhile, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add oil and yogurt and mix well. Add yeast water and knead to make a very sticky dough. (I use my stand mixer). Oil the dough, place in medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for four hours.
(You may form into 6-10 balls at this point and freeze. Remove from freezer several hours before baking).
2. Preheat the oven and baking stone to broil/500 degrees for 20 minutes. Oil hands and divide dough into 6-10 balls. Roll balls in flour. Using a rolling pin, roll to 1/4 inch thick. Wet hands and place naan on baking stone. Bake for 3 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush with melted butter (or ghee - clarified butter).

Enjoy!

Redneck Tank Top

Saturday zzzzz's

Well, I didn't think we had much of an exciting Saturday. Ty and I went to the library and the grocery store...

I was busy making pretzels and pretzel covered hot dogs for supper (OK, not the healthiest, but yummy)

But when I called the boys for supper, I discovered that Tyler had fallen asleep. I tried unsuccessfully to wake him, then moved him to the couch thinking the commotion would wake him. Instead, he appeared to make himself comfortable (I guess) on the couch.

Recipe for pretzels, for anyone who is interested...

Pretzels
1 ½ cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ cup shortening, melted
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups bread flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk for glaze
¼ cup butter, melted

Mix yeast, water and 1 teaspoon sugar, stir to dissolve. Mix brown sugar, salt and melted shortening. Add yeast water. Add flours and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Let rise at least ½ hour. Punch down and allow to rise again.

While dough is rising, heat a saucepan of salted water to a bare simmer.

After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll to a long rope (1/2 inch thick or less - should be very, very thin) and shape. Let rest for 10 minutes. Drop into simmering salt water and remove after it floats to drain and move onto a dish towel. Place onto a greased baking sheet.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with salt.

Bake in 450 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Remove and brush with melted butter.

Option: Instead of using the poaching and egg wash, you can simply dip in 2 cups warm water mixed with 2 tablespoons of baking soda.
Option: Mix cinnamon and sugar and dip pretzel in butter then cinnamon mixture.
Option: Wrap hot dogs with pretzel. Allow to rise. Follow above instructions. Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.


Honey Mustard Sauce
Mix mayonnaise, honey and mustard to desired taste.

Birthday tree

Here is the mimosa tree as we planted it for Tyler's birthday last October...

sad tree

Here is the "tree" (a.k.a. twig) now...

We had a man from the nursery to come out to make sure it was still alive. He said that the tree is alive and well. He said the buds are swelling. Barring a hard freeze, it is fine. Wayne and I have both checked out the "swelling buds" and don't get it, so it's a good thing the guy came out. Beeaahutiful!

Land Shark

We recently found a Land Shark beverage which reminded us of the old SNL skit...

http://www.spike.com/video/2802070

Take two - tired counting

ABCs and 123s

I asked Tyler if he wanted to count to 20 for me (though he always leaves out 13). But, instead he started with the ABC's and by the time he got to counting, he was in goofy mode. Tyler woke up this morning with a barky cough, and you can hear it in his voice.
Sorry, I am technology impaired and couldn't figure out how to make the video rotate. :(

I'll see if I can get him to do it again...

Getting Duped

I was reading Scientific American MIND and ran across this article that I found interesting and I was able to find it online:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=getting-duped

However, I could not find the sidebar article online, which I thought included very interesting statistics. I will just retype it...

"Popular Delusions
According to polls conducted in 2003 and 2007, Americans held several misperceptions about the war in Iraq. For example:

* In March 2003, only 35 percent of Americans correctly perceived that most people in the world at large were opposed to the decision to go to war with Iraq.
* In May 2003, 22 percent of Americans said that Iraq had actually used chemical or biological weapons against US troops.
* In September 2003, 24 percent of Americans believed that the U.S. had found evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
* In 2007, 33 percent of Americans still believed Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11 attacks.

The prevalence of such misconceptions varied according to respondents' favored news source, even among people who shared demographic traits such as education level and party identification. Among those who used Fox News as their primary news source, 80 percent held at least one such erroneous notion about the Iraq War. By comparison, 55 percent of CNN watchers, 47 percent of print newshounds and only 23 percent of the PBS-NPR audience believed in at least one such myth. We believe this shows that Fox News is relatively biased, creating false impressions about facts, and that PBS-NPR is less so, perhaps in part because of a difference in the prevalence of straw man and weak man arguments [see main article], although further research is needed to bear this out. -Y.R. and R.T. "

Heart eyes

Tyler has been commenting lately that his "eyes turned into hearts." I was confused. Today, I said that I was going to make honey mustard sauce for our pretzels and he said it yet again. He agreed that this is a sign of approval. :)

The other day, he told me that "the old, mean lady died. Then she peed. She peed in the play place. She was mean." I asked him what she did that was mean. "Nuffin." He has repeated it several times when I ask him about it. (However, now, he says that she peed first, then died...at the play place).
He said it was a dream. Is it just me, or is this a strange dream for a 3 year old?