The Food of Life

I told you I was gonna bombard you. Alright bombard is probably the wrong word. But I didn't want to quit while I was actually on a roll.

So part of what's been taking up our time is this club we call "M.E.A.T" We recently picked up a few like minded members 1 of whom is actually a chef, so thank god for some actual practical knowledge and expertise. M.E.A.T. Men Eating Animals Together.

This club basically spawned from a conversation about wanting to make prosciutto. Well in order to jump right into that endeavor we need our own climate controlled meat locker. Well so we commenced to building. Pato, one of our newest members happened to have an extra fridge (my extra beer fridge will get converted into an actual kegerator at some point and I wasn't about to give that up). Well once we had the fridge we gutted it and cleaned it out and went shopping on amazon for all the components we would need. A temperature controller, a humidifier, a fan to help with air circulation and a remote viewing system for the temperature and humidity. I don't want to bore you with all the details right now, but I think it's pretty cool and I just wanted to show you all some pictures. Just so that you konw that we haven't just been ignoring you since memorial day.

I know I know. It's been a really long time. We've been really slacking. But there has been a lot going on. So I am going to start the bombardment here!

Okay so I pretty much always have a craving for sushi or Indian food. At any given time I am more than willing to consume either of those food types. So I finally thought I would give something Indian a shot.


The first Picture is the marinade. Basically I cubed up about 1 3/4lb of chicken and just tossed it in a bowl. I dumped in a cup of plain yogurt (i used greek yogurt) about 2 Tablespoons of garam masala, 2 Tablespoons of chile powder, 1 tablespoon of ginger paste (which i bought in a tube at the super market), and 2 ish tablespoons of garlic paste (which i made myself. I almost always have loads of garlic and i love it so why not right?), and top it off with 2 tablespoons of melted butter, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of olive oil. Then using a spatula I stir it all up!! After that's done stick it in the fridge and let it marinate overnight.

So the next day straight from work I come home and I get to work on the sauce. My girlfriend is a vegetable hater.... I know I know how does she survive right? I'll tell you how, because I puree everything! I keed. Kind of.

So the Sauce, first i put 2 tablespoons of butter in the pot, get the heat going. I add 2 tablespoons of garam masala. Once you hear the garam masala start to kind of crackle and pop I add the rest of my dry ingredients which are 2 tablespoons of chile powder, 2 tablespoons of garlic paste, 1 tablespoon of ginger, about a tablespoon of salt. Next I puree a can of diced tomatoes with green chiles. A can is about 1 3/4 cups. After that's pure'd i drop it in the medium sized pot. kick the heat on kinda medium low. Next add a cup of water, a small can of tomato paste 2 tablespoons of honey and stir.



Once it starts to bubble I toss in the chicken and all the marinade. Between the marinade and this kinda slow cook the chicken should come out super tender. So stir it pretty frequently while it's cooking on the lower side of medium. While i'm watching to make sure this doesn't boil or burn i get to work on the basmati rice which takes about 35 minutes. Now really i should've started the rice first because it's totally set it and forget it, but I'm a spaz so i had to slow down my cooking. Either way it came out pretty tasty, and the chicken was really tender. After about 30 minutes I added 1 cup of heavy cream to my sauce, and let it cook for about 5 more minutes. It had a pretty good consistency and i think a pretty good flavor. My girl ate some leftovers for lunch which is rare (she's just not a leftover person) so that was exciting. Anyways Enjoy the pics and give it a whirl. I think the recipe i modified a bit came from

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/makhani-chicken-indian-butter-chicken/Detail.aspx

Now we'll have to wait till we get some input from people who actually cook Indian food to see if this recipe is even close to accurate. Some people said they liked mine better than a popular local Indian restaurant, which was nice, but true??? who knows.