Once Upon a Butter Chicken

A long, long time ago, in a hole-in-the-wall kind of an eatery, there featured a very common dish known to the locals, far and wide, as Butter Chicken. But, none quite made it like this small restaurant that called itself Kabir's in the sweet, little city of Pune. A girl aged about 10 or 11, chanced upon the dish at a soiree thrown by one of her parent's friends.

And thus began a rather arduous, one-sided, love affair.

The charming shredded chicken and its silky, rubicund gravy left an imprint so deep on the lass's palate, that although she met many a handsome butter chicken in her young life, none quite compared to her first love. Once, she had, had her share of disappointments dished by restaurant after restaurant, here and yonder, the girl took it upon herself to recreate the recipe that had indelibly carved such a niche on her heart and gut. But, alas, such are the ways of specialty entrees. Unless, the chef who creates it, is your mother -- nay, mother's are untrustworthy creatures when it comes to teaching certain recipes. They are known to keep "special ingredients" and quantities to themselves -- or grandmother, such treasures can be but lost.

Yet, the colleen persevered...

...she tried elusive recipe after difficult recipe from famous chefs. Hung around (some strange) blogs. Skimmed innumerable newspapers and magazines. Even carried out a gillion experiments in her kitchen. But, to no avail. She despaired that perhaps her first love was indeed lost in an abyss, forever. Never to be retrieved in this lifetime.

Many a years later, the girl now a married woman and mother, quite by chance, happened upon an unexpected miracle. After an endlessly long day of changing diapers and feeding a very hungry wee little one, the dame came across a recipe that she thought was quite interesting.

So, armed with a very hopeful heart, she ventured into the kitchen.

Half-way through, milady realized that a very important ingredient was missing from her pantry. It was the very one which she had used up in her endeavor to make tandoori chicken. But, not one to give up so easily -- especially, after being so close in perhaps re-creating the nuances of a dish that had kept her awake for many a night -- she turned once again to her trusty laptop-on-the-wall in the hopes of finding a from-the-scratch-tandoori-masala-recipe. Lo and behold! A gazillion (or so) popped up, but she decided on the very first one she'd googled. And it did not disappoint. She hurriedly bustled, tasting and adjusting as she went along.

Finally, after a measly hour in the scullery, the dish was ready to be savored...

...The woman broke a piece of her unleavened bread and hastily dipped it in the butter chicken gravy. At last.

As was expected it lacked the special something from Kabir's. But, it was so close to the dish she had fallen in love with many-many-a-twelve-month-ago that she almost swooned and let out such a gasp of delight that she woke the sleeping babe in the crib, down the hall, much to the chagrin of its father who had rocked her relentlessly for more than hour.

Here it is, in its entirety, for you to experience and fall in love with. As she did, once upon a time, when she was 10 or 11.

♣ Restaurant-style Butter Chicken
Loosely adapted from vahrevah.com

You need:

2 sizable chicken breasts, skinned and sliced thin

2-3 cashews

2-3 almonds, blanched and peeled (optional); if you decide to skip the almonds, make-up by adding a couple more cashews

A tbsp of ginger-garlic paste (2-3 largish garlic cloves + 3/4th inch of ginger)

1-2 tbsp lime juice

1/2 of a large red-onion, roughly chopped

1/2 of a nicely-proportioned, juicy tomato

2 tbsp hung curd

A handful of finely chopped cilantro

1/2 stick of salted butter

2-3 tbsp of vegetable or peanut oil

A couple of tsp of salt or as per taste

A tablespoon or so of cream or whole milk

1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tbsp + 2 tsp + some in dashes and sprinkles of chili powder

1 tsp of cumin powder

About a quarter teaspoon of garam masala

1 tbsp of from-scratch-tandoori masala (recipe follows below)

For Tandoori Masala, you need:
Adapted from indiancurryrecipes.com

8 tsp ground coriander

7 tsp ground cumin

7 tsp garlic powder (if you don't like a strong garlicky taste, make it 5-6 tsp)

7 tsp paprika (I didn't have paprika, but the overall result was good nevertheless)

5 tsp ground ginger

5 tsp mango powder

2 tsp dried mint (didn't have this either, but I didn't think it made a huge difference)

5 tsp beetroot powder (or a tsp of red food coloring powder; I added a few drops of food coloring in the chicken instead)

2 tsp chili powder

2 tsp anatto seed powder (or 1/2 tsp yellow food coloring powder; or a few drops in the gravy or over the chicken)

-- Dump all the spices in a ziplock bag and give it a good shake to combine all the spices well.

Recipe:

To begin, place the curd in a cheesecloth or worn out cotton handkerchief, twine and hang the curd until whey is drained. Consequently, slice the chicken in neat, thin pieces. Then, spoon over tandoori masala, a teaspoon of salt, cumin, a tablespoon of chili powder and the hung curd. Using your hands, massage the spices into the chicken, and set aside in the refrigerator for an hour at least. While the chicken is marinading, roughly chop the onion and keep aside.

After that, toss in the garlic and ginger in the mixing bowl of your blender and blend to a smooth paste. Remove and put to one side, and in the same bowl, grind together the tomato along with half-a-teaspoon of chili powder, cashews and (if using) almonds.

Once the chicken is appropriately marinaded, heat oil in a roomy vessel of your choice. Into it, dump the chicken pieces and toss around until the chicken is cooked. In the last couple of minutes, squeeze in two to three drops of red and yellow food color, stir about and remove to a plate. Quickly stir in the ginger-garlic paste for a minute or so, add in the chopped onion and stir until a lovely golden-brown. Spoon over turmeric, about half-a-teaspoon of chili powder and the remaining salt. Add in the tomato-cashew-almond paste and give it about five to seven minutes in the pan, then set aside to cool completely. Remove into the mixing bowl of your blender and grind to a silky paste.

Now, in the same pan that you cooked the chicken, melt the butter and stir in the onion-tomato paste for another five to seven minutes. Add about three-fourth's of a cup of water, giving it a quick little whirl. What we want is for the sauce to bubble and to thicken slightly to add some oomphy texture. Check for the seasoning, if needed, add a few dashes of chili powder and salt. Sprinkle over the garam masala powder, give the sauce a quick whirl or two and add in the cooked chicken. Add in a couple of drops of red food color, if you think the sauce needs a bit of brightening. Let the chicken stew over a medium to low flame for about five to 10 minutes. Squeeze over the lemon juice, stirring as you squeeze, add a nice little swirl of cream or whole milk, and throw in a handful of freshly chopped cilantro to bring out the lovely tangerine hues of the butter chicken.

Serve atop a mound of steamed plain rice, or alongside your favorite unleavened bread. Relish every bite. Ever so slowly. The thing with fairy tales is, they have to be savored. Slowly.

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First of Many Eats ...

When you name your one-day old after a favorite restaurant special, I think, a food blog is but, destiny. I must admit, Eats, eats & eats should have happened a long, long time before we thought "Choochee" (it's this absolutely spectacular fish we had at our local Thai haunt while I was pregnant) was such an apt (pet) moniker for our daughter.

If it hadn't been for my borderline anal retentive nature when it comes to writing, coupled with another horrendous habit – procrastination -- I guess I would have found myself on the blogosphere a lot earlier. But, well, oh well. Such are, our personal foibles. As my grandmother always says, some things just happen at the right time. Neither before they are supposed to, nor after. For me, I think, the greatest leavening agent in the right direction was giving birth to my darling. One look at that sweet face, and I knew that it was time to get off my behind, and journal family heirlooms I'd learned sitting on grandma's counter-top, some I had picked along the way and others I will chance upon as I traverse life's highways.

Since this is my first post, I think a celebratory recipe is in order. No jamboree eatable quite knows how to spell p-a-r-t-y in my family, like these specialty Gulab Jamuns. My husband AM's (the man wakes up awfully early. To be specific, at 6 am, even on weekends. Yep, you read that quite correctly. 6 am. On weekends) eight-year-old niece, Shambhavi, can easily slug down a whole bowl (and our bowl reserved for gulab jamuns is noticeably big) if her always-on-yummy-eats-watch-family would allow it.

♣ Gulab Jamuns or Heavenly Globules in Rose-scented Sugar Syrup

You need:
For the Jamuns

1 firmly-packed cup (C) of mawa or milk-powder
¼ C of maida or all-purpose flour
¼ tsp of baking soda
Milk (guesstimate, enough to make a soft dough)
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Ghee or Clarified butter/Shortening, warmed + more for deep-frying

For the syrup

2 C of water
2 C of sugar
A few long strands of beautiful saffron or Kesar
A sprinkling of powdered green-cardamom
A couple of drops of rose essence (optional)

Recipe:
Sieve the milk powder, flour and baking soda twice onto a respectably-sized platter. Then with a gentle hand knead in the warm clarified butter and incrementally add in as much milk to bring together a soft dough. To keep the dough from drying, keep it covered with a damp cheese-cloth or a soft piece of mulmul. Pluck small portions of the dough to mold into half-inch balls and place under the cloth. We are going to fry the jamuns to a lovely golden-brown color, for that, heat clarified butter or shortening, preferably in a wok, over a medium flame.

While the butter does its thing, get going on the sugar syrup -- on another burner place a sizable pot of your choice, over medium heat. Into it, pour water and sugar along with the saffron and rose essence and bring to a gentle boil, stirring all the while, until the sugar melts, and the syrup gets to the consistency of slightly thinned down honey. Give it some loving from the cardamom powder and switch the syrup-pot to a warmer or reduce the heat to very low.

On the other hand, keep a close watch on the fat, once it is hot (test with a minuscule piece of gulab jamun dough -- it should swim to the surface as soon as it hits the hot stuff), reduce the heat to very low and carefully drop the jamuns in. Hold the wok with a pair of tongs and very, very cautiously and deliberately, move the wok around, ever so slowly, so that the jamun's swivel around on their own. My mother-in-law, an absolute cooking maven, always specifies that slotted spoons or spiders have no place while frying delicate things like Gulab Jamuns. They are to be used only to (d-e-l-i-c-a-t-e-l-y) transfer the fried spheres from their oleaginous atmosphere into the the sticky sugar syrup. Once your beautiful, petite balls have turned a lovely golden-brown, slide them into the sugar syrup and leave them to double in size. Then, quickly swill down a couple. If your family is anything like ours, there won't be many such opportunities in your destiny.

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