Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Coconut Chicken with Potatoes - Indian Batata Murghi

Batata Murghi is a coconut / potato / chicken dish from the Maharashtra state of India.  Maps of India and the Maharashtra state are included below for those of you who like a sense of place when hearing new names!

I'm not necessarily fond of Coconut, but this dish is one of the best meals I've ever cooked.  Last night we had it with Aloo Chokha and it was an amazing family meal with my father and wife and children.  I offer my version of it here, though it can be found elsewhere on the internet.  My version takes it's base inspiration from Raghavan Iyer's book 660 Curries - the gateway to Indian Cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 can (14 ounces) of unsweetened coconut milk.
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger or ginger paste
2 tablespoons unsalted or salted dry roast peanuts
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
5 large cloves of garlic or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
4 to 6 fresh green Tai, cayenne, or serrano chilies (if you want it hot) or 4-6 Anaheim Chilies if you want it mild, stems remove and seeded.
8 chicken boneless chicken thighs
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds from green or white pods
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (each 3 inches long broken into smaller pieces)
2 tablespoons of peanut or canola oil
2 large potatoes chopped into 1-inch cubes
1 big red onion, sliced or chopped
1 handful of chopped cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a blender puree 1/2 of the can of coconut milk, ginger, peanuts, salt, turmeric, garlic and green chilies.  
2. Put the chicken thighs into the puree you just made, cover, and refrigerate for as long as you can, up to over night.
3. Heat a skillet to very hot and add the coriander seeds, cardamom seeds, cinnamon sticks and heat about 30 seconds, tossing and shaking. You want it to get nice and reddish brown.  You are roasting the spices, and it's going to smell amazing.  Let the spices cool for ten minutes and then blend together into a powder in a coffee grinder.
4. In a large pot, heat the peanut or canola oil until smoking, and the potato cubes.  Cook stiring often until the potatoes turn brown, usually between 6-12 minutes.  Remove the potatoes to a bowl.
5. In the same pot, now cook the onion until it is good and golden brown, 4-10 minutes.  Remove the onions.
6. Remove the chicken from the marinade (reserve the marinade, you will need it later). In the same pot, brown the chicken thighs, about 3 minutes to a side.  
7. In the same pot, add the potatoes, onions, reserve marinade, other half of the coconut milk can, and the handful of chopped cilantro to the chicken.  Stir well.  Simmer on very low heat for 15-25 minutes, mixing every once in a while.
8. Serve immediately with hot rice.

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes Indian Style

Aloo Chokha - Spicy Mashed Potatoes

You can look up a good Aloo Chokha recipe on the internet fairly easily. It is Indian style spicy mashed potatoes.  My version, inspired by Sanjeev Kapoor in his How to Cook Indian cookbook, is below.  I cook this for my family, and at first my children were 'disturbed' at the different color of the mashed potatoes.  They were dubious... to say the least, but one taste and they realized how good they were.

INGREDIENTS

6 small potatoes, boiled and mashed.
2 tablespoons of mustard oil or vegetable oil*
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds (crushed)
2 dried red chilies, stemmed and crushed
3 medium red onions, chopped fairly fine
3-4 green chilies, stemmed, seeded, and chopped. (Use Serrano for heat or Anaheim for mild flavor)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground roasted cumin
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed, or 2 tablespoons of minced garlic from a jar
1 teaspoon amchur powder (dried mango powder)
1 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Chop, boil, and mash the potatoes.  Set aside.
2. In a large pot, heat the oil.  When smoking, add the crushed coriander seeds and crushed dried red chilies. Cook for just a 10-15 seconds, 
3. Add the onions, green chopped chilies, ground coriander, ground roasted cumin and saute until the onions are golden brown (3-8 minutes depending on your pan and heat.)
4. Add the garlic and stir.
5. Add the mashed potatoes and mix well.
6. Add the amchur powder and salt and mix well.
7. Serve hot!

*I don't use mustard oil very often.  It adds a specific flavor to the food, but it's hard to get so I just use vegetable oil.  If you do get mustard oil, make sure you get the oil specifically for cooking, and get it 'refined' instead of filtered.

Chicken in Cilantro

Chicken in a Cilantro, Spinach, and Mustard Sauce

This chicken recipe is inspired by the version in Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking.  It produced one of the most uniquely tasting meals I’ve ever had and was a hit with my family. A definite repeat contender.

INGREDIENTS

• ¼ Cup of Vegetable Oil

• 3 bay leaves*

• 6 green cardamom pods

• 1-inch stick of cinnamon (broken up).

• 5 whole cloves

• 2 dried red hot chiles whole

• 2 pounds of boneless chicken**

• ¼ cup of Raisins (This is part of Madhur Jaffrey’s recipe, and I include it here for her sake, but I don’t use the raisins.)

• 6 tablespoons of plain yogurt

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• Freshly ground pepper

• ¼ teaspoon of Cayenne pepper

• 2 tablespoons of chopped minced ginger or ginger paste

• 1-2 green chilies.  (If you want it hot, use Serrano or Jalapeno, if you want it milder, use 2 big Anaheim chilies.  I use Jalapeno for hot, and Anaheim for mild.  Serrano has less flavor to me and is just more for ‘heat’.) 

• 2 cups of chopped Cilantro leaves (Loose)

• 1 bunch of fresh Spinach Leaves (Washed, and stems trimmed)

• 3 tablespoons of mustard (probably a brown mustard like Gouldens, Dijon, etc, but you can use regular yellow mustard (and I have) if you need to).

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a wide skillet, heat the oil. 

2. Add bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, and red chilis.  Cook for a10 to 15 seconds, until the bay leaves start turning brown. This goes quick.

3. Add the chicken pieces, and brown on both sides (this is usually about 3 minutes per side. If you use the thighs like I do, it goes really quick).

4. Add in the raisins (if you are using, I don’t), yogurt, 1 teaspoon of salt, fresh pepper and cayenne. Stir well.  Bring to a simmer.

5. Simmer on low gently for 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, put the ginger paste into a blender and add green chilies and cilantro.  Blend until chunky, then add the spinach.  Using spatula to push it down if you have to blend until you have a nice chunky puree.  You don’t want to liquefy it.

7. Add mustard and an extra dash of salt if you want to the green creamy mixture.  

8. When the chicken is done, 15 minutes or so, add the green sauce to the chicken directly.  Stir it up.  Bring to a simmer again, cover and cook a bit more, maybe 10 minutes. 

9. Take out the bay leaves, the cardamom pods, pieces of cinnamon and whole cloves and whole chilies (if you can find them).  

10. Serve immediately, usually with rice.

A note on the spices – Indian cooking often starts by putting spices into hot oil, which creates a great aroma in the kitchen. In this recipe, we use bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and chilies.  This is the more ‘authentic’ way of doing things and offers a different taste.  Having said that, if you don’t have these items, you can still cook this whole recipe and get a very similar taste, by using normal Spice Island brand spices.  Do it this way:

Ingredients

3 Bay leaves 

• 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon of ground cloves

• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of onion powder

• 1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix the spices together and rub into the chicken well with your hands.  Heat the oil, and brown the bay leaves as above, and then brown the spice rubbed chicken.  The rest of the recipe goes as normal.

*There are Indian Bay leaves and there are regular Mediterranean bay leaves (which are the common ones you get in the United States grocery stores).  When I make this recipe I use the Mediterranean version available in the USA.  Some Indian Cookbooks are going to suggest you special order the Indian Version.  As of the time of this writing, December 28, 2013, I have never done so, just using regular bay leaves.

**Madhur Jaffrey uses a whole chicken here cut into pieces, but I almost never do that.  Instead I prefer boneless chicken thighs for all my meat.  Sometimes I’ll use chicken breasts, but less and less so.

Chicken and Andouille Smoked Sausage Gumbo - Polish Kielbasa

Cooked this soup the other day, and it's the second time I made it. First time was 10 years ago and I can't remember much of how it turned out only that I never made it again, so that tells you something.  This one was quiet a bit different than what I remember, and from all reports from my family, was very good and should be cooked again.  The inspiration for this Gumbo came from Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen.  

Ingredients
3-4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs
Salt
Garlic Powder
Cayenne
1 Yellow Onion Diced
1 Red Bell Pepper Diced
3-4 Stalks of Celery Diced
Flour
Salt, Garlic Powder, Cayenne
Vegetable Oil for Frying
Chicken Stock (Probably 7-8 cups worth)
Garlic
1 pound of Polish Kielbasa. I use Hillshire Farms.

I'm a huge fan of Polska Kielbasa. My mother used it all the time and I love it.  Not many people I know eat it though, but once they taste it in my food they can't get enough.  I use in my famous Jambalaya as well.  Great stuff.

Here is how to cook this great Gumbo:

Start by  seasoning the chicken as you see fit.  We suggest salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder, but it doesn't matter.  Then dredge in flour that has also been heavily seasoned.  Flour should be orange in color!  Then fry in the oil till done, about 5 minutes per side.  Remove and drain on paper towels.

Now the core of the gumbo is the ROUX.  If you want to spend some time online looking on how to make a roux, I would think that was a good idea. I'll give you a basic idea here:  Drain off all the oil but leave the crumbs and bits in the pan.  Pour 1/2 a cup of oil back into the pan, and heat it till it's freaking super hot!  Then slowly whisk in (be careful, very hot and scorching) 1/2 cup of flour.  Keep whisking until roux is dark red brown, then add the diced vegetables. Be careful it doesn't burn here.  I've burned it before, so you have to start over if you screw this up. 

Then cook the vegetables, 5 minutes.  In a separate pot, heat the chicken stock (I made mine using a pressure cooker via the Modernist Cuisine method, which provided amazing flavor. I think there is a recipe for it somewhere on this site.  Let me look.  Nope.  But there is this:  Brown Pork Stock.  That will teach you the basics.  I just put a lot of chicken legs into a pot, filled it with water, added onions, celery, and pressured cooked it for 2 hours.  Amazing stock! And the chicken meat from the leg was great in the Gumbo.

Anyway, heat the stock to a boil, then add by the spoonful the roux.  When that's done, chop up the chicken and add it to the pot, add the sausage (chopped up) and garlic, then simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.  There you go, you have gumbo.  Salt and Pepper it to taste.

One day I should make a study of Gumbo and cook a lot of different versions.  But for now, this was great and eaten heartily by everyone. I poured it over white rice.

Leek and Potato Soup

Leek and Potato Soup

There are a lot of basic recipes for Leek and Potato Soup.  The best one I've eaten in a while is a very simple version inspired by Julia Child.  We cooked this tonight it got rave reviews.  I will definitely cook this again.

4 Cups of chopped leeks (white parts and tender greens)
4 Cups of diced potatoes
8 cups of water (Make sure to use water, not chicken broth).
2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 cup of cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

1.  Chop the leeks and wash them thoroughly of dirt - Add to large soup pot.
2.  Dice potatoes, add to soup pot.
3.  Add water to soup pot
4.  Add Salt
5.  Bring to a boil.
6.  Simmer 30 minutes
7.  Add soup to a blender or food processor and blend till smooth.  This has to be done in batches.
8.  Add soup back to pot. 
9.  Add cream
10.  Salt to taste
11.  Heat and serve immediately.

Amazingly simple and tasty.  Damn.  A great meal.

Sookhe Masale ka Murg - Dry Masala Chicken - Indian Food

Sookhe Masale ka Murg - Dry Masala Chicken - Indian Food

By Pushpesh Pant

Last night my son pulled this book out of the pantry and said: What is this?  It's like 1000 recipes of food!  How can there be that many different recipes of ANY cuisine.  American's don't have 1000 different versions of their food!

We laughed about it.  Obviously Indian Cuisine has a lot more different choices than we do... but it does seem to be a bit much to say 1000 recipes.  And you wonder how many of these recipes have actually been tested in home kitchens.

So today, we took one of the recipes in the book, altered it some with different spices using the Sous Vide cooking method, and tried it out.  Here is what we did and I'll report the results after:

Ingredients
7 Chicken Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Canned Sliced Jalapenos 
1 teaspoon of New Mexico Chili Powder
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon on aniseed seeds
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of white pepper
1 teaspoon of red pepper
1 teaspoon of black pepper
canola oil
ghee
heavy cream
salt

1.  Mix the spices together in a bowl and then pat with your hands into the chicken breasts.
2.  Place the chicken pieces one each with 2 slices of jalapenos and 2 teaspoons of canola oil into a zip lock bag using the water displacement method to get all the air out.
3.  Preheat our Sous Vide waterbath to 62 degrees Celsius.
4.  Put the chicken into the water bath for 1.5 hour.
5.  Heat the Ghee in a frying pan.
6.  Remove the chicken (reserve the juices from each bag) and cook the chicken in the hot ghee for about 1 minute per side.
7.  Blend the juices and jalapenos in a food processor.
8.  Heat the blended juices in a small pan over the stone until hot, adding a little touch of heavy cream at the end.
9.  Salt the sauce to taste. It should be pretty damn hot from the jalapenos.
10.  Serve chicken pieces with basmati rice and lemon wedges, pour sauce of all.

So... How was it?  It turned out really great.  1 of 1000 recipes in the book is pretty good, though you should know we altered it so much I'm not sure it resembles the original much.  Having said this... I don't know that I will ever make it again. It was great, but didn't leap out as overly incredible. I will cook this 'type' of meal again, chicken with chilis, sous vide, basted in ghee, but I will probably change the spice mixture quite a bit as I go.

Jan Smith's Cooked Salsa

My Mom made what I consider the best salsa in the world. I just loved it.  She cooked it, and canned it, and I loved it.  God rest her soul. I finally found something resembling her recipe in her notes.  I gave this a try, and the first time out of the gate it was good... but I'm thinking of ways to tweak it, which I will mention below:

• 4 Lbs of Tomatoes (I used Petite Cut Hunts Canned Tomatoes) - Fresh would probably be better, unless you get those nasty tasteless bastards.  If you use fresh, cut them up in the Cuisinart.  
• 2 Onions Minced (Cuisinart)
• 1 Red Bell Pepper (Red ones are sweeter.  They say they taste the same as green ones but that is bullshit.  Red ones are more expensive, but red ones ARE sweeter.
• 1 Small Can of Diced Green Chilis (I would definitely increase this next time and use a large can.  It was just too small).
• 1  Jalapeno chopped (I would use a small can of diced Jalapenos next time)
• 1  Tbsp of Garlic Minced
• 1/8th a cup of Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoon of Salt
• 1 Handful of Cilantro (I'm thinking of add this after I cook it)
• 1 Tablespoon of dried Oregano
• 3/4 cup of distilled white vinegar (I might try a bit LESS of this next time)

In a large pot combined it all and bring to a boil.   Cover and simmer 5-10 minutes.  That's it!

So there it was.  Great salsa.  When I try it again adjusting things here or there, I'll let you know how it turns out.