Moving on from the buttered chicken recipe which we did last week we are now moving on to the sauce and you will need.
12 Large tomatoes, you may be better to use 20 as you can freeze the sauce for another time
50 grams Butter
4 Green cardamoms
1 gram Mace
1 tea spoon Garlic paste
1 tea spoon Ginger paste
Salt to taste
1 tea spoon Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tea spoon Fenugreek leaves
1 table spoon Honey
3-4 table spoons of Cream
So for the sauce, the tomatoes are cut in half with the seeds and stems removed, chopped up and placed in a bowl then liquidise to a smooth puree. It actually turns in to a lightish pink colour and thats fine.
In a large sauce pan, gently heat the butter and then add the mace and green cardamoms until they become fragrant, then add the garlic and ginger paste and saute for a couple of minutes. Now add the pureed tomatoes add a pinch of salt and lastly the kashmiri chilli powder. Continue cooking for 15-20 minutes on a low heat, stirring gently. The sauce will reduce and become a thicker.
The final part of the sauce is to add in the honey, cream, chopped fenugreek and gently cook for 5 mins and you are done. There is a lot of work in deseeding the tomatoes and making the puree but it is well worth it, this is a delicious sauce, thats why its worth making a large batch of it and freeze what you do not need.
For those of you who would prefer REAL rice "Basmati" as opposed to off the shelf products here is how to cook it.
I use 2-1/2 cups of rice for 3 people and add twice the amount of water 5 cups. Firstly rinse off the rice in cold water to remove the starch.
Bring the pan of water to the boil add a pinch of salt and the rice. Once the water comes back to the boil, stir the rice gently then reduce the heat to low and place the lid on the pan. leave for 10 mins and drain of any excess liquid and leave standing for 5 minutes. Rice is very delicate and is steamed not boiled contrary to what the advertisments tell you, thats why the heat is turned down as low as possible.
So the rice has been left for the 5 minutes, place it in your bowl serving dishes or what ever you have at hand, add the chicken and pour over the sauce. This is a very rich and tasty sauce you will not need to smoother the whole plate with it, believe me.
Enjoy.
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Aaaaaahhh Food
Well earlier today I was bemoaning the fact that I had to write another blog and it is not the writing or sitting down to put something on paper as it were. It is finding something which I find appealing and would like to share with others. So after my initial comment made to my good friend Caroline, she turned to me and stated that you should write about the chicken you cooked. Honest, and it got me thinking, so here it is. One recipe of many.
Those of you who may know me better than others would also know that I'm handy enough around the kitchen and to be honest "Paretos Principal of 80/20" is alive and well in the Brown house hold with Mr Brown doing the much larger share of the cooking, this is actually true. Seldom is a packet opened in this household and where ever possible the freshest of ingredients are used. So today I am going to share with you a dish which is a thing of colour, beauty and taste. I can sense you licking your lips and the mouth salivating at the thought of what is going to follow. Today the main course on the menu is BUTTERED CHICKEN. The days of the Raj are back.
Instead of listing a whole load of ingredients in a column I shall list them as they are needed, its easier on the eye
Marinade the first of two
500g Chicken Breasts
1 Tea spoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
Salt to taste
2 table spoons Lemon Juice
Here we go, cut the chicken into 1.5" cubes and pierce in several places with a fork, place in a large bowl and add the Chilli powder, salt and lemon juice. Mix and marinade for an hour.
Marinade number two
1/2 cup of thick yogurt
2 tea spoons of ginger paste
2 tea spoons of garlic paste
1/2 tea spoon of Kahmiri red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon of Garam masala
1/2 tea spoon of Mustard oil
Salt.
This is one of those jobs where everything is placed in a bowl and evenly mixed together nothing more nothing less. Once mixed add it to the initial chicken marinade and mix well together. the longer this is left the better the marinade and taste. It is probably best to start the whole process in the morning, using the first marinade for an hour then adding both the marinades together for the remainder of the day in the second marinade. Until you are ready to cook for dinner.
The secret of cooking this chicken is to place it on a wire grill and place the grill in a roasting tin or tray, all the juices fall into the tray. Make sure the chicken is smothered in the yogurt marinade and place it in the oven for 20-25mins. Remove from the oven and devour. This is simple to enjoy with lemon juice sprinkled over it and served with a salad, Nan bread, pitta bread or what ever takes your fancy.
In the next couple of days I will add the recipe for the sauce and beautiful basmati rice. MMMmmm, no boil in the bag substitute here, just the real thing.
Those of you who may know me better than others would also know that I'm handy enough around the kitchen and to be honest "Paretos Principal of 80/20" is alive and well in the Brown house hold with Mr Brown doing the much larger share of the cooking, this is actually true. Seldom is a packet opened in this household and where ever possible the freshest of ingredients are used. So today I am going to share with you a dish which is a thing of colour, beauty and taste. I can sense you licking your lips and the mouth salivating at the thought of what is going to follow. Today the main course on the menu is BUTTERED CHICKEN. The days of the Raj are back.
Instead of listing a whole load of ingredients in a column I shall list them as they are needed, its easier on the eye
Marinade the first of two
500g Chicken Breasts
1 Tea spoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
Salt to taste
2 table spoons Lemon Juice
Here we go, cut the chicken into 1.5" cubes and pierce in several places with a fork, place in a large bowl and add the Chilli powder, salt and lemon juice. Mix and marinade for an hour.
Marinade number two
1/2 cup of thick yogurt
2 tea spoons of ginger paste
2 tea spoons of garlic paste
1/2 tea spoon of Kahmiri red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon of Garam masala
1/2 tea spoon of Mustard oil
Salt.
This is one of those jobs where everything is placed in a bowl and evenly mixed together nothing more nothing less. Once mixed add it to the initial chicken marinade and mix well together. the longer this is left the better the marinade and taste. It is probably best to start the whole process in the morning, using the first marinade for an hour then adding both the marinades together for the remainder of the day in the second marinade. Until you are ready to cook for dinner.
The secret of cooking this chicken is to place it on a wire grill and place the grill in a roasting tin or tray, all the juices fall into the tray. Make sure the chicken is smothered in the yogurt marinade and place it in the oven for 20-25mins. Remove from the oven and devour. This is simple to enjoy with lemon juice sprinkled over it and served with a salad, Nan bread, pitta bread or what ever takes your fancy.
In the next couple of days I will add the recipe for the sauce and beautiful basmati rice. MMMmmm, no boil in the bag substitute here, just the real thing.
Thursday, 7 November 2013
How to Host a meeting
And we thought it was all over, IKEA, that is. Like a lightning bolt hitting the Bippers, no one saw it coming and when it hit, it hit hard. You could feel the universal groan in the room. It was magic, the upside is we were given the option to choose our own team mates and what a team. Every one of us in good form and happy to help and listen to the various views of one another, it doesn't get much better than that. No "El Ducie" on board here, just team members with good common sense spread amongst the whole of the group, with someone taking a lead here and another taking the lead there. Things are looking good.
Those of you who keep in touch with the world via the amazing twitter will know that the male members of team Compas, had a team meeting on the 200 acre parkland's known as Millicent G&CC and to be honest it was a tough meeting as the wind was blowing like a gale. But what a great way to get to know people, walking the fairways of the golf course and having one of those long forgotten skills that mean so much, a good conversation, the golf course is the perfect place to do it. We covered the finer aspects of the team task and how we would be moving forward with all of the various aspects of the team task. This is by no means done and dusted, as we will be meeting with the ladies of the group to confirm our discussions and listen to their opinions and comments, will speak with you both on Monday, Caroline and Otterly.
But back to the important stuff..........The golf, well the wind was as I mentioned earlier blowing a gale, but men being men it didn't deter us, the sun was shining and the lads were smiling. It was a mixed bag of a day with some cracking drives and some not so good. Andrew for a fella who hasn't played in years was striking the ball like a pro, just a shame about the direction, all the same a beautiful ball striker. Paul was hitting the ball for ever and blended with a good short game it was a great mix. Unfortunately they were no match for team Seve and Mike, who managed to scrape the win, but we all won today, good company, good golf and a good day had by all. On a final note, the best putt of the day was by Andrew on the par 3 15th, down the hill and into the center of the cup, a great putt. talk about the good and the bad, the worst putt was again by Andrew on the 18th par 5, down the hill. You guessed it, as the "Bay City Rollers" sang, Bye, Bye baby, Baby, Bye, Bye down the hill past the hole and ended up further away then it started. Some days are great. This was one of them.
Those of you who keep in touch with the world via the amazing twitter will know that the male members of team Compas, had a team meeting on the 200 acre parkland's known as Millicent G&CC and to be honest it was a tough meeting as the wind was blowing like a gale. But what a great way to get to know people, walking the fairways of the golf course and having one of those long forgotten skills that mean so much, a good conversation, the golf course is the perfect place to do it. We covered the finer aspects of the team task and how we would be moving forward with all of the various aspects of the team task. This is by no means done and dusted, as we will be meeting with the ladies of the group to confirm our discussions and listen to their opinions and comments, will speak with you both on Monday, Caroline and Otterly.
But back to the important stuff..........The golf, well the wind was as I mentioned earlier blowing a gale, but men being men it didn't deter us, the sun was shining and the lads were smiling. It was a mixed bag of a day with some cracking drives and some not so good. Andrew for a fella who hasn't played in years was striking the ball like a pro, just a shame about the direction, all the same a beautiful ball striker. Paul was hitting the ball for ever and blended with a good short game it was a great mix. Unfortunately they were no match for team Seve and Mike, who managed to scrape the win, but we all won today, good company, good golf and a good day had by all. On a final note, the best putt of the day was by Andrew on the par 3 15th, down the hill and into the center of the cup, a great putt. talk about the good and the bad, the worst putt was again by Andrew on the 18th par 5, down the hill. You guessed it, as the "Bay City Rollers" sang, Bye, Bye baby, Baby, Bye, Bye down the hill past the hole and ended up further away then it started. Some days are great. This was one of them.
Monday, 4 November 2013
Breaking it all down
I enjoyed today, its strange how things just sort of fall into place. But let's not forget there has been significant amounts of work done by everyone on the courses and if they were anything like myself with bits of paper, notes, scribbles and edited work here and there it would appear to be some what disorganised at times.
Coming to terms with the IKEA project/problem and understanding the content, context, scope and throw in a few ideas you suddenly realise how big and complex it is. But that's hows things are, a huge amount of time spent trawling the tens of thousands of pages regarding IKEA was by no means an easy feat for most of us and the real challenge was sorting the wheat from the chaff. But still, we all managed to add a bit here, another bit added there and then suddenly it all falls into place. As Frank mentioned in our first lecture "Don't Panic" my personal eureka moment was the sudden realisation that the breaking down of the problem into smaller chunks and then start the grinding and writing and it finally emerged as a body of work, with more work and edited, it became something of which I'm very proud. So with that our first project submitted, a significant milestone has been met and a job well done to everyone.
Moving on we now have the second part of the IKEA project with 5 new team members to work with and a due date, just around the corner. The 30 minute SFS presentation, due in 3 weeks I believe, with myself and team being group 1. The harmonics feed back from 2 or 3 team members along with working through the next dozen pages or so. The additional work on our Linkedin profile working with 1 or 2 of our colleagues to review same, challenge and support. There is also the small matter of a couple of exams and a huge amount of reading and revision. There may be one or two other bits and bobs which need attention to also.
Will we all do it.................Absolutely, we have all achieved so much to date in this being our 6th week, but more importantly, we have completed the first goal which was the IKEA project. There is still a significant amount of work to do all we have to do is work through it. All we need to do is break it down.
Coming to terms with the IKEA project/problem and understanding the content, context, scope and throw in a few ideas you suddenly realise how big and complex it is. But that's hows things are, a huge amount of time spent trawling the tens of thousands of pages regarding IKEA was by no means an easy feat for most of us and the real challenge was sorting the wheat from the chaff. But still, we all managed to add a bit here, another bit added there and then suddenly it all falls into place. As Frank mentioned in our first lecture "Don't Panic" my personal eureka moment was the sudden realisation that the breaking down of the problem into smaller chunks and then start the grinding and writing and it finally emerged as a body of work, with more work and edited, it became something of which I'm very proud. So with that our first project submitted, a significant milestone has been met and a job well done to everyone.
Moving on we now have the second part of the IKEA project with 5 new team members to work with and a due date, just around the corner. The 30 minute SFS presentation, due in 3 weeks I believe, with myself and team being group 1. The harmonics feed back from 2 or 3 team members along with working through the next dozen pages or so. The additional work on our Linkedin profile working with 1 or 2 of our colleagues to review same, challenge and support. There is also the small matter of a couple of exams and a huge amount of reading and revision. There may be one or two other bits and bobs which need attention to also.
Will we all do it.................Absolutely, we have all achieved so much to date in this being our 6th week, but more importantly, we have completed the first goal which was the IKEA project. There is still a significant amount of work to do all we have to do is work through it. All we need to do is break it down.
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Digital Marketing
We touched once more on the intricacies of "Digital Marketing" and I suppose if I'm truely honest and open, none of us would have considered any of the topics we have covered so far. The depth of the content to day was enormous and the ability as a Marketing Company to engage, plan and promote in the various digital medias we have covered so far, is vast.
And this is just the begining, any one marketing their business or service has to find their way to potential customers using a website and or other digital media. A web site is purely a web site, it can convey a message but as Noaimh stated clearly "Who is creating the message and to who." Frequently it is the web designer as they are the tool or skill base to get the site onto the web. But the web site designer is not the professional to market the product or service to potential clients.
People who are marketing their business using a web site should engage a qualified web site developer and work hand in hand with the designer during the course of the project, we have the skills of the web designer beside us to guide us through the pros and cons of web design, but we must also consider the user interface, ease of use, speed, content, target audience, styling, colour and the list goes on and on. It is by no means a perfect science and I have no doubt that there are Companies and individuals who have invested significant sums into web design, but have totally missed their target. Great looking web site, but no content, no customer engagement and no customer return.
At the backend of the web site we also have the functionality and options to review the traffic of the website and how they engaged within the site, what did they look at, what did they see, and did they as a consumer enjoy and or engage with the site. Having the ability to understand how potential consumers engage within the site can tell those who understand the clues they leave behind huge amounts of information.
The big question is, can we as digital marketing people understand and act on, the clues which the site visitors leave behind, thats the key.
Monday, 21 October 2013
BIP Moving forward.
Another morning spent with a great bunch of people and the header says it all. The topic today was the Practical Research Plan hosted and presented by the Harmonics team, John and Josephine, the morning flew by and more importantly we have all added another string to our bow's and another dimension to how we see ourselves and others.
Its interesting that all of these exercises that we have been experiencing todate, are building up a solid and practical profile of ourselves and that each and everyone of us is unique, with a multitude of skills and expertise. On a personal note I have found that the skills for success programme with Melrona and todays exercise using the Harmonics exercises truely enlightning, both underpinning and supporting each other.
Using the skills review to determine our enjoyment and dislikes of various types of job to re-establish an accurate view of who and what we are, was a clear and defining moment for me. Listening to John's reiertation of his life story also touched a nerve with one or two things in the content, but more importantly for me the exercise has even at this stage proven to determine where my personal and enjoymant skills lie at this time. Like the funnel of ideas which is mentioned in our Innovation class, the exercise today has channelled my specific skills into a certain arena and one which I know I can build on with ease and confidence.
I am very fortunate, I recall a recent conversation a couple of months a go with a friend playing golf as it happens, when we were discussing what I, (Michael) would do, given the opportunity to do what I felt I do best. It's truely amazing as it's the same thing which we touched in the first week with Melrona, if you recall it was the first thing which entered your mind, which we then wrote down. I believe two weeks later we covered something similar in another class, the Myers Briggs type indicator and just for good measure we have covered it using another and more drilled down and qualifying technique.
Moving forward I cannot wait to see what the future holds, I can see where I will be going and am looking forward to the future classes which I know will enable myself and all of the BIP students gain the skills to succeed in each of their endeavors.
Michael R Brown
Its interesting that all of these exercises that we have been experiencing todate, are building up a solid and practical profile of ourselves and that each and everyone of us is unique, with a multitude of skills and expertise. On a personal note I have found that the skills for success programme with Melrona and todays exercise using the Harmonics exercises truely enlightning, both underpinning and supporting each other.
Using the skills review to determine our enjoyment and dislikes of various types of job to re-establish an accurate view of who and what we are, was a clear and defining moment for me. Listening to John's reiertation of his life story also touched a nerve with one or two things in the content, but more importantly for me the exercise has even at this stage proven to determine where my personal and enjoymant skills lie at this time. Like the funnel of ideas which is mentioned in our Innovation class, the exercise today has channelled my specific skills into a certain arena and one which I know I can build on with ease and confidence.
I am very fortunate, I recall a recent conversation a couple of months a go with a friend playing golf as it happens, when we were discussing what I, (Michael) would do, given the opportunity to do what I felt I do best. It's truely amazing as it's the same thing which we touched in the first week with Melrona, if you recall it was the first thing which entered your mind, which we then wrote down. I believe two weeks later we covered something similar in another class, the Myers Briggs type indicator and just for good measure we have covered it using another and more drilled down and qualifying technique.
Moving forward I cannot wait to see what the future holds, I can see where I will be going and am looking forward to the future classes which I know will enable myself and all of the BIP students gain the skills to succeed in each of their endeavors.
Michael R Brown
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