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.
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