Murg Makhani (Butter Chicken)

I love butter chicken, or murg mahani, whenever I go into an Indian restaurant. Yes, I know that it isn't true Indian food. I am, however, Chinese and my taste buds are sadly weak when it comes to spicy food. Murg makhani is one of the few things I can eat without breaking a sweat.

I was first introduced to butter chicken when I went to an Indian restaurant while vacationing in Canada. I can't remember the city now ... it was either Quebec or Toronto or Montreal .. but either way I picked it off the menu and I was delighted by the dish.

For the uninitiated, butter chicken is basically a roasted chicken in a sauce made from butter, tomato sauce, and cream. The flavors meld together wonderfully and the taste is pure, indulgent bliss.

I had been wanting to make murg makhani for some time now but never dragged myself over to the Indian grocery store to buy the requisite garam masala. All of the other ingredients are pretty easy to find in a normal grocery store except that particular spice. I finally got around to go going to my local Indian grocery store this past weekend and now I'm all set to begin to make my butter chicken.

You need to marinate the chicken overnight. Marinating it overnight helps to tenderize the chicken. If you have a meat tenderizer you can use that too to help infuse the flavors.

I made the butter chicken and .. well, it didn't turn out as I had hoped. The curry itself was way too thick. The recipe called for 1 cup of cashew butter which was way too much. Unfortunately I didn't realize how thick the 1 cup of cashew butter would make the curry until too late. The sauce was very thick and there was no way you could eat it. I had to dilute the curry just to thin it out .. and when it was thinned out the flavor was lost. :( At the end, the taste was just ok. It could have been much better were it not for the watered down curry.

I might try to make it again one day .. but right now I am of the opinion that murg makhani may just be better off eaten in a restaurant!

General Tso's Chicken 左宗堂雞

General Tso's chicken is a favorite dish of Americans. It is ordered a lot in many Chinese-American restaurants. I think that it has to do with the love of fried food and a goopy gravy-like sauce.

Fuschia Dunlop recently did research on the origins of General Tso's chicken. It was reprinted in the NY Times. I made the recipe last night and I was very disappointed. The taste wasn't what I was expecting at all and even Ming didn't like it -- and he's very forgiving when it comes to food. Many people have raved about the recipe so it was doubly disappointing to discover that it's not something I care for at all. The flavor was very sour and, for lack of a better descriptive word, the gravy lacked soul. There wasn't any body nor depth to the gravy; it was primarily sour and hot. It was missing something crucial. I know that this recipe was the original but, in this case, I think that some tweaking of it would most definitely benefit the diners. I made this recipe exactly as stated, something I rarely do with Chinese recipes, and I think that I would have been better off doing my normal a little of this and little of that.

I have made General Tso's chicken in the past and I much prefer that taste over this one from Fushia Dunlop's original version. I use a recipe from Food Down Under but I've tweaked it.

My General Tso's Chicken
Ingredients :
4 Chicken legs, skinned & cut
2 Egg whites
2t Cornstarch
1 T rice vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1 T shao xing wine
2 t Sugar
1 t Cornstarch, mixed with water
Peanut oil for frying
3 Dried red chili peppers
1 Scallion, chopped (separate & green parts)
Knob fresh ginger, minced
1 Garlic clove, minced
2 t Sesame oil
1 piece dried orange peel
1 T oyster sauce

Vigorously blend egg whites and cornstarch; add chicken pieces and toss to coat. Heat oil in large wok and add chicken pieces in batches, cooking each until golden, about 3 minutes, then drain.

Pour off all but 1 TB of hot oil from wok. Add peppers and stir-fry for 15 seconds; add green scallion, minced ginger and garlic and stir-fry for 15 more seconds. Add mixture of vinegar , soy, wine, sugar, oyster sauce, and orange peel stirring until heated through. Add cornstarch and water mixture and stir until mixture is thickened. Off heat, stir in sesame oil, garnish with scallion greens, and serve.

Turkey Chili Mac

I'm trying to clean our our freezer right now. Our freezer generally resembles a meat locker. We've got a ton of different types of meat in it and sometimes I forget exactly whats in there. Thanksgiving is coming up and in order to make room to freeze a turkey (or two) we need to eat up some of the food in the freezer. I found ground turkey in the freezer and decided that would be a perfect item for dinner.

Cheese is not a popular item in my household. In fact, we rarely have it in the house. I decided to make a turkey chili with macaroni to use up the turkey in an easy, fast way. Since beans are as popular as cheese in my household, we skipped the beans in the chili too.

The turkey chili turned out really tasty and it was quick to make.

Turkey Chili Mac
16 oz ground turkey
4 Aidells chicken apple sausage, cut into pieces
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 c water
1 T salt
1 T pepper
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
1 t celery seed
1 T chili based spice rub (optional)
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 lb elbow macaroni

1. Brown turkey in a saucepan
2. Add onion and garlic to saucepan and continue to brown
3. Add bell pepper and sausage to sauce pan. Cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add seasonings, water, tomato sauce to sauce pan and stir. Season to taste.
5. Simmer 30 minutes. The goal is for the chili to not be too runny.
6. Cook the macaroni in boiling water for 8 minutes. Cook until al dente. Drain well.
7. Add macaroni into chili and stir (heat off.)