Chook! Tandoori!

About 1.5 weeks ago, I bought a big tub of plain yoghurt, supposedly to use it for oatmeal masque, but I don't need that much of yoghurt. Instead of wasting the yoghurt and doing nothing about it, I decided to set a new challenge in my culinary adventure; cook tandoori chicken! Despite my kitchen does not have a tandoor, and I am still having the love and hate relationship with the oven but I'm willingly to take a leap of faith and make mistakes along the way.

Getting the right ingredients, especially the spices is quite important. Please boycott marketplace at Raffles City when comes to getting spices. They're selling a small bottle of cardamon seeds at S$14.00 (7 euros) That's absolutely daylight robbery! Maybe I should post this highlight in SG expat forum or something. Anyway, I paid less than S$2 for the cardamon seeds that I used.

For the ingredients, you need cloves, chilli powder (you may use ceyanne powder), about 6 table spoon of plain yoghurt, lemon juice, cardamon seeds, coriander powder, cummin seeds, mashed garlic and ginger, salt, grounded pepper. Not forgetting, we need our dear CHOOK! Chop it! Please trim off the visible chicken fat.

Pretty easy steps
clean the chicken and stab it, strategically, of course. Mix the chilli powder, some salt and ground pepper. Massage your chicken with the mixture. Yes, after all that stabbing, you massage the chicken with love and tenderness.

Following after that, use a big container/round container. It's wise to use a container because you could just cover the container and leave it in the fridge for the marination.

Now it's time to make the key mixture which consists of yoghurt, lemon juice, cloves, cardamon seeds, cummin seeds, coriander powder, mashed garlic and ginger, grounded pepper and salt. Once it's ready, add the chicken. I wanted the dish to be slightly spicy and also to look abit more red, hence, I added abit more chilli powder.

One important tip: Marinate the chicken for at least 8 hours or overnight. (not more than 2 days) Thaw the marinated chicken for 30 minutes before grilling it.

Preheat the oven to over 450 degrees, and the cooking time is 45 minutes. Check the chicken once in awhile while it's cooking in the oven and brush it with alittle bit of olive oil after you drain the excess marinade.

Serve it with garlic couscous and some chopped yellow peppers, onions, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Time to put on some punjab music, raise your hands and move your shoulders.

Pescetarian or not

I could very well be a Pescetarian if there's no existence of bacon. Yes, the semi-crispy unhealthy bacon that comes with the very alluring smell of high Cholesterol which should be frowned upon. However, Dr Paul Hutchinson suggested a possibility of genetically modified bacon in future...grown from trees. "Ewww!" I said. Such an atrocious thought! Hopefully, I don't live long enough to be a witness of this possible shocking creation.



Stuffed yellow pepper- with bacon, garlic and couscous served with chick peas, tomato, spinach salad(with italian dressing).

Lentil-Chicken Stew

The key ingredient is fresh thyme . Yes, please throw away any dried thyme in your kitchen. No amount of dried thyme could measure up to fresh thyme or save your soul. This is a message to my colleague, Bk who is a huge fan of dried oregano. Time to switch to fresh herbs, my friend.

Ingredients
one whole chicken, baby carrots, red skin potatoes, a can of lentils, shitake mushrooms, french beans, fresh thyme, chicken broth, salt, grounded peppper, sherry wine, garlic, onions, butter

Drums rolling--
Wash the chicken, cut them into pieces. Marinate the chicken with abit of fresh thyme, salt and sherry wine. Put them aside as you prepare the rest of the ingredients; cut all the vegetables into chunky pieces.

Sauté the onions and garlic (until slightly golden brown)
Add the chicken pieces and more fresh thyme.
Please make sure you have a big enough pot. Thanks to my mom's collection, she has a pot which I believe 2 human heads could fit in.

While the chicken pieces are getting cooked, add the chicken broth (about 4 cups, I'm terrible at measurement. I've probably inherited the flaky measurement standard from my nanny)

Leave the chicken broth to boil, then add the rest of the vegetables and the lentils. Don't forget the sherry wine (about 2 table spoons) Lastly, salt and grounded pepper to taste.

Special note: To have the creamy texture-- add a bit of butter (recommended size of the butter: you can find on an airplane) before serve. If the stew is too watery, do add some corn flour mixed with water if necessary.

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: About 2 hours.
Best time to serve: the very next day with pine nuts/garlic couscous.

Verdict-- I have inspired my colleague, WC who would like to learn how to cook the dish, and another colleague, BK who kept asking me about the recipe. The rest of the subbie (my colleagues) seemed to love it. Well, truthfully, stew is a no brainer dish. It's all about cooking time. Nevertheless, stew is always a comfort food for me.