Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cooking, eating, Joy had by all!

Greetings from the Kitchen of Good Queen Lyn...
One of the things that my Prince Charming gave to me on the day that we celebrate our Dear Savior's birth, is a "game" that is used on the Nintendo DS, Called Personal Trainer: Cooking. This is NOT your Cookin' Mama.
The game has "Real" recipes from all over the world. So I asked the Girl and Prince Charming what they would like me to experiment with first. They both said, "Anything you want."
So, since we can go out anytime and get adequate Chinese food, I decided to pick something completely foreign to all of us. CURRY.
So I picked the United Kingdom, and found a recipe for Chicken Tikki Masala, which is England's national favorite dish. So with The Girl loving everything British, right now, I picked that.
I got to get some new spices, Turmeric, and Garam Masala. Neither of which I have ever cooked with before.
I got some nice plump Chicken breasts, some fresh parsley, (I only needed a teaspoon, so I have a HUGE bunch that I will have to use up...)
So I make the Turmeric Rice that you are suppose to eat with the Tikki Masala. Isn't that a fun sounding name, Tikki Masala, so silly and exotic at the same time. Didn't think that was possible, did you?
The rice is sauted in butter first, new concept for me. Then you add the tumeric which turns the rice a beautiful yellow/gold, and adds a really nice perfume to the rice dish, then you add the chicken stock, and let it simmer till fluffy and done.
So, I marinate the cubed up chicken in yogurt, garlic, ginger, Gram Masala. Then made the sauce, using onions, Tomatoes, ginger, garlic, cumin, Gram Masala, and a little water. You let that get all happy in the pan, simmering while the chicken cooks in yet another pan. You add the chicken and all of the marinade and cook the chicken till not longer pink, then you add the tomato/onion sauce to the chicken. Let that all dance around the pan for a bit to marry the flavors, then Voila! The dish is complete. I was nervous to serve this to the Girl, as she can be rather picky about ANYTHING I cook. I knew that my Prince Charming would like it, and honestly it tasted much better than I thought, and I really liked it. The marinade left the chicken tender and juicy. The sauce was nice and I really liked the spice combination. So the verdict from the Girl, "Hey Mom, you can make this again!"
So we have one winner. I let her pick the next dish to try out of the recipes. With the stipulation that it not be Chinese. We have Chinese food A LOT. I like Chinese food, don't get me wrong, but the Girl could eat it day in day out, every day of the week. I can go a few months without the fix. So she chose Bacon and Potato Soup, from Germany. So will let you know how that went.


No comments: