Butter Chicken!

Wow, I just did it - I made butter chicken! I think I was intimidated by its exotic flavour, but it turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. I did have to make a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few spices, but I'm glad I gave it a shot! (When I told my friends, they were all in awe that I had even attempted to make it, lol.)

Anyway, I used a recipe called No-Butter Chicken from Food Network. Check out the link here. I wish I had taken a picture of it before I had devoured most of the dish!

It was quite (hot) spicy, although I would consider myself to be one to able to take spice quite well. Maybe it was the combination of all the spices? The flavour was not bad, but I thought the cumin was overpowering (then again, it could be the garam masala recipe that I used, which also had cumin in it - see my last post) and that the sauce was too thick. Overall, I think I would give this a 3.5/5. I think the quantities of the various spices needs to be tweaked a little. Or maybe, Butter Chicken needs butter after all? I will keep you posted on this matter, folks ;)

As a side note, I had the Spicy Sweet Potato Soup (see my last post) for lunch yesterday and today, and as I had suspected, the more I have it, the better I think it tastes!

Another side note: One of the commentators on the Allrecipes web site (where I got the Garam Masala recipe) suggested using the Garam Masala with a bit of brown sugar to make "chai tea". I just tried it and definitely would not recommend it. The spices did not dissolve and instead sank to the bottom, so that the last few sips were extremely spicy. I must admit that the flavour did somewhat resemble that of chai tea, though. But remember, chai tea is, well, a tea (with dried leaves/plants that will infuse your drink with flavour), and this, a mixture of spices. That is my suggestion, anyway.

So that is it for tonight, my fellow chefs. I hope you all have a wonderful evening, and until next time!

-Kitchen Girl

In case you were wondering

Good morning to you all!

For those observant folks out there who noticed the time stamps of my posts and are wondering why I posted four blogs in a matter of a few minutes, I had another blog page and decided to change my site and transferred all my other posts to this one. 

Anyway, I thought I'd tell you about a really interesting soup I made last night. The soup is called Spicy Sweet Potato Soup. I decided to post the recipe here since I'm going to make a few references to the ingredients and quantities.

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup (link)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon grated lime zest

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter

1 lime, juiced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

salt to taste

1 large roma (plum) tomato, seeded and diced

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, stir together the sour cream and lime zest. Set aside in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to blend.

2. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add sweet potatoes, and chicken stock. Season with cumin, chili flakes and ginger. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

3. Puree the soup using an immersion blender or regular blender. If using a counter top blender, puree in small batches, filling the blender just a bit past half way to avoid spillage. Whisk peanut butter into the soup, and heat through. Stir in lime juice and salt.

4. Ladle into warm bowls, and top with a dollop of the reserved sour cream, a few pieces of diced tomato, and a sprinkle of cilantro.

As you can see from the list of ingredients, we've got an unusual (in my opinion) combination of flavours. But do not be intimidated. The end result makes me reminiscent of a Thai dish (what with the peanut and lime flavours). Further, this was very quick and easy.

I did, however, make some changes. First, I microwaved the sweet potatoes on high for 4 minutes to reduce the cooking time. Second, I replaced half of the chicken broth with water to reduce the sodium content. I did not add any salt in the end, and I think the soup might have been too salty if I did not make the substitution. Next, I halved the peanut butter because I was wary that the flavour would be overpowering. Lastly, I did not use cilantro because I had none.

I would rate this 3.7/5 because I am not very used to the flavour combination. The good points are that it is very quick (took me about 20-25 minutes total) and easy. Also, it makes for a good winter meal because the spices really warm you up. Of course, the health factor is important, too. I think after having this a few more times, I would give this a higher rating. As a final note, I would really recommend the sour cream topping and make sure you use lime (or lemon) zest and not juice! I think it would really compromise the flavour.

-Kitchen Girl 

Things I'd like to make

1) Sushi - Definitely at the top of my list! So expensive, yet (seemingly?) simple. Can't wait for the price of avocados to go down, though.

2) Butter chicken - Mmm.. Who can resist the rich, succulent flavours of butter chicken? I've found a few recipes that look really good. Seems like they all require garam masala, an Indian condiment. I just found a pretty simple-looking recipe on Allrecipes. 

Easy Garam Masala (link)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions: 

Mix cumin, coriander, cardamom, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg in a bowl. Place mix in an airtight container, and store in a cool, dry place. 

 

3) Poulet au Paprika (Food Network) - I've got all the ingredients! Can't wait to try this one! It's got red chili flakes (my current fave condiment). Just wish I wasn't at work now so I could get the chicken thighs out of the freezer to defrost.. Actually, I wish I wasn't at work, period. Lol ;)

Feel free to comment below and let me know what you'd like to make! 

-Kitchen Girl

My sister is one lucky gal

.. because she's got a sister who loves to cook! I made her pasta for breakfast. 

I made "Bow Ties with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream". To see the recipe, click here.

Anyway, I decided to make this because I boiled some pasta a week(?) ago and wanted to make some sauce for it before it goes bad. 

This was a simple recipe and I didn't really make any measurements, only "eyeballed" the amounts. I also added a few extra sprinklings of garlic powder, a dash each of dried thyme and ground white pepper. Also, I didn't have any Italian sausages on hand, and used chicken hotdogs in lieu of them. I would rate this 4/5 because I had to tweak it a bit. 

By the way, this recipe calls for crushed red peppers, which is my current go-to ingredient to give any dish a bit of a kick. I loves it! 

Alright, folks. Until next time and happy cooking :) 

-Kitchen Girl

As promised!

Good morning! Hope you all are having a fine start to your day.

Okay, now to finally divulge the details of my horrendous first attempt at chocolate lava cake. Why was it horrendous? It was not horrendous in taste, but texture, because my "cake" was actually nothing short of a chocolate soup. I kid you not! Literally, soup!

After pondering for weeks (again, I kid you not), I finally figured out where I made some (pretty major) blunders. First, the unit of chocolate in the recipe is in ounces, and unfortunately, this term is foreign territory for me. [ How many people have a scale in their kitchen for measuring food, I ask you? Not many, I can say with almost 99% certainty. I like to use measuring cups. There is no ambiguity in them, they are very economical, and not least of all, they're universal! Okay, I should stop. I'm just looking to put the blame on someone else. The errors were purely my fault :P ] 

So anyway, without a kitchen scale, I had to resort to looking for the metric equivalent on Google. I believe I used approximately 1.5 cups of chocolate discs (same thing as chocolate chips, only they're shaped as discs). Also, the recipe stated the oven temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius, and usually when recipes do that, the Celsius value is stated in brackets. This particular recipe did it the other way around, and had the Fahrenheit in the brackets, like such "200 C (400 F)". Not noticing the units, I baked at 200 F for 20 minutes, when I was only supposed to bake for 12 minutes. When I removed the "cakes" from the oven, and realized in dismay what they looked like, I added a couple of heaping spoonfuls of flour in an act of desperation [ who would want to throw out chocolate ]? I baked for yet another 5 minutes. The result was very "flour-y" cakes, not only in texture, but also in taste! Yes, the taste of the flour was very apparent. So alas, I had no choice but to throw them out :(

For my second attempt, my coworker so happened to have given me a bar of chocolate for Valentine's Day, and I had noticed on the wrapper that it is 3.5 ounces [ ounces ]! So, as mentioned in my previous blog, I scaled down the recipe, and baked at the correct temperature of 400 F, and the cooking time of 12 minutes was perfecto. I really recommend you give it a try :)

-Kitchen Girl

The turnout

Okay, so as promised, I am going to describe what I actually made tonight and how everything turned out (and also what happened in my first attempt at chocolate cake).


First things first. I made:


Salmon Wellington (Food Network) - Wow, everyone was very impressed with this! So what this dish is, for those of you who don't know, esentially salmon wrapped in a puff pastry. This recipe has some fancier additions: a creamy dill and asparagus sauce and asparagus "logs" topping the salmon, all of which is wrapped in a puff pastry. The only downfall was that the very middle of the salmon was undercooked, even though I had cooked an extra 10 minutes at 350 F. I don't know how I can avoid that problem next time, but I will most definitely be making this again!! My family and I agree this is a close second - second only to the potato-crusted salmon by Michael Smith (F/N) - in all the salmon recipes I've made. 5/5


Sauteed mushrooms (enoki and crab) and spinach - My own creation :) Just added a few teaspoons of olive oil to a skillet over medium-high heat, and sauteed some frozen chopped spinach. Once the spinach had wilted a bit, I added the mushrooms. When the mushrooms developed a golden colour, I added a splash of white wine, waited for the liquid to absorb, and added a generous sprinkling of roasted garlic seasoning, salt and pepper. Very easy! 4/5


Butternut squash soup (Allrecipes) - I think that I have made this so many times now that I refer to the recipe less and less everytime I make this. A mistake on my part. I have a penchant for thick, creamy soups, but without following the recipe, the soup was too thick, a problem that is easily rectified with the addition of water. Note to self: follow recipe next time. Flavour did not fail to disappoint. The only issue was the consistency. 3.5/5 (Don't get me wrong. This is only based on today's turnout. Again, I've made this recipe before with stellar results.) 


Molten heart chocolate cake (Food Network) - A success (this time)! However, even though I scaled the recipe down to yield 4 servings, unfortunately, even then, there were leftovers. Everyone was full from dinner! That aside, the "heart" was indeed molten and it was the level of sweetness! The recipe calls for semisweet chocolate and I only had dark chocolate, so I used the actual amount of sugar stated in the recipe. (Normally, I use about 3/4 of what recipes state - personal choice as I don't like my desserts to be too sweet.) Did I mention that it was a cinch to make? Always a bonus, of course! I have a photo of a half-eaten cake, which I promise to post eventually. (Be forewarned that I have a poor track record with posting photos in a timely manner, though, haha.) 4.5/5


So all in all, a good turnout tonight and I am definitely pleased with myself. I know I promised to share my disastrous first attempt at the chocolate cake, but it is late and I'm sorry, but I am going to have to save it for next time (again)!


Hope you enjoyed reading. Good night! 

xo

-Kitchen Girl

My first blog!

So this is it, my first blog! Welcome! I'm going to introduce myself as "Kitchen Girl". I should have started blogging a long time ago, but not being a big "techie", I found the whole idea more than a little daunting. (Not that I tried to even figure out how. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually is!)

Anyway, as the title of my blog suggests, the purpose of my blog is to document my "adventures" in the kitchen. Specifically, I intend keep a record of the recipes that I've made, as well as their results. I think this is now the perfect opportunity to give a little opener about myself.

As you may have already suspected, I love to cook. I have been cooking for years, but haven't yet gained full confidence (or the expertise) to come up with my own creations. So approximately 75% of what I make are things that I find on the Internet, namely the Allrecipes and Food Network websites. I have tried dozens of recipes, but up until this point, hadn't been recording which ones I had made. Of course, this puts me at risk of making a so-called "bad" recipe more than once, which is why I'm doing this!


Now that you're all up to speed with respect to why I'm doing this, I'm going to stop jabbing mindlessly and get down to business!


So tonight, I plan to make: 


Avocado Stuffed Yams, Allrecipes (link) 


Butternut Squash Soup II, Allrecipes (link) - I've made the Butternut Squash Soup many times in the past, and everyone in my family has loved it. As an added bonus, it is easily adaptable to the ingredients you have on hand and nutritious! 


Salmon Teriyaki, Foodnetwork (link) 


OR 


Salmon with Cheese Sauce, Food Network (link) 


Molten Heart Chocolate Cakes, Food Network (link) - I've attempted at this recipe before but it was an epic fail! I'll explain why later.


I will fill you in on how my dinner turns out! On a side note, I'll also have to figure out how to change the background. The bookcase theme is not the most fitting for my blog, is it? Haha.

-Kitchen Girl