Indian Night: Dal Nirvana, Butter Chicken, Rice Pudding

Last Wednesday was Indian night at CA's. We made dal nirvana, butter chicken, and rice pudding in her tiny kitchen. All three dishes began at the same time, which was fine because the rice pudding was still warm when we were finished eating everything else. Considering the size of her kitchen, we were also efficient and didn't even bump into one another.

We didn't make the naan from scratch this time. I ended up buying some fluffy pita bread on my way home from work. When I was in the bakery area of the grocery store, I couldn't find Greek pitas anywhere. It's a great substitute for the pricey naan (President's Choice brand - 2 for $2.99). I stumbled upon some pita bread (8 for $2.69) and figured it would be fine to get them instead of the naan. The pita breads that I bought were closer to Greek pita breads than it was to the thin pita breads I'm used to. It was more cost efficient too. Second carb option: check.



Simplified Butter Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small onions, finely diced
1 tsp sugar
Tandoori masala and sour cream to taste
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil (vegetable oil is fine too)

The chicken breasts were trimmed of the connection tissues and then diced. Tandoori masala was mixed with the chicken breasts to briefly marinate. I'd recommend you do this the night before and then leave it in the fridge overnight, if you have the time.

In a medium-sized pot, the ginger, garlic, and onions were cooked with the olive oil and a bit of butter over medium-high heat until fragrant. (The oil is there to prevent the butter from burning.) The diced tomatoes and sugar were mixed in. Then I seasoned everything in the pot with tandoori masala to taste. The contents were simmered on medium heat for about 5 mins.

The briefly-marinated chicken was added to the pot and cooked for about 10 minutes. Once all of the chicken was fully cooked, the sour cream was added to taste. After getting a second opinion and one final taste, we adjusted the flavour with more tandoori masala. The heat was turned off and then served with steamed rice, warmed flatbread, and dal. I'll get to the dal in a bit.


We had a few issues with the butter chicken. The first problem was that I forgot to drain the diced tomatoes. The addition of water made the sauce really watery, so to thicken it, we made a slurry of water and cornstarch*.
*When we made the slurry, we tempered the slurry instead of mixing it into the butter chicken right away. We added a few spoonfuls of cooking liquid to the slurry to bring up the temperature. After the slurry and cooking liquid was mixed thoroughly together, a few more spoonfuls of cooking liquid was mixed in and then everything was added into the pot. If we tried to mix in the slurry directly into the pot without tempering the slurry, the slurry would've cooked soon after being poured in.

The second issue was that we used yoghurt instead of sour cream. At first, we tried adding a few spoonfuls of 0% fat yoghurt but that separated soon after we mixed it into the butter chicken. (0% fat yoghurt? Does not compute...) The pot was taken off the heat too. We added 2% fat yoghurt afterwards and it didn't separate as easily.



Dal Nirvana
Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes' version

1 can brown lentils
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch ginger, minced
1½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp olive oil
½ cup cream

Since the canned lentils were already cooked, we first cooked off the garlic and ginger with the olive oil and a little bit of butter over medium-high heat until fragrant. The canned of diced tomatoes (seasoned with black pepper) was mixed into the pot and was allowed to cook down for about 5 minutes.

The drained and rinsed lentils were poured in with the cumin and cayenne pepper. The heat was turned down until the lentils gently simmered. Everything was cooked for about 10 minutes.

The cream was stirred in when most of the liquid reduced to a creamier consistency. We tasted the lentils and then adjusted the flavour one final time before serving with steamed rice, butter chicken, and warmed flatbread.



Rice Pudding
Recipe adapted from All Recipes' version of Indian rice pudding (kheer)

2 cups coconut milk
2 cups milk
3 tbsp sugar
¼ cup basmati rice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup dried cranberries

In a small pot (which was able to hold 5 cups of liquids), the coconut milk, milk and sugar was brought to a simmer over high heat. The basmati rice was stirred in once the milk just before the contents began to boil. Cinnamon and nutmeg was stirred in and the heat was turned down to a gentle simmer.

With the pot uncovered, the contents were allowed to cook for about 15 minutes until the rice was cooked. Once the contents had reduced to a creamy consistency, the pot was taken off the heat. The dried cranberries were mixed into the rice pudding and then covered the pot with the lid. The pot of rice pudding waited patiently off the heat as we ate our entrée.

Butter chicken: Done.

Dal: Check.

Steamed basmati rice: Yup.

Pita bread: Lightly toasted and buttered.

CA, JL, and I plated up as we continued our conversation. We didn't even stop at all. We passed the plates back and forth in a coordinated dance.

Service please! *Ding* Oh wait... we're the servers too.


We sat down and took a few photos before we began eating. Since we thickened up the watery butter chicken with cornstarch and also used yoghurt instead of sour cream, I felt like the flavour wasn't as rich as the last time I made butter chicken. I tried my best to adjust it with more tandoori masala and salt, but it wasn't the same. CA, AA, and JL were fond of the butter chicken though.

The dal was pretty good. I ended up adding a bit more cumin at the end, which I regretted. The cumin was on the stronger side. I think the dish needed diced onions and bursts of fresh cilantro.

There were enough leftovers for two generous lunch portions.


The table was cleared and then we brought out the warm rice pudding. I wouldn't call it an Indian rice pudding though, since we omitted the spices. Hahaa! The rice pudding still looked great in the glasses. The pudding wasn't overly sweet and the addition of coconut milk added a nice touch of richness. The flavour of the coconut milk was in the background and complimented the cinnamon and nutmeg pretty well. I was skeptical of the flavour combinations when I heard the recipe at first but it worked.

We washed down the rice pudding with green tea -- not very Indian, we know. It was still a fun night of cooking and catching up. From start to finish, it only took us about an hour and a half to make the three dishes. Not bad at all.

Scratch-Made Butter Chicken and Naan

A few years ago, we took all of our younger cousins out to the Museum of Science and Technology. On our way home, we swung by the Indian Express and picked up some butter chicken and naan to eat at a park. At a later date, AU and EU both helped me make butter chicken from scratch.

Since then, AU and EU have repeatedly asked me if we can make butter chicken again.  They were in luck. I went grocery shopping and picked up some ingredients to make naan and butter chicken.

EU was very enthusiastic and wanted to be in charge of the naan making, so I supervised him as he measured out the ingredients to Life Tastes Good’s Home-made Naan recipe. We doubled the recipe since we had nine mouths to feed. The dough was allowed to rest for an hour. The following recipes are the approximate values that we added…

Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival 2011

The 18^th annual Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival officially begins on Saturday! Lucy and I have volunteered for the past three years but have never gotten the chance to fully enjoy the actual dragon boat racing event. I can’t wait until the races begin this year because I’ll be getting the opportunity to ride in the media boat and take photos of the racers. Wahoo!

Since this is a food blog, I scouted out the food and drink vendors that will be at the festival.

This weekend weather forecast calls for a sunny 25 degrees Celsius – and that’s without humidity. No worries. There are plenty of places where you can purchase some cool drinks… like this Lemon Heaven stand.

I like the looks of this stand much better. Ah, I should probably mention that they also serve diabetic lemonade diabetic-friendly lemonade.

(I just went on their website and found out that they do sell mini donuts called “Cin City Donuts” – but not at the festival. Whyyyyyy? Do you remember how awesome the mini donuts at Costco [it was then called Price Club] were? Mmmm…)

There was only one Magnum ice cream stand that I spotted. I’m assuming that there will be more. Speaking of ice cream, I saw a Dippin’ Dots stand. The first one I ever saw was at the First Markham Place. True story.

It should be no surprise that Pizza Pizza is around. They make and bake all the pizzas on site.

Last year, Lucy and I each got a slice of pizza for dinner. The slice had a bit of extra sauce and the pepperoni was baked to a nice curly crunch. I love when the pepperoni gets crunchy. It makes the pizza so much more flavourful. Luck was on our side last year, cause our slices were taken off of a freshly baked pizza. So not only were my components of my slice of pizza spot on, but it was a hot slice of pizza. We washed the tasty slices of pizza down with some ice cold lemonade from Lemon Heaven. That was probably the best slice of pizza Pizza Pizza I've ever had.

The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival begins at 7am on Saturday. I'm not sure if this waffle stand will be open that early, but it would be a great bite in the morning if it will be. I don’t think they sell chicken and waffles for lunch/dinner, which would be awesome. Can someone bring me some fried chicken when they come visit? Please?

Fridays Organics have been around for quite a few years now. Lucy and I had some of their burgers last year and they weren’t impressive at all.

I remember seeing Stone Soup Foodworks at the Ottawa Race Weekend two weeks ago. I’m not sure if they’ll be serving the same things the whole weekend, but on today’s menu: white gazpacho, green dragon, and strawberry, melon and ginger soup; shredded chicken taco and organic refrito tacos; organic iced tea, local rhubarb ginger cordial, cookies and water.

One stand that was a bit of a head scratcher was the Seafood Macs stall. The only item I remember seeing on their board was shrimp ceviche.

There was a stand serving authentic Indian food. Butter chicken, chickpea curry, samosa, naan bread, basmati rice were on the menu today. They also had some water and Gatorade… I didn’t know Gatorade was Indian… =]

Beside the Indian food stand sits The Piggy Market. I only remembered two things from their menu, sausages and pulled pork sandwiches.

For those who love Thai food, there’s a food stall called Cuisine Thai. It wasn’t open so I don’t know what they’ll be serving this weekend.

I remember seeing this stall during the race weekend as well. They serve smoothies and fruits with chocolate.

The festival’s largest sponsor, Tim Hortons, has a large tent. They’ll be serving coffee, decaf coffee, and iced coffee – all for $1. All of the proceeds will be going back to the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. It's too bad they don't have any muffins, donuts, or timbits.

You know what's missing? A bubble tea stand. They don't even need to serve slushies. There's also a lack of Chinese food. I digress.

This stall sells pita wraps, french fries, and poutine. I bought my dinner from here.

I was expecting something flavourful, but the chicken was dry and bland. If it hadn’t been for the sautéed onions, the whole thing would’ve been bland. The tzatziki-like sauce wasn’t very good. I definitely needed the lemonade to wash every bite down. The lemonade tasted a bit weird. I can’t put my finger on the type of sugar they used. It didn’t have that aspertame aftertaste, but it tasted like they used some sort of sugar substitute. Oh… maybe they lady gave me a diabetic-friendly lemonade when I asked for their original lemonade. Bleh.

In terms of food and drink stalls, that’s pretty much it. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the beer tent. So back to the food, the average price is $7. I suggest you either eat before or after you go to the festival. Or better yet, bring food and have a picnic on the giant hill! Something like: Fresh French bread, genoa salami, havarti cheese, grapes, and peaches…

Anyway, come join the festivities! Admission is free and so are the OC Transpo shuttle buses. You should take advantage of the free shuttle buses, too, because there will be no public parking available.

… So come on down!



Wanna see some of the action shots I got? Go to my Flickr page or just skip to the dragon boat festival set that I created.

Windmills Café: Dim but Delicious – January 31, 2009

I briefly considered skipping over this set of pictures because of the crappy quality. I am not a good photographer, by any means. When tourists ask me to take their picture, I always wonder if they’ll end up with a shot of my finger, or if I’ve accidentally cut someone out. It seems like all of the compositional skills went to Christine. Couple that with my arsenal of below-standard cameras (see note on the left-hand side), and you’ve got yourself some incredibly grainy shots of... actually, I can barely make out what I photographed! It was incredibly dark in the restaurant, which I think is my only complaint.

But I figured I don’t ever remember to take pictures when I’m dining out, so I might as well post these pics and write a short blurb. Anyway, ignore this post if your eyes are prone to bleeding after being assaulted by bad pictures.


Jimmy and I have been ignoring non-Asian restaurants because they are just too expensive. I can either choose a $28 steak dinner for one person, or spend $28 IN TOTAL for an appetizer, three entrées, drinks, tax, and tips (I am referring to Little Saigon’s dirt cheap menu, by the way) which fills two people. Although we went to the Keg a month before, my taste buds were dying for something not based on soy, oyster, or fish sauce. We decided on Windmills Café.

Every time we visit Windmills, we order their mussels. One night two or three years ago, we had their house mussels (double-smoked bacon in a white wine broth), and I just about swooned. So far, we’ve enjoyed every version they’ve made. This time around, we ordered one that we’ve ordered before—mussels with chorizo. I think it’s called the Portuguese. The dish is packed with flavour and spices from the chorizo, and I’m so happy they bring it out with a basket of bread. We ended up asking for another basket of bread to soak up the mollusc juice. Incidentally, we inhaled this appetizer before I remembered to bust out my camera phone, so no pics. Oops.

Jimmy wasn’t feeling particularly hungry that night, which is shocking, for anyone who knows him, so he ordered the charcuterie plate. It had some tangy cured duck breast, buttery prosciutto, spicy salami, fragrant pâté, and gamey venison sausage. The plate also came with slices of baguette and some tasty little olives. Jimmy didn’t like the duck breast because it looked raw to him. I happily devoured the little slices of slippery meat. He did love everything else. He mentioned that they were all salty (duh, it’s CURED) which means instant win in his books. Any other day, I would have stolen his plate for myself, but lucky for him, my food arrived an instant after his.

I ordered the salmon with some sort of glaze (apricot?). It came with sautéed vegetables and basmati rice. I remember the dish struck a delicate balance between salty, sweet, and tangy. The salmon was perfectly cooked, more fluffy than flaky. I loved the just-barely-cooked vegetable sticks. They were tender on the outside and crunchy through the middle. I know one was carrot, but I’m at a complete loss as to what the other vegetables were. One of the white ones tasted... earthy. Like celery root, but less celery. Similar to fennel, but minus the anise flavour.

Anyway, I loved the dish. It was a dish that demonstrated the skill of the chef who came up with it. The flavours complemented each other in every forkful. Often in a dish that contains so many flavours and textures, some parts begin to blend together. Here, the salmon was perfectly salty, the rice perfectly fluffy and fragrant, the vegetables perfectly crunchy and buttery, and the glaze perfectly sticky, sweet, and tangy. I found a dish that appealed to my taste buds as well as my appreciation for creativity. For the moment, it’s my FAVOURITE fusion dish. Definitely a must-try.

For dessert, we ordered the crème brûlée. (Yes, this is already half-eaten.) It’s one of my favourite desserts to order and also happens to be the one for which I have the highest standards. I prefer a room-temperature custard with a crispy, and not crunchy, topping. The custard had obviously been in the fridge (cold ramekins) before they blowtorched the sugar, so it lost a few points with me. However, the top half of the custard was warm from the aforementioned blowtorch, making me very happy. The topping wasn’t quite crispy, but it wasn’t crunchy either. It was... crinchy. Too thick to be crispy, too thin to be crunchy—I think my made-up word does it the most justice. The specks of vanilla were enough to make Jimmy happy.

Our bill with tax and generous tip came to $66, which I didn’t mind forking over. The menu tends to run on the pricey side, so we normally save Windmills for a special occasion. I suggest going for brunch or lunch, if you don’t mind waiting for a table. The dishes give you more bang for your buck, and the lighting is much better. Being able to see what you’re eating is always a good thing.

Fin.

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Windmills Café
184 Princess Street
Kingston, ON
(613) 544-3948

Homemade Butter Chicken - Nov. 28th

Unlike the last time we had butter chicken, we didn't use a pre-made sauce. After talking with someone at work about the butter chicken we had, she was told that we needed tandoori masala, sour cream (or plain yogurt) and cream to make butter chicken from scratch. So being the person she is, my mom decided to go out, buy everything we needed, and try making it for herself. For about $3.00 at an Indian grocery store, we got this jar of tandoori masala. [I'm not sure what the address is, but it's across the colisseum on Carling. I'll find out where it is and add it on later.]
We had bought some cream, sour cream, and (a whole) chicken on the weekend and we still had some leftover naan that was in the freezer, so we had everything we needed.

To start everything off, we made some rice. We then cooked the chicken and added the tandoori masala to the chicken after it was cooked. Once we did that, cream and sour cream was added to finish everything off. We tasted it and I thought the flavour was weak, so I threw in more of the tandoori masala. We made sure to not boil the mix, because we didn't want the milk products to split.
My dad wanted more sauce so more cream was added to this. We turned off the heat and tossed the defrosted naan into the 350 degree oven.

The rice finished cooking, so my dad added a couple of chunks of frozen coconut milk and butter to the rice. Oh yeah, and I threw in butter in the chicken mixture... which made... Butter Chicken!! Yay!

"You can't have butter chicken without butter", I said, before adding some into the chicken mixture.

I prefer and suggest that you all go out and buy some tandoori masala or garam masala at an Indian grocery store to make butter chicken. It's not hard. Just follow my uh.. detailed and helpful steps above. I'll try to make a better version in the future. Well it's all based on your taste buds. The spice blend had a bit of heat, which I liked. If you don't like that much heat, you can add more sour cream to cool it down. Hope that helps. ^_^

Butter Chicken - November 15th

During one of my grocery trips, jars of butter chicken sauces on the shelf caught my attention. According to the instructions, all you had to do was cook some chicken and then add the sauce. Easy enough. I picked up a jar and some chicken thighs (among other things) and headed home.

A couple of days later, I planned to make naan to go with the butter chicken. I had a recipe but I didn't have everything on the list. So my dad bought some naan from the grocery store.

We browned the chicken thighs, some garlic, and some onions. Once the chicken was cooked, the sauce was added.

While simmering the butter chicken, I took some naan and warmed them up in the oven. Oh, I forgot to mention, we made rice and added some coconut milk and butter at the end to give some flavour.

The chicken wasn't dry because I let the chicken fully cook in the sauce. That's my tip for those who like moist chicken; lightly brown the chicken and then let it cook in a liquid.

The naan was amazing because it was so fluffy and warm. I'm sure homemade naan is better, but for now, this did it. I was very hungry that night, so I thought it was very good. However, my dad suggested that we should've simmered the sauce a bit more, to concentrate the flavour.

Kare Raisu - September 22, 2007

Check out our most recent post (2010) about kare raisu here.


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Growing up, we never ate Japanese curry at home. We always made it Southeast Asian style, with coconut cream, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves. I didn’t think I was missing out on much, until Jimmy made Japanese curry. A rough list of ingredients below:


2 tsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 package medium tofu, diced
½ cup frozen peas
2 large potatoes, cooked and diced
2 ½ cups water
1 package Glico brand curry sauce

1. Sauté garlic and onions in vegetable oil on medium-high heat.
2. When the garlic and onions become fragrant, add the chicken breast.
3. Cook chicken breast through, about 5 minutes.
4. Add tofu, peas, potatoes, and water. Bring to a boil.
5. Break up curry blocks into small chunks. Add to pot.
6. Stir thoroughly, but gently to keep the tofu intact.
7. Turn down to a simmer. Simmer without the lid for half an hour. Sauce will thicken as the water begins to evaporate.
8. Serve with steamed, white rice.

There are directions on the back of the box, but I never follow directions closely. It’s a fool-proof recipe, as long as you don’t burn the bottom of the curry. Yuckers.

I expected some sort of sickly sweet curry, for some reason. I suppose I dismissed Japanese curry because it doesn’t have coconut cream – my favourite part. Japanese-style curry tastes closer to Indian-style curry. The spices were stronger, most notably the cumin. It was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper good!

I had also never eaten tofu in curry before, and it ended up being my favourite part of the curry. Talk about surprising!

The sauce was creamy and thick, perfect for the rice. Personally, I think the consistency of the sauce is just as important as the taste. The flour in the curry sauce block did its job well. Yay, flour!

This is a dish that improves the next day. I had a small bowl for lunch today, and the flavours really matured overnight. The curry taste only lingered on the tip of the tongue yesterday, while today, it spread all over my mouth. I was in curry heaven! And the tofu! Oh, I love tofu that’s been stewed. Yummy gelatinous blobs of non-meat substance!

The only thing that disappointed me was the spiciness. The box says that it’s spicy, but I didn’t feel the burn at all. Maybe I’ll add some minced Thai chili next time. I’ll have to play around with the ingredients a bit, but it’s definitely something I’d make again. Now I understand what the hype is about in Japanese anime. Japanese curry is a new favourite!


Fin.