Chicken Tikka & a Winner's Ribbon!!

We are not experts on the grill! That was once again proved on the 4th Of July weekend, when I decided that we would try our hands at grilling again! But this time I chose Tandoori delicacies as our food. So a lot of work went into it for marination and prepping the meat. We planned ahead as to how we would light the charcoal and how long we will wait etc. We lit the coal successfully and waited for the time specified on the instructions. I set out to do the cooking whereas JM and the lil one were walking around taking pictures. This time I thought I was super patient and allowed a long time for the food to get cooked. After the long wait, these tikkas looked perfect and so I served them and saw that it wasnt cooked on the inside! JM was disappointed. He was saying if we cant eat grilled food then and there, what was the point of grilling!! Anyways, since the recipe actually had instructions on baking in the oven, I came back home and popped them in the oven. Within 15 minutes, I had beautifully cooked chicken tikkas and tandoori chicken, all hot and delicious from the oven. I will post the pictures and recipes of the Tandoori Chicken and Paneer tikkas shortly. So if you are an expert on grilling, try these on your grill, otherwise trust me, the oven baked ones taste just as good, if not better!! It sure was deeelicious!! You can use these tikkas to make tikka masala too! And the pictures JM took, I loved them!! :-) Enjoy!!

Recipe (Serves 4) :

Skinless chicken breasts - 1 lb 2 oz (500g)

Wedges of lemon - for garnish

Marinade:

Paprika - 1/2 tbsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 2 tbsp

Tandoori food coloring - 1/4 tsp

Lemon juice - 1 1/2 tbsp

Garlic cloves - 4, roughly chopped

Ginger - 2" piece, roughly chopped

Cilantro leaves - 1/2 cup, chopped

Thick plain yoghurt - 1/2 cup

Method:

For the marinade, blend all the ingredients together in a food processor until smooth or chop the garlic, ginger and coriander leaves more finely and mix with the rest of the marinade ingredients.

Season with salt, to taste.

Put the chicken cubes in a bowl with the marinade and mix thoroughly.

Cover and marinate overnight in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 400 F.

Thread the chicken pieces onto four metal skewers and put them on a metal rack above a baking tray.

Roast, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and bowned around the edges.

Serve with wedges of lemon.

Source: The Food Of India by Priya Wickramasinghe.

Tips:

1. I only chopped the ginger, garlic and cilantro finely before adding to the marinade.
2. I didnt use paprika, but only chilly powder and red food coloring.

As many of you know, I participated in the Great Cooks Community: Kid Friendly Cooking event and had won the third place. I would like to thank everybody who showed their support by voting for my entry : Black Forest Cake. I received the third place winner's ribbon yesterday, and would be more than happy to show it to everyone. Some friends were interested enough to ask me about the competition even after the voting was over. Once again a big thanks to friends and family who supported me whole-heartedly.

I am sending the tikkas to the "Eat Healthy Protein Rich" event at Sangeeth's Art of Cooking Indian Food.

I am also sending this to the "Swiss National Day" event at 1x umrühren bitte. See you tomorrow with a new recipe! Have a nice day!!

Roasted boneless leg of lamb

I have been wanting to make a traditional American meal on a special holiday for some time now. But at the last minute, I would always go back to my comfort zone of Indian specialities like biriyani. This year I was determined to test my skills with a roasted lamb recipe. As with everything new to me, I searched on the Internet for recipes that I thought would best suit my needs ( I wanted to make a boneless leg of lamb) and my family's tastes. After reading through more than 10 recipes or so, I finally decided on a recipe from another blog. It involves some pre-planning because the lamb has to be marinated in herbs, lemon juice and wine. But the next day, I could see that it was well worth the trouble of all the prep. My husband, who is always conscious about his food portions, ate like anything ! The lamb was perfectly cooked, moist and flavorful with a nice crust. So I thought that it is only just to share the wonderful recipe with you all. Please visit startcooking.com for the recipe. I found the step-by-step instructions to be very helpful with a lot of tips everyone could use, especially newbies like me. It also has several pictures illustrating the tips. Above all, I found that the combination of the herbs and marinade to be in perfect blend with our tastes. I am sharing the pictures of my first attempt on roasting the lamb. I sincerely hope that the pictures will inspire you to prepare this wonderful dish, especially if you have never tried roasting before. May it be the perfect introduction to roasting !!

Tips:

1. I cooked the lamb (4.25 lbs) until medium doneness which is about an internal temperature of 160F (approx around 1hr 40 min). I removed the roast at about 155F and the temperature rose to 160F while resting.
2. A detailed table of cooking times, temperatures and other instructions can be found at the original website.

Lemon roasted potatoes

I made the lemon roasted potatoes for Easter, the perfect accompaniment to roasted leg of lamb. The preparation time is not much, and the roasting time would come to about 25-30 minutes. The recipe given below includes the quantities that I used along with the duration of roasting. Please refer to the tips for the actual recipe.

Recipe (Serves 2)

Idaho potatoes - medium (1 lb)

Extra virgin olive oil - 1/8 cup

Fresh lemon juice - 1/8 cup

Dried oregano - 1/4 tbsp

Kosher salt - 1/4 tbsp

Black pepper - freshly ground - 1/16 tsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Method:

Pre heat oven to 500 F.

Place the potatoes in a baking dish.

Add water, lime juice, olive oil, oregano, salt and a pinch of pepper.

Bake uncovered in the pre heated oven for 10 minutes.

Toss around the potatoes and roast 10 more minutes. If all the water has been evaporated, sprinkle a bit of water.

Once again toss the potatoes around, for even browning and keep them in the oven for 5 more minutes.

The potatoes are ready when they are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife and brown on the edges.

Serve hot, garnished with oregano.

Source: The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook 1200 Collected Recipes.

Tips:

1. The actual recipe called for 4 lbs of Idaho potatoes, so multiply the quantity of the rest of the ingredients by 4.
2. Cooking time in that case would be approximately 40 minutes. Turn the potatoes halfway through for even browning.
3. I used 4 medium sized Golden Yukon potatoes (1 lb) and cut each into 12 cubes.
4. Kosher salt can be substitued with an equal amount of regular salt.
5. 1/8 cup = 2 tbsp
6. 1/4 tbsp = 3/4 tsp