Evergreen's Chicken Tikka Masala

The Eugene Weekly's seasonal printing of "Chow: Guide to Food and Restaurants" is well known in these parts. In my opinion, it's the best printed resource for finding the new and tasty places to dine at that you've been missing. The Winter 2009 issue came out a few weeks ago, and this time they included some of the best recipes from local restaurants. The recipes varied from the relatively simple salsa verde to the WTF-worthy braised short ribs with mashed celeriac. But there was one gem that really stuck out.

Everyone in Eugene and Corvallis knows that Evergreen is the place to go for lunchtime Indian buffets. And it would be my guess that they all know that the thing to get is the chicken tikka masala; it's definitely the dish of choice for all of my friends. So to say that I was happy to see the recipe for it printed in the EW would be a serious understatement.

Here's the recipe, typed up by me for your enjoyment.

Chicken Tikka Masala from Evergreen Indian Cuisine
(Photo by Michael Hays and yoinked from Wikipedia)

Evergreen owner Meeraali Shaik came to the U.S. in 1990 and worked as a cook for nine years before opening Evergreen Indian Cuisine in Corvallis in 1999. The Eugene location opened in April of 2007. Manager Usha Shaik says this dish is one of their most popular. They grind and prepare all of these spices fresh each day.

Part A:

• 2 lbs of boneless chicken breast, cut into 4" pieces
• 1/4 c yogurt
• 3 tsp ginger paste
• 3 tsp garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp each: cumin, coriander, curry powder, garam masala, turmeric
• 3 tsp lemon juice
• 4 tsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp salt
• Skewers
  

Part B:

• 3 tsp butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 tsp ginger paste
• 2 tsp garlic past
• 2-3 cloves
• 2 cardamom pods
• 2 green chilies (they use chopped jalapenos)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tomato
• 5 oz tomato sauce
• 10 oz tomato puree
• salt to taste
• 2/3 c cream
• 1 c milk
• handful of chopped cilantro

Whisk all of the ingredients in part A into a large bowl (the ginger and garlic pastes can be made in a blender) and add the chicken. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.

The next day, put the chicken on skewers and cook in a tandoor (clay oven) for 10 minutes. (If you don't have a tandoor, cook in your home oven at 350 degrees until chicken is cooked through.)

While chicken cooks, make the sauce. In a pot over high heat, add the butter and chopped onions from part B. Fry the onions until golden, then add the ginger and garlic paste. Cook for one minute, then add the cloves, cardamom, green chilies and everything from part B except the cream, milk and cilantro. Cook on low heat until the sauce thickens. Add the cooked chicken, milk and cream to the sauce and stir. Cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Serve with hot basmati rice and nan bread. Garnish with the cilantro leaves.

I have not yet made this recipe, but if it really is what they make at Evergreen, I can say without hesitation that it warrants some delicious grub. I hope to get a chance to make it sometime soon.

Roast Chicken

There's something a little magical about cooking a whole bird. For some reason I feel a satisfaction when roasting and carving a whole chicken that I just don't get from cooking various pieces. Cooking the bird whole is more rustic and authentic, I guess. And it's far more cost effective when compared to buying your chicken in pieces. With the right recipe, it's really tasty too.

What is it, then, that keeps people from roasting a whole chicken?

When I was younger, digging out the giblets hidden in the bird's cavity was a real turn-off. I have to admit that there is still something rather unappealing about sticking my hand in a cold dark cranny to pull out strange bits of squishy meat. If you're feeling squeamish, you can get most of it out by turning the chicken head end up and giving it a good shake.

The idea of "trussing" the chicken may intimidate some. Trussing a chicken just means tying the carcass with butcher's twine so that it will cook more evenly, keeping the legs and wings from drying out. It's not as difficult as it looks.



The last time I cooked a whole chicken, I didn't have any butcher's twine. I just tucked the wings under like you can see in this video and it turned out just fine.

I tried this recipe out this past Sunday. I can't wait until I can make it again.

Thomas Keller's Favorite Simple Roast Chicken Recipe

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Salt and pepper the cavity, then truss the bird. Trussing is not difficult, and if you roast chicken often, it's a good technique to feel comfortable with. When you truss a bird, the wings and legs stay close to the body; the ends of the drumsticks cover the top of the breast and keep it from drying out. Trussing helps the chicken to cook evenly, and it also makes for a more beautiful roasted bird.

Now, salt the chicken—I like to rain the salt over the bird so that it has a nice uniform coating that will result in a crisp, salty, flavorful skin (about 1 tablespoon). When it's cooked, you should still be able to make out the salt baked onto the crisp skin. Season to taste with pepper.

Place the chicken in a sauté pan or roasting pan and, when the oven is up to temperature, put the chicken in the oven. I leave it alone—I don't baste it, I don't add butter; you can if you wish, but I feel this creates steam, which I don't want. Roast it until it's done, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove it from the oven and add the thyme, if using, to the pan. Baste the chicken with the juices and thyme and let it rest for 15 minutes on a cutting board.

Remove the twine. Separate the middle wing joint and eat that immediately. Remove the legs and thighs. I like to take off the backbone and eat one of the oysters, the two succulent morsels of meat embedded here, and give the other to the person I'm cooking with. But I take the chicken butt for myself. I could never understand why my brothers always fought over that triangular tip—until one day I got the crispy, juicy fat myself. These are the cook's rewards. Cut the breast down the middle and serve it on the bone, with one wing joint still attached to each. The preparation is not meant to be superelegant. Slather the meat with fresh butter. Serve with mustard on the side and, if you wish, a simple green salad. You'll start using a knife and fork, but finish with your fingers, because it's so good.

This recipe was amazing. I read a suggestion in it's comments that I would highly recommend. Use a broiler pan instead of a traditional roasting pan. Line the bottom of it with tin foil, and then lay slices of a potato out over the foil. Return the top part of the broiler and place the chicken on top of that. Because you are cooking the chicken at such a high temperature, it is likely that the grease may burn and fill your kitchen up with smoke. The potato slices will absorb the grease, keeping it from burning and setting off your smoke alarm.

I think this would be great served with Mom's garlic mashed potatoes and a salad along side. I can't wait!

Smokin' Hot!

I decided that ye olde Cast Iron Maiden blog deserved one more post before 2008 comes to an end. I feel bad that this blog has mostly been ignored since its conception, especially since the blog has such a clever and witty name. Cast Iron Maiden?! C'mon, it doesn't get much better than that.

Recently I've been pretty much obsessed with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage series of TV shows and cookbooks. Hugh is a British celebrity chef known largely to his "back to basics", "real food" campaigning. He's a large supporter of buying only free-range or organic meats and practicing nose-to-tail eating philosophies.



Basically, he's a cooking bad ass.

In an episode of 2007's River Cottage: Gone Fishing, Hugh fashions an on-the-go smoker out of an old tin bread box. Personally, I've always thought smokers to be complex things which only should be handled by the manliest of men, the BBQ Kings. Smoking meat seemed to be right there with muscle cars, cheap beer and lawn maintenance. Imagine my surprise to see Hugh, with his glasses and luscious locks of hair, smoke a freshly caught fish without batting an eye lash. Obviously, smoking meat wasn't just for the BBQ Kings.

In fact, slow drying in the sun or by a fire has been used for food storage in cultures the world over. While today we largely use smoking to enhance flavor and texture, prior to refrigeration it was immensely important in preserving perishable foods. Humans have been smoking meat and fish for as long as we've been doing just about anything. You can read more about the history of smoking here.

Seeing that my ancestors were probably smoking meat successfully hundreds and hundreds of years ago, I decided to give it a try. If cavemen can do it, so can I, right?

It turns out that, for once in my life, I was right. Smoking is really really easy. When you get down to it, smoking food is a pretty simple concept that only needs a few key elements. You need a heat source. You need something to smoke. You need a container to contain your smoke. It turns out that building a homemade smoker is really easy too. In the episode of River Cottage: Gone Fishing that inspired all this, Hugh fashioned a smoker out of an old metal bread box which he placed over a fire. My smoker has a few more parts, but not many. My container is a metal trashcan (new, in case you were worried). I used a hot plate for my heating element and purchased some hickory wood chips to provide the smoke. Drill a few holes and add a BBQ rack, and you too could have a homemade smoker. While I didn't follow the directions on this website, the smoker here is almost identical to the smoker I made.

Upon completing the smoker, I smoked a pound and a half of salmon and two turkey thighs. Getting them up to temperature (150 F for salmon, 165 F for turkey) took several hours but the taste was sure worth it!

If you decide to do some smoking yourself, here are a few tips:

• Soak your chips! Unsoaked chips will not smolder and smoke as well as wet ones. Soak chips for at least 30 minutes prior to smoking. If you don't use your chips all at once, keep them in water. They will dry out and leave you smokeless when you least expect it!
• Think salt! Smoke and salt are a match made in heaven. Consider the salt content of the meat you're about to smoke. Turkey, which is injected with a salt water solution, will be tasty placed straight in the smoker. Other meats may need to be salted, cured or even brined. Check out this smoked salmon recipe from Alton Brown for an example of curing!
• Experiment! Keep in mind that humans have been successfully smoking meat for centuries without recipes. Don't be afraid to try something new!