Butter Chicken

It's been over a month since my last post. Whoops! Sorry! Anyway, last week I went to TJ's (that's the fancy way of saying Trader Joe's) and bought a frozen butter chicken dish. I was inspired. For dinner tonight, I am going to make my own butter chicken. I have been looking up recipes all day, and have come to a conclusion. Butter chicken uses a LOT of spices. When I say a lot, I mean a lot of random, very unusual spices. I was able to find Garam Masala in the store, but Tandoori Masala has been proving quite an issue.  I found one recipe that I like (here), but I am going to tweak it a bit, because I can't find this tandoori spice.

Here are the ingredients I used:

1 3/4 cup butter, divided
1 onion, minced
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 (15 oz) can of Tomato sauce
2 1/4 cups milk
2 tsp salt
1.5 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs

And here is the recipe I used:

To begin, I made the heavy cream the original recipe called for. I combined the milk and 3/4 cup of melted butter and stirred until combined. It seemed easier at the time.  I also found out I could do that from this website.  ***I did this buttermilk for this recipe. It came out way too oily.  In the end, use 3 cups of milk and 3 tbsp lemon juice.  LEAVE OUT THE 3/4 CUP BUTTER.  It became way too oily and fatty, to the point that I scraped the excess fat off the dish this morning.***

Next, I got the biggest non-stick pan I had and put a few tablespoons of butter in the pan with the onions. I stirred in the onion and garlic until the onion was softened, about 5 minutes.  After those were soft I added the rest of the butter, the tomato sauce, cream and spices.  This simmered about 10 minutes.  Finally, I added the chicken, which I had cubed.  I let that simmer for 25 minutes, until the chicken was done.  When this is simmering, you have to watch to make sure the cream does NOT boil.  This will make for a nasty, separated dish.

To make sure this meal was gluten free, I served it with jasmine rice. I put 1 cup rice with 1.5 cups water in a pot and brought it to a boil.  I then covered the pot and let it cook until there was no water left.  If you taste your rice and decided you would like it cooked longer, but already took it off the heat, cover it back up and let it sit for 10 minutes.  The steam in the pot will let the rice cook for a bit longer.  (That tip was brought to you by Patrick).

This dish can also be served with Naan, a traditional Indian flat bread.  They sell an excellent one at TJ's, in the frozen food section.  I recommend the garlic flavored, it is simply so much better.

UPDATE:

So I learned the hard way that making buttermilk isn's actually butter and milk. My mom and Patrick both told me I was stupid.  I have actually made REAL buttermilk before. For every cup of milk, you add one tbsp lemon juice or vinegar.  Because I used extra butter and less milk, the result was very oily.  I put it in the fridge last night, and when I took it out this morning I cracked off the excess fat. It had hardened on the top so I was able to just break it off and throw it away.  Also, when I reheat this today, I am going to add some lemon juice.  The recipe was just lacking something, and Patrick suggested lemons. Also, I bought chicken thighs for this. I thought they went well, and they soaked up the flavor of the sauce quite well. I am a bit disappointed I didn't actually measure how much chicken I put into the sauce, though, because I have almost twice as much sauce as I do chicken. It goes great over rice, though!

Peach Cobbler

Yesterday I went to Shoppers with Bryan and Jeanine. Jeanine is my little sister in TBS, and as of Saturday, it is official! She was initiated! Anyway, I digress.  At shoppers I saw some delicious looking peaches, so I bought 4 giant ones.  Later that night, my aunt posted this recipe on my wall.  It was MEANT TO BE! As I was reading, I realized I didn't have any of the King Arthur gf baking mix that was referenced in the recipe. So, naturally, I improvised.  Instead of using the baking mix, I used King Arthur gf flour and 1 tbsp baking powder.  Ultimately, I ended up using this recipe with the gf flour substitute.

The cobbler was AMAZING.  It was a nice golden brown on the top and the inside was sweet.  Where the sugar has caramelized around the edges gave a nice crunch to the soft peaches.  The lemon juice gave a hint of tartness after you ate the peaches.  In hindsight, I think a bit more salt would be appropriate, and some nutmeg.  This was just generally under seasoned.  Also, I wish I had some blueberries present to throw into the mix.  Blueberry peach cobbler just sounds so much better.

PS. Sorry for the descriptors used above. Last weeks episode of Next Food Network Star was about using actual descriptive words (not delicious and awesome) to describe a dish. I tried my hand at it above.

 PPS. Patrick is my lovely model in the photo to the left.

Chips

So I just had this brilliant idea. I LOVE terra chips.  They are chips made from different types of root vegetables.  There is more information at the link here! My only issue with terra chips is they are SO EXPENSIVE. I mean like $5 for a normal size bag. That is too much on a college kids budget. This is where my brilliant idea comes in. I was just informed there will be tasty foods at the farmers market this Wednesday, including beets and potatoes and other root vegetables. So, I am going to make my own chips. The most exciting part of all of this is chips are almost always gluten free when made simply from vegetables.  You have to be careful with things like Pringles where they use wheat stabilizers  but most are simply vegetable, oil, and fried.

The chips will be a combination of these vegetables: Kohlrabi, beets, potato, fennel, kale, squash, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and radishes.  I think I'm just going to see what I can get from the market Wednesday and go from there.  It should be fairly interesting to see what I can come up with, though.  Anyway, I am going to toss these with olive oil and bake until they crisp up. The recipes I have looked at say it depends on the vegetable, and to just watch them carefully.  You can find any of these recipes by googling "_________ chips", so beet chips, or carrot chips. Martha Stuart has a great one for beets here.

I will update you all on how these turn out after I have completed these, but I needed to jot my ideas down first!  Also, if any of my blog readers (all 4 of you) want to give me ideas, PLEASE DO!

Farmers Market Wednesday

So, in case any of you Terps have forgotten, there is a farmers market every Wednesday on UMD's campus.  It is magical and mystical.  Now that we are getting into the summer more there are more varieties and options for deliciousness.

One of the stands is called Sweet Treats.  She doesn't generally keep gluten free cupcakes around, but I have been talking to her and she said she would start bringing a few for me. I'm sure if you wanted them, you could just ask!

Also, I MOVED INTO MY APARTMENT! It is super exciting because I have a kitchen and my own room and it's lovely.  I am still working on the cleaning up process but it is getting there.  Last night, I did a total overhaul on the stove and refrigerator.  I took the coils and pans out of the stove and cleaned them so they turned from black back to silver.  The fridge had so much spilled $&*% in it.  That took me at least an hour to clean.  I will be doing the freezer tonight.

As for cooking, I have been doing a LOT of chicken.  Shoppers has REALLY cheap chicken that is actually really good.  It is the breast and rib meat, and it is super easy to cut the little bit of fat off.  I cut the breasts in half and but the two halves in to a ziplock bag and just stick them in the freezer.  When I get home at 3:00 I defrost the chicken and marinate it.

My general chicken recipe so far has been: chicken breast, throw whatever spices look good to me at the time, put in pan and saute until browned and cooked through.  I typically eat half a breast for dinner and half for lunch the next day.  I also saute two red peppers, one onion, and a pound of sliced button mushrooms together with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  Put the oil into the pan with the onions, those take the longest to cook.  Add the peppers when the onions are about half done, then the mushrooms when both the peppers and onions are about two minutes from being done.

Last night, I took my chicken and some peppers, mushrooms, and onions and put them in a pot with pasta sauce.  I cooked spaghetti then put the sauce mixture onto it.  A salad would have been good, but I Was feeling especially lazy.

This has been a rendition of brain dumping by Sophie, I hope you have enjoyed this mish-mosh of information. It's kind of like Chicken Mish Mosh soup.  Yum.

I promise, I actually AM gluten free...

...It's just that this bread this morning...it looked so good...

SO, I bought it. I know, I know.  "But Sophie...I thought you were gluten free and allergic to it or something?"  Well, I'm not allergic, I just feel better without it.  Sometimes, I like to indulge.  And since  today is FARMER'S MARKET WEDNESDAY (WHEEEEE!), I splurged. So I went to the farmer's market my awesome friend Patrick (his blog is linked here...he is my culinary chef friend that I do all geeky cooking things with.) This is where I saw the aforementioned loaf of bread, which is not gluten free, obviously.  I asked the woman working at the bread stand if she had sourdough, and sadly, she didn't.  But she did have something called Pain de Campagne.  The description I got from Wikipedia (GASP) said this is "French Sourdough".  It is very similar in taste, but the inside is a lot fluffier and the outside is a lot crunchier.  So basically, it is a million times better.  I wish I had gotten some form of dip to go with it, but the delicious dip that was being sold was 8$ for a really small container. Oh well.

Anyway, I also got some beautiful, locally grown apples, radishes, red kale, and spring onions.  The radishes, kale, and spring onions were on Patrick's list.  Because he had class until an hour into the opening of the market, I bought them for him so they wouldn't be gone by the time he got there.  The apples I get are always good, they are huge and super juicy, but not grainy or uncrisp (I did just make up a word). I am SUPER excited because the lady who works at the stand told me they are picking all of their berries in the next few weeks.  This means I get strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, and not the yucky diner kind.  I am contemplating getting enough so I can crash Patrick's apartment and attempt to make a delicious gluten free berry pie...hmmmmmmm.

Additionally, I found out today that all of the vegetables that have a darker leaf (red kale, red lettuce, even red basil) all hold heat and cold better.  If you choose to cook these or chill them, they won't wilt as quickly. They stay a bit crisper and crunchier when put under temperature changes. The guy at that stand told me that!  (In case you couldn't tell, I like asking the people at the stands their life stories, and many, many questions.)

The last thing I found out is there is a gluten free stand at the market every time.  Unfortunately, she has little variety.  She does have a quiche I might try next week, but other than that it is standard cookies and brownies.  I am going to email the girl at ANOTHER pastry stand, though, because she said she makes gluten free cupcakes, but she doesn't bring them to sell because of the gluten free stand. Oh well. Today was a very productive shopping day, and I am thoroughly fulfilled, even though I do cheat at my gluten free-ness occasionally. I guess I'll never get to join the secret society. :D

Pho

Pho (Pronounced ph-oh!!!!, not ph-uh) is surprisingly amazing.  For those of you who don't know, pho is basically the Vietnamese version of chicken noodle soup.  They take a ball of rice noodles (gluten free!) and put your toppings of choice on top, and cover it with boiling broth.

Saturday night boyfriend took me to get pho at a place by my school called Pho D'lite. Boyfriend got the special, which is noodles with tripe, tendon, eye of round, fatty brisket, and flank meat (all cow meat if that was unclear).  It also had chives and spring onions with a boiling beef broth poured over.  I got the vegetarian pho, which was noodles with mushrooms, bok choy, and grilled tofu.  It comes with vegetable broth, but I wanted more flavor so I got chicken broth instead.  They brought bean sprouts, cilantro, jalapeños and lime on the side.  I squeezed some lime over the top of my soup and put a bunch of cilantro into the bowl.  It was the best soup I have ever eaten.  I'm sure if I go to different restaurants and try different versions of the same ingredients, I'll find something better, but for now this was excellent.

Also on the menu at this delicious place was shrimp pho, chicken pho, Thai dishes (Pad Thai, etc.) and some appetizers.  I attached the menu here! Sorry about the weird layout, I promise I didn't create it!

I hope I can go back to different pho restaurants soon, but for now, I am 100% satisfied with my choices in soups. :D

Sweet Potato...Something...

Sunday night we made a kind of Mexican Shepard's pie.  It was...interesting.  The recipe, which I actually am unsure if it is the exact same one we used, can be found here.  (We have a thing in my family where if a recipe is bad we just throw it away.  Well, my brother didn't really like it, so it got tossed.  I loved it...) It is basically a ground meat and tomato based dish with a sweet potato puree as a topper.  It was actually pretty good, although the sweet potatoes became a kind of mushy mess, similar to baby food from a jar.  My mom was being creative and played with a pastry bag (HEY! That's my job!) and did a fancy topper with the potatoes.  You don't have to do the same thing, you can just spread them on top.  Also, we left out the Worcestershire sauce by mistake, but I am not really sure if that had much of an affect.  Another change, if you use regular potatoes it might turn out with a sturdier topping to it.  The last change that was made was using 2T Gluten Free flour instead of the normal flour used.  When using a little flour for a thickener, you can just substitute your flour 1:1.  If doing something like baking, look up a ratio online.

Also, my mom and I finally surrendered.  We bought Xanthum gum.  When my mom was transferring it to another container, she spilled a bit.  I was playing around and put some on my finger.  BIG MISTAKE.  That stuff will stick with you for a LONG TIME.  I had to wipe it onto a towel before my hands were completely clean.  I will experiment with this soon and give an update :D