Indian Night

About a month or two ago I had my first taste of Indian food. Now I thought that since I don’t like spicy food, I wouldn’t like it. But I found that I was intrigued by the different flavors of the food.

At the Thursday Night Farmers Market in Chico, Matt and I decided to pick up a small tub of chicken tikka masala, that is once we tried pretty much every single type the woman was selling. It inspired us to try to make a dinner inspired by Indian flavors.

So here was our spread (from top clockwise)- homemade garlic naan, Punjab Choley from Trader Joe’s, homemade curry yogurt chicken, and the chicken tikka masala from the Farmers Market.

Like I mentioned before, this is the second time I’ve tried Indian inspired food and my first time cooking it. I marinated the chicken in yogurt, curry, garlic, and onion and then cooked it in the sauce. The chicken was incredibly moist. Next time, we’ll try adding onions and potatoes to make it a more interesting curry, but it was very tasty!

I ended up mixing my chicken with the rest of the tikka masala and serving it on top of rice.

Matt as you can see took a much more elaborate touch to it. He wanted to taste all the different flavors. So he separated all of it with the rice.

Homemade Naan
Recipe from Indian Simmer
Serves 4

2 cups All Purpose Flour Or Wheat Flour
3/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoons Sugar
1/4 teaspoons Salt
1/2 cups Warm Milk
1/2 cups Yogurt
1/2 Tablespoons Oil, As Needed
Additional Herbs and Flavorings (ex. garlic, cumin, etc.)

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and make a well of flour.

2. Mix milk and yogurt together and pour half of it into the well and slowly combine it together.

3. Continue adding liquid slowly and combining it all together slowly until a soft dough is made. The dough should be soft enough for you to be able to dig your finger into it without applying any pressure. If dough sticks to your hand too much, then use little bit of oil on your hands and then punch into the dough.

4. Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit in a warm place for at least 2 hours.

5. After a few hours, dust your working board, take out the dough and knead it for about 2-3 minutes. Divide the dough into smaller balls (in this case you should get about 8 balls to make naans).

6. Dust the board again and flatten the balls to make bread that is a little thick and elongated.

7. Now sprinkle one side of the bread with your desired flavor. I made cumin, minced garlic, chopped cilantro and some simple butter naans.
Brush the other side with water.

8. Heat a thick-bottomed skillet or a wok or any heavy-bottomed pan with a lid. Once it is nicely hot, place the naan wet side down (it will stick) and cover it with a lid.

9. Let it cook for about 30 seconds or until you see bubbles on it. Now cook the other side of the naan over a direct flame on the burner with the help of tongs. When you see some charred brown spots then you know that the naan is done. If you have an electric stove, it’s fine to cook the other side on the cast iron pan as well.

10. Smother a good amount of butter on your naans and when you taste them, you’ll know what a peaceful life means!

Yogurt Curry Chicken
1 chicken breast (cut into 1″ bite sized pieces)
1/2 cup yogurt
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
fresh cilantro

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl (except cilantro) and let marinade for about an hour.

2. Cook on medium high heat until chicken is cooked through.

3. Mix in some of the cilantro, but save some for garnish.