Both H and I love Indian food. I prefer the Northern Indian style while H eats pretty much anything spicy. For a change, I decided to tweak our usual roast chicken dinner to give it a Indian twist. We ended up with tandoori roast chicken with spiced yogurt and onion dip, Biryani rice and Baingan Bharta which is a fabulous eggplant dish. It all turned out pretty well for a first time effort and I’m really encouraged by the results. Recipes adapted from BBC goodfood, I have made tweaks wherecertain ingredients were not available.
Tandoori Roast Chicken
Ingredients
1 Medium Chicken
For the Marinade:
- 200ml pot greek/natural yogurt
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- juice 1 lemon
- 1 tsp each hot chilli powder, turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, garam masala and ground cinnamon
- 6 garlic cloves, pounded to a paste with the ginger
- ½ finger-length piece ginger, pounded to a paste with the garlic
For Roasting the Chicken
- 2 large Red Onions, cut into thick rings
- 2 medium lemons
1. Combine ingredients for marinade well. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Celsius.
2. Make cuts on thighs and wings of chicken, rub marinade well all over the chicken and in the cavity as well as under the skin. Reserve any leftover marinade to make the sauce.
3. Place onions in a layer on a roasting tin. Place chicken on top of onions and into the oven, lower centre rack.
4. Once chicken is starting to brown (approximately 10mins), lower temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and turn the chicken over to start cooking the other side. Cook for another 1hour and 15 minutes or so, depending on the size of the bird. Pop the lemon halves into the pan halfway through roasting.
5. Check that chicken is cooked and remove from the pan. Squeeze the juice of the cooked lemons over the roasted onions and tip into a blender together with the leftover marinade. Blend till fine and serve alongside.
Biryani Rice (Serves 8)
Ingredients
- 75g butter
- 3 large red onions, halved and sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 6 cloves
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 500g basmati rice
- 900ml vegetable stock
- oil , for deep frying
- Melt the butter in a large, wide pan and cook half the onions and all the garlic until soft and golden. Add the spices and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the basmati and stir until coated. Pour in the stock. Turn the heat down to a simmer then cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
- Meanwhile, heat a 2cm-layer of oil in a pan and deep-fry the remaining onions until crisp.
Baingan Bharta
Ingredients
- 3 medium-sized eggplants (roughly 500gms/ 1 pound)
- 2 tbsps vegetable/ sunflower/ canola cooking oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 medium-sized onions chopped fine
- 1 tbsp garlic paste or garlic chopped very fine
- 1″ piece of ginger grated fine
- 1 large red chilli
- 2 large tomatoes chopped fine
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
1. Roast eggplant in your oven till all the skin on the eggplant is charred and the inner flesh looks really soft.
2. Once the eggplant is roasted, allow to cool fully and then peel off and discard the charred skin. Once cool, coarsely mash and keep aside for later use.
3. Now set up a pan on medium heat and add the cooking oil. When hot, add the cumin seeds and cook till the spluttering stops.
4. Add the onions and fry till soft and translucent.
5. Add the garlic and the ginger and fry for 1 minute.
6. Add the tomato and all the powdered spices, including the garam masala. Stir well and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring often to prevent the spice mix from sticking to the pan. Sprinkle a little water if needed.
7. Now add the eggplant and mix well. Cook another minute and turn off the heat.
Success! The chicken came out really well, very moist and tasty and the sauce on the side was really tasty with the rice.
ababeinthewoods 