12/6-12/12 Menu planning (w/recipe request)
06. Dec, 2009 
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Coming off a couple days of traveling and two Christmas parties, it’s hard to get back into my home routine, including menu planning. Normally I have my menu planned by now, so I’m actually going to use this post to do it. However, I do have one thing I know I want to make.
Last week when I was in Toronto, I was taken to dinner at a fantastic Indian cuisine restaurant, Amaya. We ordered an assortment of dishes to share, but the best, by far, was the butter chicken. Oh my God, it was utterly, absolutely divine. I’ve been dreaming about this butter chicken since we had it Wednesday night. So I decided, it’s not that complicated a dish, perhaps if someone has a recipe, I could recreate it. I did look on my standby recipe site, www.allrecipes.com and there are several recipes for it there, but I’d much prefer a tried-and-true recipe if anyone has one? I think I’ll put this on the menu for Tuesday. I can’t wait much longer than that!
Sunday:Pizza casserole (this was the last day I planned and so hard to come up with something, for some reason!)
Monday: Sausage and Lentil soup in crockpot, with Garlic Bubble Bread (only day I knew what I was cooking)
Tuesday: Butter chicken w/ jasmine rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Thai Basil chicken w/sticky rice
Friday: BLTs (at request of my husband). Probably served with tomato soup (from a can).
Saturday: We will probably eat out.
Oof. That was a bit of a struggle. Now I just need a recipe for butter chicken, make my grocery list and go shopping! All of the meat is in the freezer, so I’ll just be shopping for any small or fresh ingredients I might need.
What’s on your menu?
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Can I eat at your house?
When you get that butter chicken recipe, will you share? Just hearing you rave makes my mouth water…
This post nagged–er–Motivated, yeah, it MOTIVATED me to plan out my menus. So:
Monday: Out of town, son will have to fend for himself (he’s 23. He can do it.)
Tuesday: RWA chapter party, the Guys can eat leftovers. There are plenty. (I’m taking homemade salsa & tortilla chips.)
Wednesday: Chicken w/white beans
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday: College Christmas party potluck. I’ll take Puffed Mashed Potatoes.
Saturday: Ian’s Birthday party
Sunday: Leftovers or lunch @ Landry’s (I love Landry’s) if I can talk the fella into it.
lol, Ann, it’s hit and miss around here. It all sounds good but I’m the first to admit it doesn’t always work out, for some reason.
Gail, you look like you have an easy week, like I did last week!
Pay not attention to me. Just trying out the subscribe to comments feature. Am having pot pie tonight, though, if you were wondering.
I’m fake Jane commenting again.
1) Fake Jane looks just like real Jane.
2) I have Indian relatives and I’ll email her for the recipe but she is slow to check her email so it prolly won’t be here in time to make your recipe but I’ll try.
3) Sarah made me want bean soup so we’re having white bean soup tonight.
4) I made those garlic bubble rolls last week and they are evil. I ate 7.
5) I forgot to meal plan this week but there is time since I’ve cooked every night this week (yeah it’s only been one night so far…your point?).
No menu plan this week. We’re winging it
Please post the butter chicken recipe.
I have that recipe. Unfortunately, it is likely I’ll never try it since I am lactose intolerant
http://www.cuisinedumonde.com/butter_chix.html
I googled it and compared it to the recipe that I have. It seems to be more or less the same
I’d posted on twitter that I’d try find my recipe, but for the life of me I can’t find it, and I’m sort of at the point of eyeballing it/winging it, so I’m going to post what I do and let you experiment from there.
You’ll need:
Tandoori Spice (from Penzeys spices)
Garam Masala ”
Chilli powder ”
Chicken breast or strips (boneless/skinless) – I usually use a breast a piece
Plain yoghurt (if you can get not sweetened all the better) – we prefer the plain greek yoghurt
Canned tomatoes (the squished up, cut kind – Anne is having a brain blank on what else to call them)
Garlic
Cream (I’ve seen recipes use half n half too to cut calories. I didn’t like it personally)
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Kebab sticks
Large plastic ziplock
BBQ
Prepare meat: Into bag add roughly two single serve pots of yoghurt (I’m using 3 breasts so up or down accordingly), add 1-2 tblsp of Tandoori spice mix, a little salt and pepper and squish it all together to mix. Slice into bite sized pieces or into strips and add into bag. seal and squish the meat around to get it coated in the yoghurt mix and marinate overnight (or as long as possible, there’s nothing strict about this, after all
)
To cook meat: Thread the chicken onto the kebab sticks/skewers, fire up the BBQ and grill away. (Don’t get too flame happy – we can attest to chunky burnt bits = yuck) We use the BBQ as we don’t have a tandoor, and while it’s not a true tandoor flavor it isn’t too bad.
Sauce: Cut up the onion finely. In a pan heat melt half a stick of butter (I’ll leave this up to personal preference, the original recipe I had, had like a stick and a half *heartattack!*) and add onion and a large clove of rushed garlic and soften. Add approx 1tspn of the Garam Masala and the tandoori mix and stir amongst the onions. Add tomatoes, and slowly add about 3/4c of cream, mix and let it heat together.
Add chilli to bring sauce up to your preferred heat level.
Add chicken from BBQ (thank you, my manly hubby standing out in the cold/rain/heat/humidity) and simmer for a few minutes.
Serve over white rice with naan bread (SuperTarget has it here) if you can get it.
I do see a number of recipes using ground almonds and this is next on my list to try adding in search of the elusive perfect recipe.
Hope that helps, and I’m sorry I couldn’t be more exact
Thank you, Anne!
You might also be interested in this recipe. Someone posted it on the Carina Press blog
http://carinapress.com/2009/12/week-four-can-you-tell-im-busy/comment-page-1/#comment-367
Also, instead of kabob sticks, you might like these: Fire Wire Stainless Steel Flexible Grilling Skewer, Set of 2
err ‘ a piece’ meaning each person
and while I’m sure it’s had a tough day, the garlic wasn’t rushed, it was crushed
I’ve been eyeing those skewers when they come up on Woot.com, ut I have these two packets of wooden kebab sticks that just don’t seem to ever end… I think they are procreating.
Woot is where I bought mine. I love how storable they are because I HATE how much room our collection of metal skewers takes up.