GMT: Dhaba Style chicken curry

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Dhaba style Chicken curry

When my dad was doing his Air Warfare Staff College in US in 1989, there were a lot of social get togethers organized for spouses to interact with each other. One of the get togethers was a potluck to which my mom brought an Indian flavored chicken curry. Coincidentally a lady from Pakistan also brought a chicken curry to the gathering. When my mom recounts this incident she remembers the Pakistani lady’s chicken as being absolutely delicious and thought the lady’s dish to be better than her own. She remembers a lot of people coming to her and complimenting on how flavorful her dish was. My mom believes the people complimenting her thought she was the one who brought the chicken dish which actually the Pakistani lady brought. My mom still thinks that was one of the best chicken curry she ever tasted and since then she has wanted to make something similar.

When she was visiting us in Dallas, she thought of looking for a recipe similar to the one the Pakistani lady had cooked. She found one online, which sounded good and the recipe that I am sharing today is adapted from that. She thinks this was the closest she has come to replicating the flavors of the chicken curry she had almost 24 years back.

The reason I have called this dhaba style chicken curry is that its a no frills recipe and the taste is very similar to what you get in dhabas (roadside eateries) in India. We indians love our dhaba food and this chicken curry is quite similar to the one we get in punjabi dhabas. Using freshly ground whole spices always makes indian dishes more flavorful. Ground spices tend to lose their flavor, so wherever possible do try to just grind as much as you would require for one dish, instead of grinding in bulk and keeping them for weeks.

Dhaba Style Chicken Curry | The Novice Housewife

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Chocolate Brioche

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Chocolate Brioche | The Novice Housewife

I love brioche. Its a buttery, rich, croissant-like bread. What’s not to love? There’s no doubt the classic version tastes great but if you add chocolate, well, things just get out of control good.

My dad makes a pretty good brioche loaf, even though he uses his bread machine to do most of the work. While I love the convenience of a bread machine, I feel by using it, one missed out on all the fun that is involved in bread making. And that’s why I never invested in one and probably won’t. That said, I do like the brioche my dad makes.

On the other hand, the first time I made a brioche loaf it was disastrous. I don’t know what I did wrong but the brioche did not rise. It was not feathery light, but dense. After that I put brioche making on hold for a while. Then I got the Bouchon Bakery cookbook. I had a go at brioche again using Thomas Keller’s recipe and this time I was successful.

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I have made a mention about the three issue old Bake From Scratch magazine before on the blog when I tried and shared their recipe for homemade rye bread. Their new issue is out and its all about French bakes.

The cover photo (which is absolutely gorgeous) is of this chocolate brioche, and one look at it and I knew I had to bake the brioche au chocolat. Equipped with the success from my previous brioche trials, and seeing how a chocolate brioche would be a perfect brunch/breakfast addition, I decided to bake the loaf before mom leaves for Canada.

I adapted the recipe slightly by subbing a little of the all purpose flour for whole wheat. I didn’t have too much whole wheat flour on hand to substitute though. Next time I will experiment with a higher ratio of whole wheat flour and will update this space with the results.

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Perfect Pound Cake

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Classic Pound Cake | The Novice Housewife

There is nothing better than a slice of well baked cake. While I am all for frosting, sometimes only a plain pound cake will satisfy my need for something sweet. The past few days I have been craving a plain buttery cake but refrained from baking one, to keep my calorie intake in check. As you can see that resolve was broken pretty easily.

We have had rains this entire week in Dallas. There is something about rains that demands baking and the smell of freshly baked cake in the house. After a day of trying to fight the urge, I finally gave in and decided to get my whisk out and bake a buttery cake. Since a no frills cake was on my mind I thought of using the Tish Boyle’s Luxe Pound Cake recipe that is in the blog archives and have baked from many times with excellent results. Its a rich, buttery pound cake with a tight crumb. The only problem was that the recipe calls for more than 5 eggs, so does the Scandinavian gold cake recipe which was my second choice and is equally good. I only had 5 eggs in my pantry and since it was raining, a walk to our neighborhood store was not possible (I need to get an Umbrella or a rain coat soon). I did not want to halve the recipe and take chances. Instead I stumbled on another one of Tish Boyle’s recipe on Shirley’s site Kokken. And I am glad I did and thank Shirley for posting it.

I haveTish Boyle’s cookie cookbook: The Good Cookie  but after trying a few of her cake recipes I am inclined to add The Cake Book by Tish Boyle to my collection. She is the queen of pound cake for me.

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