Garam Masala Tuesdays: Missi Roti

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Last week I did not post on GMT. Not that I had no recipe. In fact I had cooked three different Indian dishes that could have potentially been blogged about. But, I was not able to take any pictures. And, then I sprained my ankle and could not cook for a while, thus, taking a break from cooking and blogging. But, I am back this week with Garam Masala Tuesdays (I know I am posting this a day late on a Wednesday but I could not post yesterday as I do not practice BUI- Blogging Under Influence- yes! it’s a term..well, actually I just made that up but I do think there should be such a term and I do think it is not safe to BUI- you never know what secrets come out!)

Anyway, yesterday, we installed Indian channels. Its been a year we have been here and we hadn’t subscribed to them earlier because I was never a fan of Hindi serials- they all start off well and then drag on, and I could never follow or understand them. So, we thought it might be pointless paying so much for these channels. But, for the last one month we had been contemplating giving these channels a chance. So yesterday when the guy installed the dish and I switched on the TV to a bollywood number on our TV, I was nostalgic like crazy. And there I was. On my sofa. A tear in my eye. Nope these weren’t tears of happiness. But me, missing my home, my country, my people, missing the senseless lyrics of Bollywood songs, the colorful dresses, the bargaining for a Rs.10 (20 ¢) hairband, the food, the crowded streets, the blaring music, the non stop horns for no reason- I started missing it all.

There are  a lot of things wrong with my country. I am aware. But, like every mother who knows his kid isn’t the perfect one and still loves him/her nonetheless, I love India. The country is imperfectly perfect for me. And like every mother who is away from her child, I too ache to be back in my own country. No matter how comfortable life is here in the US and the independence I have in running my house the way I like, I miss the crazy life of India. I really do. I have never been a person happy away from India. I experienced the same feeling when I stayed in Moscow for two years. I did enjoy myself there too but there was a part of me that craved India, and that craving in me is alive, now and always.

Another thing I miss about India, a feeling that I have bandied about on the blog before, is the food. And thanks to the small town we stay in I miss eating Indian food in restaurants or from roadside vendors even more! So, recently, when our friends from phoenix were over, we went to Tucson and had dinner at this Indian restaurant- Sher-e-Punjab and it was pretty good. Some of the dishes had seasoning issues but the flavors were bang on target for most dishes. (All ten of us, though, are pretty convinced that there was some mistake with our bill because we ordered a ton of things and the total came to be very affordable, bordering around the lines of really cheap food, especially since its Indian)

The one thing that all of us loved at Sher-e-Punjab were the missi rotis (an indian flatbread), served with butter. Even though some people had stuck to their usual order of rotis and naans, the 2-3 of us (like me) who did order missi roti, convinced the others to try them. And, they were glad that they did!

Missi roti, pronounced “Miss-ee Row-tee” is a staple in Punjabi homes and is basically roti prepared from besan or gram flour/chickpea flour. Served with a dollop of butter and accompanied with any Indian vegetable or lentil dish, missi rotis are an excellent way of sprucing up the proteins in your diet. Missi Roti can be served for breakfast with curd or pickle. Missi Roti is good for diabetics too because of gram flour added to it as an ingredient. Gram flour is said to keep insulin levels in check!  Missi roti makes you very thirsty, so be prepared to drink a lot of water after eating it!

Traditionally Missi Roti made in the tandoor but at home I make it on the tawa (cast iron skillet). My mom adds pomegranatae seeds and is supposed to be key to the missi roti flavor. I did not have it, but if you do, for sure add pomegranate seeds (anar dana). You can also change the ratio of besan (gram flour) to whole wheat flour but accordingly change the amount of water you will require for kneading.

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Garam Masala Tuesdays: Butter Chicken

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Flavorful indian butter chicken recipe. Serve it with Naan or rice for a great Indian meal.

Flavorful Indian Butter Chicken recipeEdited to add in June 2020: The recipe for this flavorful butter chicken has been updated with a print friendly recipe. The recipe has also been edited with minor tweaks that I made to the original recipe over the years . Its mostly the same, but after making it many times I have reduced a few ingredients and added others, while keeping the technique more or less the same. The images in this post have also been updated. 

Original Post published in May 2011:

I actually look forward to calling people home. Not only does it feel nice to have a a house full of friends and laughter, but it forces me to to clean my house- and no, I am not talking about the “it-would-do” kind of cleaning but the “your-mom-will-give-a-pat-on-your-back” kind of cleaning.

Now, when you call people home or host a party of any sorts, you do expect certain hiccups. You expect it would be too hot to cook. You also expect that you would be out the previous day of the party and get a heat stroke and get a mild migraine because of that. You also expect that the party would fall on that day of the month when women get their stomach cramps and the likes. So you are cooking with a slight migraine, stomach cramps in a hot kitchen. Well, you expect all that and don’t think any of it would cause a big problem. And then you hear a shatter- more specifically you hear glass shattering and that too on your kitchen floor. Ohh..kay… – its a setback but one can get past it- its just a bottle, you can clean that. But then your realize- the bottle had oil. Not only is there glass on the floor but there is oil on the kitchen floor ( and of course you needed that oil for your party!) Now who could anticipate that! You wouldn’t, right! But, I do, thanks to my track record. I have butter fingers and I am very serious when I say that. Ask my friends. Things just slip from my hands and the more I am careful the more likely they are to slip! In fact the degree of the damage I do always depends on the cruciality of the whole situation.

Flavorful Indian Butter Chicken recipe
But then when you have a husband like V whats there to worry. He knew I was upset plus he knew I was in all probability to slip on the oil or prick my finger on broken glass (the latter happened and the former almost did), so he opted to mop the floor when my cleaning with the newspaper trick did not work.

Well, thanks to my husband’s helping hands, I was able to get the house clean and ready for the party at home. We had our eclectic International friends for dinner and I made Indian. The menu consisted of butter chicken, dal makhani, mixed vegetable, raita and roti. For dessert, we had mango kulfi and these awesome gluten-free cupcakes that our friend had got for us. I have already posted the recipe for Dal Makhani previously on Garam Masala Tuesdays (GMT). You can find the recipe for Mango Kulfi here. For today’s GMT, I will be talking about Butter chicken.

ORIGINS OF BUTTER CHICKEN

Originating from the period of the Mughal Empire, Murgh Makhani aka Butter chicken has survived through the ages and continues to grow in popularity due to it’s rich and flavorful gravy. It is said that the modern version of the Butter Chicken recipe was invented by a person working in the kitchen of the original Moti Mahal restaurant in Daryaganj, Delhi, during the 1960s to use up leftover Tandoori Chicken.

Butter chicken is a definite order at restaurants in India and has become quite famous abroad as well, though in a slightly modified version named Chicken Tikka Masala.

Well back in India, restaurants do not serve CTM, at least I have never seen it. I have never read it on any menu card in India, even though chicken tikka is always there under appetizers but no chicken tikka masala. Butter chicken, on the other hand, is a must in every North Indian restaurant.

CTM, primarily is a UK born dish.

Chicken Tikka Masala was apparently invented in Great Britain about the same time as the modern version of butter chicken. There is a popular story that some restaurant owner poured Campbell’s condensed tomato soup on top of Chicken Tikka because a customer demanded gravy. The topic, though, is controversial as some claim it to be originating from street food in India.

CTM became popular when it was declared as British National Dish by Robin Cook (nope, he is not the famous author of Coma, Brain and the likes, but was UK’s foreign secretary). Robin Cook’s Tikka Masala speech states CTM as “a perfect illustration of the way Britain absorbs and adapts external influences.“

Flavorful Indian Butter Chicken recipe
For long I thought chicken tikka masala is what foreigners called butter chicken. But, after googling I found there are slight differences, though the concept is pretty much similar- grilled chicken in a tomato based curry. The slight differences arise in the preparation of the gravy, the kind of chicken used and the spices added.

Whereas, Butter chicken uses fresh tomatoes, CTM generally uses canned tomato puree. The gravy for butter chicken also is pretty heavy on the butter and cream, while CTM doesnt use butter at all (though I have seen recipes of CTM that do! confused? so am I!) and instead has onions. Another supposed difference lies in the kind of chicken used- one uses tandoori chicken and the other uses chicken tikka (nope, no points for guessing which uses which). Also, CTM always uses boneless chicken (since that’s what the recipe for chicken tikka calls for), whereas butter chicken is best prepared with chicken with bones, though one could use boneless pieces too. Someone also observed the use of thigh pieces or whole chicken in butter chicken, whereas CTM uses breasts pieces. Dried fenugreek leaves play a heavy role in the chicken marination for butter chicken, while they do not feature in the other, instead CTM uses cilantro/coriander in the marination.

Flavorful Indian Butter Chicken recipe

I can not confirm the authenticity for these difference, since it is based on my observation of different recipes online and personally I feel that since both are modern recipes, originating in restaurants, the difference is primarily one of nomenclature- a difference that arose because people wanted to get attributed to the origin of the dish. For me, though, the authentic Indian dish will always be butter chicken and that is what we are making for GMT today.

Butter chicken is made by marinating chicken overnight in a yogurt, garlic, ginger paste, pepper, dried fenugreek leaves, cumin and red chilli powder mixture. The chicken is traditionally cooked in a tandoor (how I wish I had one at home), but can also be grilled, or broiled in the oven.

Makhani, the sauce, true to its name is cooked in butter (calories! but so worth it!) and pureed fresh tomatoes with various spices. Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) which is also added to the dish, lends most to the characteristic flavor of the dish. Cashew paste can also be added, and will make the gravy thicker and richer (translate: yummier).

The recipe that I use is a mix of my mother’s and Nandu’s, our cook in India. My mom gives the recipe a nice smoky twist by cooking the gravy in charcoal smoke. It adds a lot of flavor to the gravy and is pretty easy to do!

Flavorful Indian Butter Chicken recipe

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Mark Bittman’s No-Work Bread

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Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife
A mother is a person who seeing there

are only four pieces of pie for five people,

promptly announces

she never did care for pie.

~Tenneva Jordan

I read this quote a few days back and found it so true. It sums up every mother so well! And especially mine!

Happy Mother’s Day mom! I hope you know how much you mean to me.

Love you and sorry for all the trouble I keep giving you!

 You will always be the best human being for me.

Hope one day I can sacrifice my piece of pie for you. Till then, here’s a whole bread for you!

Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

I recently downloaded Mark Bittman’s iPhone app, How to Cook Everything. And, the first recipe that caught my eye was Jim Lahey’s No- Work Bread.  Quoting Bittman, who used to write the food column The Minimalist for the New York Times, the introduction for this bread goes as follows:

This innovation- the word “recipe” does not do the technique justice- came from Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. Jim has created a way for home cooks (and not even ones who are serious bakers) to nearly duplicate an artisan bakery loaf, with a crackling crust, open-holed crumb, light texture, and fantastic flavor. All without kneading, fancy ingredients, or special equipments.

Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

Bittman’s description is bang on target. The beauty of this bread- it needs no kneading- you just mix everything together- sit it out in the refrigerator or outside if the temperatures are cool- take it out the next day, shape into a ball and let it bake! And you have a crusty, heavenly smelling bread. A wet dough, along with slow fermentation is the secret to its yeasty flavor and open crumb.

You do need to plan ahead for this bread. It is a 24- hour long process, but you would be in the kitchen for only 15 minutes working on it.

Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

from the original post.

The method involves the bread to be baked in a covered pot in the oven. One could use a dutch oven but I do not own one. I used a crock pot. The crockpot website says that if the pot/crock is detachable you can use it in the oven. Instead of the lid I used aluminium foil. It worked for me but you should try it at your own risk!

True to myself, I goofed up while transferring the dough to the crock pot. But, you guys be careful and keep the seam up, to get a beautiful crack on the top of the bread. So that you can brag about how professional you have become at bread making!

I have made the basic version, which makes a fantastic bread, but of course, you can  be more adventurous with the  formula and use whole-wheat and other flours and different seeds to make it to your liking.

*UPDATED* (March 2014) : I tried this bread by substituting 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour with a mix of whole wheat flour, soy flour, flax seeds, wheat germ, barley flour that I use. And it still turned out great. The updated pictures are from that loaf. Also, I now do own a dutch oven. This one, in case you are wondering- Lodge Double Dutch Oven and Casserole with Skillet Cover

Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice HousewifeMark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

JIM LAHEY' NO-WORK BREAD
 
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Ingredients
  • Ingredients
  • 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus flour for dusting (400 gms)
  • ½ tsp scant instant yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups water at 70 F
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional)
  • cornmeal/semolina/wheat bran, as needed
Instructions
  1. Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and stir until blended. The dough will be sticky and that's how it should be(add a little more water if it seems dry). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, or transfer the dough to another greased bowl, and turn the dough to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap.
  2. Let rest for about 18 hours at about 70 F. (You can put it in the refrigerator overnight and about 5-6 hours before you want to bake it.)
  3. Lightly flour a work surface, remove the dough and fold once or twice; it will be soft, but once sprinkled with flour, not terribly sticky. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rest for about 15 minutes.
  4. Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking, gently and quickly shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton (not terry cloth) towel with cornmeal. You can use silpat like I did. Put the dough seam down on the towel and dust with more flour or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel (or plastic wrap) and let risefor about 2 hours.
  5. When it's ready, the dough will be more than doubled in size and won't spring back readily when poked with your finger.
  6. At least half hour before the dough is ready, heat the oven to 450 F. Put a 3-to-4 quart covered pot (with the cover)- it may be cast-iron, enamel, pyrex, or ceramic- in the oven as it heats.
  7. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. (It's messy, and it probably won't fall in artfully, but it will straighten out as it bakes.)
  8. Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 20-30 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. (If you feel the bread is scorching, lower the temperature.)
  9. Let the bread cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
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Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread | The Novice Housewife

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