Chicken Tikka Masaala

Sometimes Nik likes to play with her food too! When I do, I most often do exotic dishes. I have a wanderer's taste buds and I love food from nearly anywhere that makes food.

This recipe comes from Food Network's own Aarti Sequiera (who, by the way, started out as a food blogger). Since her recipe is so simple, I'm going to just link you to it so you can download and print at your leisure. But please do read below the modifications I made to it:

• The recipe calls for marinating the chicken for about an hour or two on the counter in Greek yogurt (woot!). I marinated overnight (actually two overnights because I didn't get to cooking it when I wanted to, but the intention was overnight). The longer you marinate meat in yogurt, the more tender it will become.
• Instead of using Butter in my oil, I used Blue Bonnet Light. I can't attest to whether omitting it is a good idea or not.
• I did not use dried fenugreek leaves as a) I don't know what the heck they are and b) I didn't have any (but apparently Amazon does...go figure...)
• I used cauliflower rice as opposed to basmati rice and skipped the naan

And here are a few suggestions:

• If you make the ginger garlic paste (and lookit...Amazon sells that too!), do make sure you pulse it really well in your food processor. I also have it on good authority from a friend who works for a spice company that it's good to freeze ginger root before trying to grind it. At any rate, my ginger garlic paste was stringy and noticeable in my dish.
• Consider using canned whole tomatoes instead of fresh. Either that or peel the tomatoes (easiest method: dip in boiling water for three seconds. Skin comes right off). I used just whole tomatoes and the skins got sort of tough and plasticky which neither me nor the divas liked.
• This is a no-brainer but I will re-iterate Aarti's instructions. If you don't like spicy, DE-SEED the serrano peppers!
• And while we're on the subject of heat, for goodness sakes, don't touch anything on your body after handling the peppers until you've washed your hands!!!

With that, I release you to check out Aarti's recipe and have an Indian love thang going on for yourself.

And remember to keep playing with your food!

Champagne wishes and curry dreams...

I don't know why I originally named this post what I did. I do have champagne wishes though in that I wish I had the amount of money a good champagne cost. Cuz a sista is BROKE! Which means we use what we have in our fridge. Tonight the fridge gods were good to me and gave me the ingredients for this: curried chicken and "rice."

For most post-op RNY'ers rice is a precarious thing. It weighs heavily on the pouch and is hard to eat a lot of. But there are things...many things...that go on rice that are not quite right by themselves. It's a dilemma. Well there are several things that can replace rice. TVP for example. But I don't like that as a rice replacement. It's heavy and despite the fact that it is mild, it does have its own flavor going on. My replacement of choice? Good ol' fashioned cauliflower. Yes, the cruciferous veggie is damn near tasteless and mashes up to look kinda sorta like rice for the first four seconds you look at it.

So the recipe I am posting below is the "Rachel Ray" version of this dish (meaning it takes about 30 minutes to make...not that Rachel had anything to do with it). It's good when you want something exotic and comforting but don't want to be in the kitchen all day. This would pair well with my Thai Iced Tea recipe but that would necessitate eating/drinking at the same time which is an express ticket to RNY damnation, right?!?!?!? Ah well...drink your thai iced tea, 30 minutes after eating this dish. There...

Curried chicken and "rice"

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1 lb. whatever chicken parts you deem worthy (the above were boneless, skinless thighs, fat trimmed)
• Either 12 oz. mixed veggies from the can OR 2 c. uncooked 'random veggies' (read: whatever is in your fridge), chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 c. water
• 1 tbsp curry powder, salt and pepper to taste
• Optional: a dash of cayenne pepper, about 1/2 tsp. garam masala (an Indian spice blend...gives it a nice touch, but totally not necessary)
• 2 tbsp cornstarch or flour + same amount of COLD water (for thickening)
• 1 batch of cauliflower rice

Directions:

1. Spray a skillet down with nonstick cooking spray and set it over medium heat and let it get good and HOT. Add onions and drop the heat down to medium-low and allow them to caramelize (become golden brown in color)
2. Add chicken and cook until browned on both sides.
3. Add veggies, garlic, spices and water and cover. Cook about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. When chicken is done through and fork tender, use two forks to shred all the chicken meat up and stir to make sure veggies are fully incorporated. Taste the broth and adjust seasonings as desired (sometimes I have to add more curry or salt).
5. In a cup, combine starch or flour with water and stir with a fork or a mini-whisk to form a smooth paste. Make sure that water is cold! Put an ice cube in it if your kitchen is particularly warm.
6. Increase the heat of the chicken mixture until its liquids are boiling. Add starchy mixture and stir through. Sauce should begin to immediately thicken.
7. Allow it to simmer an additional five minutes or so then serve atop hot cauliflower rice.

This is one of my all-time favorite post-op meals! I know what some of you will ask. About the flour (or the "rue" used to thicken the sauce). The previous iteration of this recipe called for a can of coconut milk but any way you slice it that adds a bunch of calories and fat (which you are welcome to do if you love coconut curries).

This version requires 2 tablespoons of starch in a fairly big batch of food so if you divide it out the carbs aren't terrible. But you are welcome to skip that step. You'll just have a thin broth instead of a sauce to serve atop your cauliflower rice.

But any way you make it, it's still good!

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Indian Food - WLS style

So you had gastric bypass...and you thought to yourself "Goodbye cruel food world! I shall miss you!" And you skipped off to be skinny thinking sadly to yourself how you'd never enjoy those foods you love again...but hey, you'd be skinny, right?

Well I'm here to mess your whole world up.

I love Indian food. I don't think that should have to change just cuz I'm living la vida healthy. So when my message board at Obesity Help had an "Iron Chef - shrimp" challenge I thought it the perfect opportunity to get my Indian on. But my recipes are never purist--this is Indian with some definitely Nikki-fusion.



So let's start with the ingredients. There are two things going here...the lovely shell and the filling. The shell looks carby...but it's not. It's made of Carbalose flour (or Carbquik as it is more commonly known) and has less than 2g of carbs for each shell. So let's get past that and onto other things.

Ingredients

Shell:

2 c. Carbquik
1/2 c. warm water
a few shakes garlic salt
a few shakes onion powder

Directions:

1. Combine Carbquik with seasonings in a bowl.
2. Add water, bit by bit, until a dough forms

So then there's the filling:




All very worthy stuff:

1 can tiny shrimp
1 small can peas
1/2 c. chopped carrots
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
a shake or two of red pepper flakes

There was also a chickpea mixture in there to replace the traditional mashed potatoes in a samosa.

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

So essentially it is hummus

So the veggie mixture you sautee in olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes until all are softened.

Next you roll out your dough and cut it into rounds with a glass. Then take each round and roll it out until it is roughly double its original size and paper thin. Put a dollop of hummus in the middle and a dollop of the shrimp/veggie mixture. Like this:

So after you do that you bring the sides up and pinch them (it should look like a doughy hershey's kiss...kinda...) and line them all up like good lil' boys and girls on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 10 mnutes.


Any samosa I have ever had has a sweet sauce to go with it (to play down the garlic and savory taste of the pastry), so here's what I came up with:
Raisin sauce
1 box raisins (like the kind that go in a school box)
1 c. water
1/2 c. Splenda
Dash of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Directions:
Throw it all in a pot and let it come to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer unti thickened.
Easy enough right?
Indian food...after weight loss surgery. Kinda feels like cheating the man...and it feels good!