Chicken Tikka Masala

Image from Serious Eats

I made Chicken Tikka Masala tonight from a recipe at Serious Eats. I went with the cream variation because I had both heavy cream and yogurt in the fridge and yogurt is not really an option when there is cream available:)

It was quick and easy and the kids loved it.

The fun part was when I went to the cabinet to see how much madras curry powder (canned, I am bad) we had left. The answer was zero.

A quick google found this recipe. The amazing thing was that I had all the ingredients in the kitchen. Everything got toasted up in a 12 inch cast iron skillet and then run through the blender. The process was, shall we say, aromatic. The boy was not impressed. I cut the recipe in half and it still made a huge amount of curry powder.

I will make this again.

The Pho Knows

Last weekend we had Pho Bo made at home using this recipe I found on the interwebs.

Aside from the initial 4 hour chemical warfare assault that the initial stock boil produced, it turned out well. I liked it, the kids liked it. Nom.

Things I would change: skip the cardamon. It is really aromatic and other Pho recipes I found, such as this Vietnamese cookbook from Amazon via a Serious Eats recommendation, do not mention cardamon. I like the cookbook a lot. It makes me miss the multiple Pho Pasteur locations in Boston.

Things I did change: Stop N Shop sells shaved beef for cheese steaks, etc. I used that in place of the brisket because I am a fat lazy individual who was really tired after a six hour stock boil and could not be bothered to slice meat from my fridge when it was right there pre-packaged at the store.

So, you say, three bowls of Pho Bo don't need six quarts of beef stock. What to do with the left over? Thit Bo Vien of course! That is the kids' number one favorite from the years in Boston and Pho Pasteur. That is on the menu for this weekend as well as Goi Con, Vietnamese fresh spring rolls from the aforementioned cookbook.

Which brings up the paucity of Asia markets in south east Connecticut. I would kill for a Super 88. Luckily, there is a tiny Asian market run by a very nice Korean gentleman in Groton. He was totally impressed when I put the jar of Kimchee on the counter today. Probably confused as well as I also bought rice sticks, banh trang (rice egg roll wrappers), potato starch, fresh Udon noodles, somen noodles, and chopsticks. Oh, and Pocky :)

Someday I will have to write up my experience of making Katsu Don from scratch. In Connecticut.