January 11, 2010

Butter Chicken from Scratch

According to Wikipedia,  " Butter Chicken (or murgh makhani) is an Indian dish, popular in countries all over the world. The origins of butter chicken can be traced back to Delhi, during the period of Mughal Empire. According to a documentary by the Discovery Channel, butter chicken recipe was invented by a person working in the kitchen staff of a famous restaurant called Moti Mahal located in Daryaganj, the central region of Delhi. While the dish's general recipe is well known, the actual flavor can vary from restaurant to restaurant even within India. Butter chicken is usually served with naanrotiparathas or steamed rice. " 


My fiance and I love Butter Chicken. Who doesn't really? It's so creamy, and tasty and bad for you! Mmmmmm-calories! It was a fairly easy thing to make, so if you've never done it before, I recommend trying it. Here's the recipe we chose; the ingredients were one of the most simple recipes we could find.  Click here to check out the recipe we used. A dash of hot peppers, a squirt of curry paste and a smidgen of cumin, ginger and paprika and you have one of the most amazing smells you'll experience. It was only the size of 3 loonies, but the smell was amazingly overpowering. Once you add the main ingredients crushed tomatoes and whipping cream (oh yah!) the mixture starts to boil quite violently, quite quickly.


NOTE TO SELF : (and others) wear protective eye goggles while the pot is boiling and wash your hands VERY thourougly after cutting the hot peppers.


You ask why? ha! Well, the pot started boiling rapidly and before I knew it a slow-motion drop of the mixture flew towards my eyeball and sunk right in and made a home for itself. At first it was just hot, so it a hurt a little and then the hot pepper started to burn my eye. My first instinct was to pull my contact lens out, however this turned out to be the worst idea of all time. My hands had not been washed since I cut up the hot pepper, so there was still remnants of the pepper on my fingers. AACCK! I couldn't get my contact lens out because it stung almost instantly, so as my makeup is dripping down my face, I was freaking out and my poor man didn't know what to do. I washed my hands with soap and tried again. It still stung alot, but not as bad, so I quickly pulled out my contact and soaked my eye in as much fluids as possible. The pain went away quickly-thank god!

Please take my advice when cooking this recipe!

However, I urge you to try something you've never done before, even if it doesn't go as smoothly as planned, it's worth it in the end. Our meal was delicious!

3 comments:

Linder said...

OMG Jenn...is your eye okay now? Next time you handle hot peppers please use rubber gloves!!!!

Looks like it came out GREAT!

Adventure awaits you.. said...

hmmmm, gloves! Never thought of that- will do that for next time. I wore my glasses the rest of the night, so my eye feels ok this morning!

~Thanks :)

Linder said...

Glad it's feeling better! Yes GLOVES...for peppers or forming hamburngers or anything messy or dangerous in the kitchen.