A Newfound Respect for Indian Food...

Ever since I was first introduced to Indian food, I've loved it. I LOVE Indian food. And now, I have a newfound respect for it. I'm not sure what possessed me, but I decided that I wanted to cook chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, dal, and rice.

First of all, it takes so many spices. Secondly, it takes forever, and third, it takes forever. Oh, and did I mention? I cooked for like 4 hours?

Here is the end result:Chicken Tikka Masala, Basmati Rice, and Garlic Naan

Dal

It all started when I realized I had 3 leftover chicken breasts in the freezer. I searched for chicken recipes and came across this. So then I decided I wanted to make this. Which led me to this. So then I spent the next 4 hours measuring, marinating, stirring, kneading, rolling, waiting, simmering, tasting, sweating, burning (yup, burned the naan), etc etc etc.

The chicken tikka masala recipe was actually pretty good. The dal and naan recipes, not so much. Better find a better recipe before I attempt this again.

I did have to make some adjustments to the recipes:
1. The chicken tikka masala recipe calls for 7 tsps of salt. UHHHHHH... no thank you. I cut that down to like 2 tsp and also cut out some of the cumin.
2. I cooked the chicken stove top instead of grilling.
3. I marinated the chicken for longer than it calls for.
4. I also cut out a little bit of the cayenne and jalapeno.
5. I cooked the chicken in the sauce for longer than the recipe calls for.
3. I didn't cook the lentils, Andrew did. Hee hee.
4. I didn't use butter for the naan, I used olive oil, and like tripled the amount of garlic.
5. I numbered this thing all crazily.
6. I proofed the yeast before adding the other ingredients.
7. The naan recipe makes 14 servings... so I cut it down to 4.
8. They didn't have red lentils at the market, so I used brown. They supposedly get mushier quicker.

Here's the rice I used. Andrew took this picture, I like it.

The cursed result. Why cursed? Because it was so yummy, but I never want to make it again anytime soon lest my feet and arms fall off.

p.s. Aren't these the cutest ever? I received them for my birthday and finally put them to good use. I kept feeling like I couldn't use them for just ANYTHING but finally I gave in and used them to cook Indian food. They were super useful to measure out everything. Thanks Hannah!