Andrew’s Chicken Chasni

I updated this recipe on the 24th February 2010 because I prefer to use ghee in certain Indian dishes and I’m not a fan of using tinned tomatoes.

A few weeks ago someone on the forum over at Mamta’s Kitchen asked me if I’d kindly post my recipe for Chicken Chasni and I finally got around to doing that a few days ago. I also thought it would be a good idea to post it here, as one of my intentions for this blog is to share recipes with the rest of the ‘wide-eyed-web’.

Although I’m a huge fan of chillies I don’t add any into this dish, but feel free to add a pinch of chilli powder or one or two fresh green chillies if you wish.

I have tried using clear honey in place of syrup and in my opinion the honey imparted an odd flavour to the dish. I’ve also tried using double cream in place of single cream but I thought it was too creamy.

• Ingredients
• 1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated or crushed
• 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 3 medium-sized fresh tomatoes, skins removed and quartered
• 100 ml warm water
• 2 heaped tsp tamarind pulp (not tamarind concentrate)
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 150 ml single cream
• 4 tbsp ghee
• 1 tsp salt
• Spices 1
• 1 heaped tsp coriander seeds
• 1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 level tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 level tsp kalonji seeds
• 1/2 level tsp fennel seeds
• 4 whole black pepper corns
• 1/2 level tsp black or brown mustard seeds
• Spices 2
• Seeds of 2 green cardamoms
• 1 level tsp white poppy seeds
• Spices 3
• 1/4 level tsp turmeric
• 1/2 level tsp paprika powder

Method:

1. Dry roast spices 1 and set aside to cool. Combine spices 2 with spices 1 and grind them all together into a fine powder. Add spices 3 to the ground powder, mix together, and then set aside.
2. Heat the ghee in a suitably sized pan and add the onion, ginger, and garlic. Cook until the onions turn golden brown.
3. Add the spices and stir contsantly for 3–5 minutes, then add the chicken pieces, fresh tomatoes, and warm water. Cook until the chicken is well sealed and the tomatoes have broken down.
4. Add the tamarind pulp and salt, mix well, and place the pan covered in a preheated oven at 200C for 30 minutes.
5. Add the golden syrup, mix well, and place the pan back in the oven for a further 10–15 minutes.
6. Stir in the single cream and garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.

All Apologies

I’d like to apologise to anyone who left a comment for me in the last couple of days. I read the comments but unfortunately there were issues with the WordPress account that I created so I opened a new one instead.

When I hosted WordPress on my own website I used a built-in plugin called Askimet (for controlling spam), but before I could activate Askimet I had to open a WordPress.com account to get an API key. I never had a use for the account after that, but when I opened a new account a couple of days ago the old one came back to haunt me — a long story and one that probably doesn’t make much sense anyway.

By the way, if you haven’t already figured it out for yourselves, you can get to this blog by using the following addresses:

http://www.andrewwilliams.net
http://andyjwilliams.wordpress.com

Welcome all Species

My name is Andrew and I’d like to welcome you to my blog. Please check out the ‘about’ page for a little more information about myself and the type of content you can expect to find on this blog.

Some of you may have arrived at this blog by using or following the domain name ‘www.andrewwilliams.net’. If you’re wondering whether or not it’s the same guy who had the blog on growing veggies and chilli plants, then YES, it’s the same guy.

I came to the conclusion that it would be cheaper and easier for me to run my blog for free at WordPress.com. I was paying around £70 per year for the hosting space, and the only things that lived on that space were the blog software (WordPress), a gateway page, and a custom 404-file not found page.

The only downsides to running a free blog that I can see are: (A) I can’t upload and use my own WordPress theme that I built from the ground up for my old blog — nor can I edit the CSS for the 77 provided themes unless I pay. (B) There’s an upload restriction of 3GB — but there is an option to pay for more space (which is good). Then again, all the photographs that I uploaded to my old blog are backed up on my hard drive and the entire folder is only 104.1MB in size, so I guess that 3GB is very generous when you consider that this is a free account.

The hosting company I was using are called FutureQuest and I highly recommend them. I have another website in the pipeline and when I decide to launch it I’ll be using their services again. The support is fantastic and the uptime is brilliant.

I am starting from scratch in this new blog and I won’t be adding any posts from my old blog here — having said that I don’t think I backed the database up anyway. Another great joy of owning a free blog is that I no longer have to backup the database and upgrade the software!

I hope you’ll stay tuned.