Saturday, May 5, 2007

Chicken with Tomatoes and Garam Masala (Timatar murghi) Review

4 stars (on a 5 star scale) p. 99 A pretty good, quite mild chicken dish. The sauce was fairly liquidy, despite simmering uncovered for twenty minutes at the last stage in the recipe, instead of the suggested five. However, I didn't mind the thinness of the sauce. Preparing the recipe is quite straightforward, though chopping two onions, six tomatoes, six cloves of garlic, and a cube of ginger takes quite a while. It's great to have people help. Some notes on the ingredients:
  • I used 2.5 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken, including 1.7 pounds of breast fillet and 0.8 pounds of thighs. The recipe actually called for three pounds of skinless chicken parts; it wasn't clear whether these should be boneless or not. I figured 2.5 pounds was close enough that it wouldn't matter much either way.
  • I accidentally used chili powder instead of cayenne powder. Oops! The recipe called for one eighth to one half of a teaspoon of this spice; I used one-quarter of a teaspoon. These facts may have to do with the mildness I mentioned earlier.
  • I used a packaged garam masala mix, not Jaffrey's recipe.
close-up

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have this cookbook too and have made this recipe on more than one occasion. The breakthrough came when my Pakistani mother in law, who is a great cook, helped me make it. A key step in Indian/Pakistani cooking is the "bhoon" or stir-fry process, by which the water from tomatoes and onions is dried up in order to intensify the flavor of the dish and create a thick sauce that clings to the meat or vegetables in your dish. You will know you have accomplished this drying process when you see the oil separating from the food. See this blog for details: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/weekend-cooking-how-to-make-curry-044208

If you want the curry to have more liquid you can add water at the end and heat to boiling. Then turn off the heat and you will be done. The flavors will be much more strong and the curry more flavorful than if you had left the tomato water in the dish.