Secret Recipe Club - Chicken Tikka Masala and Garlic Chive and Mozzarella Paratha

This is my first post for the Secret Recipe Club! I was given a really interesting blog called Enriching Your Kid written by mum Shirley to chronicle the recipes she makes for her family.

The recipes all have a strong Indian vibe and given we love Indian food in this house it was a really tough choice picking just one. So I went with 2 instead!

First up was a creamy Chicken Tikka Masala with a twist, that twist being that it contains cheese! A little research showed this is actually not uncommon. I love cheese but would never have thought to use it in a curry.

I did make a few changes to the recipe, firstly using chicken thighs instead of breast for extra flavour and also to ensure it stayed moist as we were cooking on the BBQ. Secondly, I used the remainder of the marinade in the sauce so as not to waste all those delicious flavours and to make the sauce really creamy. There were a few measures missing from the original recipe, for example the amount of lemon juice needed so I have just included what I used. I also doubled the recipe and that's what you will see below. You could easily halve it.

The second recipe I chose was the Garlic Chive and Mozzarella Parathas. While we do make curries pretty often I have never really made Indian breads and this one looked too good to pass up. It didn't disappoint. We all LOVED this bread!

The chicken and parathas made a fabulous dinner. The Chicken Tikka Masala has a lovely warmth from the spices (no chillies) so it is the perfect curry for kids. My 2 year wasn't keen (but he's going through a VERY picky stage) but he did love the bread. My almost 4 year old loved both and wanted seconds. So that's a pretty big tick of approval.

There were lots of other great recipes for choose from so make sure you check out Shirley's blog!

Chicken Tikka Masala
Recipe adapted from Enriching Your Kid

8 chicken thighs

1st marinade
1 tbs ginger-garlic paste (see recipe below)
Juice of 1 lemon

Cut each chicken thigh in half, add marinade ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.

2nd marinade
200 ml Cream
2tbs ginger-garlic paste
50 grams cheddar cheese, finely grated
3 tbs almond meal
2 egg white
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 ts crushed black pepper
oil
salt to taste

In a large bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients the cheese dissolves and becomes a fine paste. Add the cardamom and pepper and mix well. Add the marinated chicken pieces and mix until the chicken is well coated. Set aside in the fridge for 2 hours.

Remove the chicken from the marinade, scraping off any excess. Reserve the leftover marinade to use in the sauce. Drizzle oil over the pieces, sprinkle with salt to taste and cook on a hot grill, turning often until golden brown and cooked through, approx 10 minutes.

Sauce
1 tbs oil
½ tsp cumin seeds
1 large onion
2 large ripe tomatoes
½ bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
salt to taste

Blitz the onion and tomato in a blender until smooth. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add the cumin seeds and cook for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the onion and tomato mixture along with the remaining marinade and mix well. Bring to the boil then cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for around 15 minutes. Season to taste. Toss through the cooked chicken pieces and coriander and serve with parathas.

Serves 6.


Ginger & Garlic Paste
Recipe from Hub UK

115g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
115g garlic cloves

In a food processor blend the ginger and garlic to form a smooth paste, adding a little cold water or oil if necessary. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks in a glass container. Makes approximately 100ml.


Garlic Chives and Mozzarella Paratha
Recipe adapted from Enriching Your Kid

1 bunch garlic chives, finely chopped
½ cup grated mozzarella
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup plain flour
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp tumeric
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp asafoetida (I used 2 ts ginger-garlic paste instead)
1 ts salt
Approx 1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and add enough water to create a dough. Leave to rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and roll each portion out into a round, approx 15 cm across. Brush each side with oil and fry in a hot pan on both sides until crisp and golden brown. Serve hot.
Makes 8.

 

BWJ - Boca Negra

I'd never heard of a Boca Negra cake before so was curious to see how these would turn out. Well, let me just say that a Boca Negra cake is the most intensely chocolatey cake I have ever made. Ever.

We don't do bourbon in this house so I subbed in some coffee instead and also went for a lightly sweetened whipped cream to serve. OMG. So rich, soooo delicious.

I'm very glad I did just 1/4 of the recipe, using my little heart shaped springform pan which only sees the light of day for Valentine's Day.

So my 1/4 recipe used 100g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 85% cocoa), 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tbs strong coffee, 60g butter, 2 eggs and 2 ts plain flour. It baked for around 22 minutes and was just right. At room temperature it was silky and luscious, out of the fridge later it was like fudge.

The kids each had a bite and hubby and I polished off the rest. YUM.

To get the recipe and make your own Boca Negra visit out our host Cathy of A Frederick Food Garden.

Carrot Cake Cookies

I've had a hankering for carrot cake this week but really couldn't be bothered making a whole cake. Plus I've been meaning to make a big batch of something to stash in the freezer for after-kindy snacks and a cake doesn't really work.

I spotted some Sunflower Seed Cookies on Planning with Kids a while back and have had them bookmarked to try.

As always when I find a recipe I like I very rarely make it as written. Here I've switched around quite a few of the ingredients using wholemeal flour, carrot and pumpkin seeds which weren't in the original. I've also used dextrose instead of sugar to make them lower in sugar/fructose and added extra baking powder so they are more cakey. Think a not-too-sweet carrot cake but in cookie form.

My boys went nuts for these! They had 2 each with a glass of milk for afternoon tea desperately wanted more but mean mummy said no.

This recipe makes a huge batch so they will last for more than 5 minutes. Most of the batch is in the freezer and I'm looking forward to bringing them out for after-kindy afternoon teas. As they are nut-free they would also be suitable to pack in Oscar's lunchbox for kindy.

Carrot Cake Cookies
Inspired by Sunflower Seed Cookies on Planning with Kids
Makes 4 dozen

225 grams butter, softened
1 ½ cups dextrose (or white sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup grated carrot (about 3 carrots peeled then finely grated)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius /160 degrees fan-forced. Line 4 baking trays with non-stick paper and set aside.

Place the butter and dextrose a large bowl and beat with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla, beating well after each addition.

In another bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir to combine then pour over the butter mixture. When roughly combined add the grated carrot and enough milk to make a thick and slightly sticky batter.

Roll heaped tablespoons of dough into balls and place them onto the trays (12 per tray), leaving plenty of room for spreading.

Bake for approx 12 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through, until lightly golden brown. Leave the cookies to cool for 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will be soft but will firm up when cooled.

Makes approx 48. Suitable to freeze.

BWJ - Foccacia

It must be said that we love foccacia in this house so this was always going to be a winner. It didn't disappoint!

I made a mix of crushed garlic, dried Italian herbs and a good slug of olive oil and brushed most of it over the foccacia before baking. The I brushed the remainder over as soon is it was baked and wow, it smelt amazing!

We just happened to be having lasagne for dinner the day I made this and it was perfect accompaniment. Both boys kept asking for 'more bread please'. Gotta love that.

Our host this week is Sharmini of Wandering Through so make sure you visit her blog for the recipe and visit the LYL section of the Baking with Julia website to see how everyone else did.