Last night I made Joshua Weissman’s Tikka Masala.
Started off by toasting a tablespoon of dhania seeds and a half teaspoon of cumin seeds. (Next time will do full teaspoon), after which I ground them up to a powder.
Then into the spice grinder, I added 7 cloves of garlic, a thumb sized piece of ginger, a teaspoon of garam masala, a teaspoon of turmeric & some water.
I blended that up into a paste, and then added some coconut oil, some birds eye chillies, salt and some kashmiri chilli powder.
This was blended up to make the ‘tikka paste’
I then took two chicken breasts and cut the meat off the bone and cubed it. Joshua uses deboned thighs in his recipe, but I decided to keep the thighs for a proper curry – maybe today.
I then marinated the chicken pieces in some mass (I did not have plain yoghurt), and a third of the tikka paste.
I then got a bit mixed up and sautéed a chopped onion, but I removed the sautéed onion and set it aside, after which I fried up the chicken, letting the excess water from the mass evaporate – then removed and set the par-cooked chicken aside.
Back in when the onions, some kashmiri chilli powder and some garam masala, some butter and the rest of the ‘tikka paste’
After that had all incorporated, I added a tin of chopped Italian tomatoes and let it all cook up until it looked good enough to eat.
Then in went the chicken and it slowly simmered until the chicken was soft.
A few minutes before the end, I added a generous (perhaps a bit generous) pour of fresh cream.
The idea was to have it as a starter with some salad, and then a piece of meat on the braai – but as any South African knows how it goes, the meat only got braai’d by 11pm and never got eaten … but was enjoyed for breakfast.
Best intentions. One thing you gotta love about Cape Town, are the indoor braais and the loadshedding excuse to have a braai in the middle of the week.
I have made a couple of Joshua Weissman’s recipes and ended up buying his book. He champions making everything from scratch and is quite a hoot to watch. https://www.facebook.com/thejoshuaweissman
