My good friend and the neighbor I wish I had, Barbara Keibel, challenged her followers to participate in an Indian-Style Food celebration so Amy & I decided to play along. I really love good Indian food and our current favorite restaurant is Handi, on Main street Greenville. I’m not savvy enough to discern different styles of Indian food, but I’m a big fan of Tandoori chicken. A tandoori is a type of oven, they’re made out of clay and typically shaped like an upside-down bee hive with the heat source at the bottom and food is cooked inside or on the wall of the oven. The chicken is marinated in a very spicy mixture of herbs, yogurt, seasonsings, paprika and garam masala. So on a recent Sunday afternoon I set about making Tandoori Chicken, except I didn’t have any garam amsala and very little paprika but I did have two fat chickens and some willing neighbors. I walked across the street and invited Chris and Karmen to join in. All that it would cost them is a jasmine rice dish and the opportunity for me to rummage through their fridge for some ingredients. Chris told me I was welcome to “anything except for the breast milk.” More on that later. Here’s what I stole:
- a lemon, a pear, cilantro, two hot sauces and some steak spice blend
Next I rooted through our fridge and made a marinade with these ingredients:
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 teaspoons “Slap Ya Mama” spice blend or your favorite blend
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
8 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons paprika
Juice of 1 Lemon
Juice of 1 Apple
Juice of 1 Pear
2 cups plain yogurt
Place first nine ingredients into the bowl of a small food processor then grind until a smooth paste is formed. Place this in a six-quart bowl, add yogurt and the fruit juices. I use a Breville juicer, of course you could use a lime instead of a lemon, but I didn’t have a lime when I did this, only a lemon.
The next morning I had a TV appearance and a book signing.
When I was done, I came home and lit my Weber Grill and got to work.
- Chicken on the grill
And after this very lovely meal we had mango custard that my wife made out of egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, lemon, corn starch, a bit of cream and some mango juice. Quite a refreshing way to finish the evening and it was a great excuse to have the neighbors over as well. Life can be pretty good when you’re married to a professional pastry chef. Cheers!
Our youngest neighbor, Aubrie:
3 Responses
John
Thanks SO much for participating…I may have started something but I’m certainly no expert so I love seeing all the different recipes and especially love one I can re-create myself.
I am a bit like Tim the Toolman Taylor when it comes to my grill…I can not WAIT to get my grill on and make some Tandoori chicken!
I love your neighbors joined in and can I just say…what a CUTE baby. Mine are grown and not so cute right now; there are days I would like both of them to be my adorable little girls again.Most days as a matter of fact. 🙂
Yum. Always yum. My kids love Indian food and they are getting to be really good at preparing it.
had an Indian takeaway last night, usually do my own but time was against us. This looks good, although I have never been good on the barbie and of course we are a long way of from those temperatures, which are pretty rare here anyway…