Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Chicken Tikka Masala

Another dish that is unknown in its country of origin or let's say chicken tikka masala is the same for India what spaghetti bolognese for Italy. After all this hybrid was born in Great Britain when some Bangladeshi chefs tried to create Indian dishes that cater British tastes. According to a story an Indian chef served traditional chicken tikka (in tandoori oven cooked chicken that was marinated in a yoghurt and spices) to guest, who didn't like it, because it was too dry and asked for a gravy. So the chef improvised one based on a tomato soup that he flavoured with Indian spices. If this really happened or not is impossible to find out, especially since in 2001 Iqbal Wahhab, who is the owner of a elegant Indian restaurant, said that he invented this story. Anyway, meanwhile this combination of tikka and masala is claimbed by a number of places in England and of course there are many explanations for it. Allegedly, it was like a wildfire in the 60ties and 70ties on the menu of the restaurants. Anyway, one thing is for sure that the chicken tikka masala was inspired by Indian dishes like murg makhani or butter chicken, where the tandoori chicken is served in a buttery tomato sauce.

However, it is not that simple as it seems! Heston Blumenthal travelled to India to find out more and things got even more confusing. He met several people who insisted that it was an Indian dish, after all spices belong to India. Finally, when he was back in England he went to his favourite Indian restaurant to have a plate of chicken tikka masala. Only now he realised that what he really loved about the dish was coconut milk.

There is no better proof of Blumenthal's vocation in the search of perfection than the MRI scan to find out if the marinade penetrates the meat or only coats the surface. That helped to find the best way of preparation of the chicken meat. The best result was achived with the chicken that had the rub for 5 hours and was marinated for 10 hours. So everything was ready for cooking, however an ordinary housewife has no tandoori oven at home. Blumenthal found a simple, yet effective way to solve this problem. Well, we do not own such a grill and I didn't want to buy one, so we improvised.

The preparation? Well, it is neither complicated nor time consuming! Everything starts the same way like with the perfect roast chicken: the chicken thighs spend 6 hours in salty water, then another 2 in water where you gotta change it every 30 minutes. Okay, that is the worst part, but it is worth it! Then comes the preparation of the rub using raw and baked garlic, ginger and olive oil. The deboned chicken thighs spend 5 hours in the rub. After it is time for the yoghurt marinade that contains home made garam masala (coriander, green and black cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, clove, cumin, mace, bay leaf) chili and fenugreek leaves. I didn't manage to get the leaves so I used ground fenugreek, but only a 1/4 of the required amount. After 10 hours of marinating it is time to cook the chicken! And finally, you only have to prepare the masala. For this you need a pressure cooker, but I do not own one, so I baked the tomatoes covered in foil in the oven. Then the rest is really quickly: add ginger, baked garlic, chili, yoghurt and coconut milk. Finally, stir in cashew nut butter and butter and sprinkle with melon seeds and fresh green chili. Serve with freshly baked naan and enjoy.

The taste? Brilliant, simply BRILLIANT!

Blood Orange-Beetroot Tart

It wasn't that easy to get back to the kitchen, as I expected. Somehow those few days, when I had the opportunity to relax and enjoy the food that is cooked by someone else, I pretty much got used it. Although I also baked two chocolate mousse cakes, but still, nothing can beat mom's paprikás csirke. Anyway, the original plan was to bake a simple lemon tart, so to say to warm up and get back to the routine, but then I ended up making this beetroot-blood orange version. I have been ever so curious about Heston Blumenthal's pastry, so it was the perfect opportunity to try it. The filling is also based on his recipe, but I must confess, that I already have some new plans with it. So stay tuned for a pretty exciting dessert to come. As far as the pastry is concerned, well it is gorgeous! Already while working the raw pastry, I felt that this is going to be something amazingly good. If you want that the tart has a more intense orange flavour, then use normal oranges instead of blood.

Ingredients:
200 ml blood orange juice
50 ml beet juice
240 g sugar
300 ml cream
1/2 vanilla pod
6 eggs
1 egg yolk

The recipe for the pastry you find here. Preheat the oven to 120ºC and place the baked tart shell onto a sheet. Put the ingredients of the filling into a heatproof bowl, mix it together and leave it over a bain marie until it reaches 60ºC. Now pour it over a sieve, remove any bubbles and pour it into the preheated tart shell. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it has reached 70ºC. Let it cool, then trim the overhanging pastry. Serve with blood orange fillets and coarsly chopped pistachios.
 

Banana Parfait

Although, I've promised myself not to end up again with over-ripe bananas, I did. However, I had no lust to cook jam or bake banana bread or to make those delicious beignets. I was kind of hopeless about finding a solution. Then I remembered Heston Blumenthal's Baked Alaska, that contains a banana parfait, so I thought why not. This parfait has an amazing consistency, the best I have ever prepared!


Ingredients:
115 g hazelnuts
375 g sugar
500 g very ripe bananas
20 g butter
30 g unrefined sugar
50 g rum
375 g double cream
6 egg whites


Preheat the oven to 150°C and roast hazelnuts until golden brown. Then caramelise the hazelnuts in a hot pan with 115 g sugar. Tip the caramelised nuts on to a baking paper and let cool. Once cooled smash or grind them into coarse pieces.


Peel the bananas and slice into slices about 1 cm thick. Melt butter and add the unrefined sugar and stir until a caramel forms. Add the sliced bananas and sauté. When the bananas are coated add rum, and light the alcohol and countinue to cook until the caramel becomes thick enough to coat the bananas again. Pass the caramlised bananas through a sieve and set aside. Whip the cream until it becomes thick and refrigarate until needed. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, add about one-quarter of the remaining sugar and countinue whisking while slowly adding the rest of the sugar. Whisk for about 5-10 minutes until soft peaks form. Add the hazelnut praline to the banana puree, then fold in a third of the meringue to loosen the mixture. Fold in the rest and the whipped cream. Freeze for 2-3 hours depending on the size of the portions.

Blumenthal's roast chicken

Well, it has just happened. I bought a gorgeous free range chicken on Saturday, no not a Bresse, but a great quality Swiss chicken. Compared to a usual chicken it has a longer breast, longer legs, no wonder, after all it runs around outside for almost 3 months.


On the way home I was wondering if I should go for it. If I should go for Heston Blumenthal's way of preparing the "perfect" roast chicken. After all perfection is totally subjective. Although, it was already quite late afternoon, I had the book in one hand, in the other the chicken and I started. I put it in a bowl and filled it with water to count how much salt it needs. In fact, I prepared two chickens: the so to say kind of deluxe one (though I believe that should be the only way to raise chickens) and an organic chicken (that one had a more round breast, and rather strange short legs, like most chicken have in the stores). After all, if I went for the preparation of Blumenthal, why shouldn't I experiment a bit, at least as far as it is possible in my tiny kitchen. So meanwhile I had both chickens having a bath of 6 hours in salty water. It was already late evening when I started to rinse them for an hour. Then around midnight I was dunking them in hot water. Finally, I put them in the fridge covered with a cheesecloth to wish them good night, well to let them dry overnight. The next day, I preheated to oven to the magical 60°C and left the chickens in there for about 6 hours, but I didn't quite trust them yet, so I gave them another 45 minutes. Of course this mission wouldn't been completed without the roasted potatoes, the carrots and the broccoli.


The potatoes are fabulous, but I must say the carrots were the best! I have never ever had carrots in my entire life like those! And they are so easy to prepare! On low heat, among butter, salt and pepper. Just leave them there for 40-50 minutes. That's all! And the chicken? It melts in your mouth! The only difficulty in the recipe is at the end, when you have to fry a chicken in a pan, that is quite a task! But the crispy skin worth it for sure!