Chicken and Chickpea Masala

Hello everyone,

I hope this day finds you and your loved ones and friends doing well wherever you may be in the world.

It has been awhile since I shared a recipe so I'm posting a "new to me" recipe that I made in the pressure cooker. I didn't think to take photos until after almost everything was eaten! So this photos isn't the best presentation you will get.

I found this recipe on the website Serious Eats here. If you go there you will find a much nicer presentation of the dish and the full recipe. I am also copying the recipe here for your easy reference.

As always I made some modifications to the recipe. I didn't have coriander (even though I'm sure I purchased some earlier for such a time as this, I cannot find it). I also didn't have spinach so I substituted rainbow Swiss chard. Last ingredient I was missing was cilantro. It didn't harm my dish but if you like cilantro I think it adds a nice, fresh flavour.

Another modification is I used dried chickpeas. I cooked them for about 15 minutes in the pressure cooker as I didn't want them over done in the dish. That was a mistake for the dish had to be cooked for an extra 30 minutes or so just to get the chick peas soft enough.

Review:  This dish is quite good and very filling. It has healthy ingredients like chick peas, swiss chard and various spices. I try to eat chick peas whenever I can as a source of protein, fibre, vitamin B-6, iron and magnesium.

This dish is also a bit rich due to the whipping cream which is used as a thickening agent. I ate this chicken and chickpea masala over top of plain boiled potatoes.  It helped to cut the "richness".  You could also use rice, cous cous or yams.  I will definitely make this dish again but next time I will cook the chickpeas well done or used canned as called for in the recipe. On a final note, I noticed that the dish as pictured above looks like it is swimming in grease. That is probably the overhead lighting.  The dish wasn't greasy looking when I took the lid off the pot or when I spooned it into my dish.

Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken and Chickpea Masala

About This Recipe

Yield:	Serves 4
Active time:	10 minutes
Total time:	40 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, finely diced (about 1 cup)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced (about 4 teaspoons)
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (15 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 pound fresh spinach leaves, trimmed
• 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup fresh juice from 2 to 3 lemons
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• 3 pounds chicken drumsticks and thighs (4 to 6 of each)
• Kosher salt

Procedures

1. Heat butter in a pressure cooker over medium-high heat ("sear" setting on an electric pressure cooker) until foaming subsides. Add onions, garlic, and ginger. Cook, stirring frequently, until pale brown, about 5 minutes. Add cumin, paprika, coriander, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and black pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until aromatic, about 30 seconds. Add crushed tomatoes and spinach. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.
   
   
2. Add drained chickpeas, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, half of cilantro, and chicken pieces. Stir to combine. Seal pressure cooker and heat to high pressure. Once high pressure is reached, cook for 15 minutes.
   
   
3. Allow to cool, release pressure, remove lid, add heavy cream and simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce is thickened. Stir in remaining lemon juice and season to taste with salt. Serve immediately, garnished with remaining cilantro leaves.
   
   

   ~~~~~~~~~

   
   

One Baby's Life - Wordless Wednesday #3

Click
Baby Fidelis
for more words

Joining Wordless Wednesday

My World

We're still having very unsettled weather where I live.  

On Friday it hailed and rained heavily for much of the day and the temperature dipped low enough to turn on the indoor heating for the night.

I tried to capture the hail in the photos above and below.

The rain makes puddles on the patio pavers. You can see how big the drops are by looking at the circles in the puddle.

In between raining and hailing, it would dry up for an hour or two and start all over again.

Monday the weather was a bit better and I tried to get a few photos of the garden.

I love this Solomon's Seal (photos above and below). It comes up nicely every year and needs no maintenance.

I just bought these pansies last week and I am only now noticing the spots on the leaves. I will have to check into how to remedy that. I don't think I've ever had that on any of my previous pansies. I didn't select the healthiest starter pansies.

When it stops raining the weather is quite lovely.

 I hope you are enjoying the weather wherever you are in the world.

Thank you for dropping by!

Joining in with Our World Tuesday.

Night Macro

Joining Macro Monday 2 and i heart macro

I snapped this on a late night run to the pharmacy. I have no idea what this is called. Does anyone know the name of this flower?

Night Sky in April

Joining Skywatch Friday

Please visit the link and see more gorgeous skies from around the globe. 

Happy weekend to you.

If you missed my post on Baby Fidelis, I would love it if you could visit my post and share the information with your contacts. You can read about it here http://www.snapthatpenny.blogspot.ca/2015/04/saving-angel-fidelis-update.html

It is very easy to share the blog post. Simply look for the share buttons (Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest)

Thanks so much!

SAVING ANGEL FIDELIS - UPDATE

Hi friends,

I first posted about baby Fidelis a few days ago.

You can read the original post by clicking here.

 But I've just learned that she is scheduled for surgery on May 7th if the family can raise the travel funds from Kenya to Canada (Toronto).  Time is of the essence in getting this message out far and wide and raising the needed funds.

A well wisher in USA has opened a Go Fund Me Campaign which you can find here

http://www.gofundme.com/rartwk

Donations can be accepted on the Go Fund Me page or through the Pay Pal page at Hope Foundation For Orphans in Kenya http://hopefoundationkenya.org/donate.html

If you want to help and are able to help, please do not delay.

There is only a short time before the surgery date is here. The family will need a bit of time to determine whether they have the full funds needed and to make all necessary travel arrangements.

Each of you who reads this post can also help to share this message as widely as you can with all your contacts. You can easily share this post by using the "share" buttons at the bottom of this post.

Thank you so much!

Wordless Wednesday #2

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by!

Humility in Yellow

I haven't taken any macro shots for a long time. I thought I better practice once more but it was a bit windy and I had no tripod. I got a few decent shots anyway.
(click on the photo for a slightly larger image).

I'm interested in the humble, happy dandelion right now because I'm drinking Dandelion Root Tea for it's medicinal properties. I'm not sure it will agree with me for the longer term as I seem to be having a few reactions but it is always good to try something new.

I thought the tea might help with my blood sugar levels but it is giving me stomachache and heartburn.

If you drink this tea please let me know what you've experienced.

If you missed my post about Baby Fidelis yesterday, please read and share the post widely. You can find it here 

 http://www.snapthatpenny.blogspot.ca/2015/04/saving-angel-fidelis.html

The more people who know of the baby's situation, the more people who can help. Thank you so much for your help!

Joining in with Macro Monday 2,  Nature Notes,   i heart macro and Mosaic Monday this week.

 

 

A Hungry Doggie

This sweet dog looks longingly into the restaurant and didn't seem ready to leave when his master came out.

It seemed like he wanted to partake in some of the food his master had.


Joining in with Saturday's Critters

 

Bluetiful Day

One day I was running errands in an area of town I seldom get to. I've had to go that way a few times in the last few months. 

Since it has literally been years and years since I have visited this part of town, the area has changed considerably.  Whenever yuppies move into a neighbourhood, they change the area dramatically by renovating houses, opening new shops and wonderful cafes and coffee shops.

I will have to return in future to check out some of these "new to me" places.

 On my last foray to the eastern part of the city, the sky was an absolutely beautiful blue, or "bluetiful".  It had been threatening to rain all day but the afternoon turned out to be fantastic.

I'm glad I ventured out after all rather than staying indoors where I would be snuggled against the elements. 

I mentioned that this part of town is changing dramatically.  Actually all parts of the city are changing dramatically.  No matter where you look new building and highrises are going up.  I don't usually take photos of the buildings that are going up as there are plenty of those. 

In the photo above, the building was difficult to cut out of the picture.  I also thought that the building added to the "flavour" of what is happening in the neighbourhood.

While I was trying to capture the sky and the contrail I noticed a bird flying by.

Birds in flight are always a nice surprise. 

A few days earlier before these blue and white sky photos were taken I was in a totally different neighbourhood in the centre of the city.  I was there to photograph more tree blossoms.

I wasn't the only one with this idea.

I crossed paths with at least 5 people in a matter of minutes.

We were all taking photos of the lovely tree blossoms.

 It was a very bright, sunny day with no clouds in sight.

I also took photos of beautiful red rhododendrons in full bloom but these photos were overexposed.

 I'm still learning my new camera and perhaps this summer I will get some better photos of flowers.

 

Thank you for visiting (and commenting).

Linking up with Skywatch Friday
I Heart Macro

Wordless Wednesday #1

Joining Wordless Wednesday

Saturday's Critters

Hello friends, I hope all of you are well this fine weekend.

We were expecting rain in Vancouver but it turned out to be a pleasant day with intermittent sunshine.  It allowed me to get a wee bit of work done in the garden. I planted some cabbage, beets and lettuce. 

The other day I planted several types of flowers and managed to put some pansies into containers, as well as some geraniums and a few pots of herbs.

I still have a few more spaces I can plant so hope to do that next week as we are expecting rain now for the next few days.

This is one of many baboons I photographed in Lake Nakuru National Park. In another post I will show more of them.

Baboons are fun creatures to observe and you can spend hours watching them. I especially love it when I see a baby baboon with it's mother.

These goats slowed down our progress on the highway between Nakuru and Marigat in Kenya.

Goats are common creatures in Kenya.  Many people raise them in place of cattle or in addition to cattle.

I've always enjoyed observing goats too, especially the baby goats (kids).

Joining Saturday's Critters with our host Eileen.