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.
   
   

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Chicken Lickin'

This Chicken-Cauliflower-Cheese casserole was a welcome change from plain old roasted chicken.

I used boneless chicken breast baked with cauliflower florets, diced green onions, sliced mushrooms & mushroom soup for the sauce.  I baked the chicken at 350 degrees before adding all the other ingredients. 

You could also par boil the cauliflower florets to cut down on cooking time. I added some water to my mushroom soup but if you want a thicker sauce, omit the water or use it very sparingly.

I topped the casserole with sliced cheddar and mozzarella cheese and baked for another 20 minutes. It gives the appearance of skin on the chicken.  Serve with rice and side dish. I served mine with brown rice and a side dish of a simple mango salad (diced red onions, chopped red pepper and chopped mango).

Yum!

Chicken & Sausage Casserole

Yesterday I posted a recipe for the chili I made on Saturday. Today I'm posting the dinner  made on Sunday. It was delicious and very filling. I feel like making some nice pumpkin or cranberry muffins but I'll probably wait until Monday as there is movie I want to catch right now while I enjoy a cup of tea.

 

Ingredients

• 6-8 Italian sausages (sliced) *

• 4 pieces of chicken thighs/legs

• 3 c. brown rice

• 6 c. water

• 1 tsp. vegetable oil

• 1 chopped white onion

• 1 chopped green and red bell peppers

• 1 can of stewed tomatoes or chop about 3 fresh tomatoes

• 3 tsp. of chopped/minced garlic

• 3 chicken bouillon cubes

• salt (to taste  - not to much if you have high blood pressure)

• pepper (to taste)

• 3-4 drops soy sauce for colouring (can be omitted if you have high blood sugar)

• a few sprinkles of cayenne pepper

• 1 tsp. worchestershire sauce

• 1 tsp. hot sauce

Directions

In a large pot over medium/high heat "brown" your sliced sausage in the vegetable oil for approximately 5-7 minutes.  You want it brown. Repeat sausage step with the chicken and remove from the heat when done.

Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Sautee in the same pot until transparent.  Put the chicken and sausage back in the pot and add the water. You can also add the seasonings, worchestershire, and soy sauce (optional).  Bring to a full boil and add rice, boullion cubes and hot sauce.  Stir occasionally and bring to boil.

Reduce heat to simmer, and cover for 1 hour taking care not to remove the lid during this time.
Remove lid, turn off heat, serve up and enjoy.

* A package of Grimm's All-Beef Smokies were used and they were very lean.

If you have no dietary or cholesterol concerns you could use a sausage with more fat (and flavour).  Personally I found these sausages to be hard and they didn't soften with cooking. They were okay in the casserole but next time I would choose a more traditional pork sausage.

Enjoy!

I think this will be new favourite during our cold months of winter.
What is your favourite cold weather dish?

A Little Bit of Knitting and A Little Bit Italian Chicken

Well today (Wednesday) was a very busy day dashing to the medical laboratory for early morning tests, stopping at the post office, doing some thrifting, dropping in on my travel agent, stopping for a lunch of Thai food, stopping at the dollar store, then rushing home to do some laundry, boil some beans and put the dinner on.

At the thrift stores I bought a number of skeins of yarn and various sized needles. I only go for "newish" yarn and needles that are not bent and well worn. I am creating my stash for when I want to branch out with new projects. For now, I am focussing on improving my very newly learned knitting skills with a simple dishcloth pattern. So far I've made four. I finally felt like I could knit on the fourth one. I am on my way! Yeah!

Here are my four facecloths. I will probably give the green/blue ones to my mom and keep the other two for myself. A friend has already asked me to make several but I want to practice other things right now as well as get better at knitting before I try to knit for others.

Given the busyness of the day and the fact it started raining I felt like having something comforting. I don't know what to call this made up and simple recipe so am calling it A Little Bit Italian Chicken *smile.


Recipe:

- 4 medium to large chicken thighs with legs attached
- Italian seasoning
- 1 large can of diced tomatoes
- a handful of parsley.

I baked the chicken pieces with a sprinkling of Italian seasoning on top. The chicken was baked at about 350 Farenheit oven until crispy brown. Once it was browned, I drained out as much fat out of the pan as possible. I then added a large can of diced tomatoes to the chicken along with some chopped parsley and more Italian seasoning. Continue cooking at same temperature for another 20 minutes or so.

Side dishes

Brown Rice
Red Kidney Beans


I bought dried beans and soaked them overnight changing the water twice and rinsing them after the 2nd soak and just before boiling. After such a long soak it didn't take so long to cook them by bringing them to a gentle boil for about 45 minutes. Now if you decide to make your beans this way, you can cook them longer or shorter depending on how crunchy you like your beans.

I like bland foods more than some so if the rice and beans are too bland for your taste you can add other seasonings. Likewise with the chicken, if the tomatoes and Italian seasoning is too bland you can add something like crushed garlic to the "sauce" before baking.

To serve place one piece of chicken leg and thigh on plate alongside a few scoops of rice. Top the rice with your beans and the tomato mixture. Season with salt and pepper as needed and a sprig of parsley to garnish.

My Indulgent Weekend

What do you do when you feel tired all the time? How do you keep your spirits up day after day?

I get tired of feeling tired and I don't want to give in to feelings of uselessness or self-pity. That was actually one of the reasons I started this blog last Spring; to help me remember the simple pleasures of life. The big pleasures are more elusive these days and so it helps to focus on small things of joy and to remember that there really is joy in such moments.

This weekend with all the rain and my seeming inability to get out to do an important errand, I ended up staying close to home. An internet friend in a far off land told me I should get out to the movies but the rain hindered that. Instead, I rented two movies from a video place a block away and stayed cuddled up with a soft blanket and pillows to eat popcorn, drink soda and watch:

He's Just Not Into You with Jennifer Aniston & Ben Affleck; and Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio.

I watched the Jennifer Aniston, chick flick first and found it quite engaging. I have not read the book by the same name but I did watch an interview on Oprah Winfrey with the author and found him to be very enlightening. The movie was fictional however and it captured my attention more so than I expected.

Perhaps I was tired by the time the second movie played (the first movie was rather long). But I did not enjoy this "blah-ish" movie nearly as much as I expected since I love both Kate Winslet and Leonardo Di Caprio. Anyway, the two movies more than took up my Saturday evening.

Today, I finished a book I've taken a long while to start (it's been sitting in my collection for a long while) Mme. Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor. This was a satisfying book overall but it was weakened in the telling of the story through the eyes of three protagonists. I think it was one too many, but that is my humble opinion. I won't give the story line away but I did very much enjoy the diary entries of Mme. Proust who spent much of her life (at least in this novel) attending to the needs of her asthmatic writer son, Marcel Proust. If anyone reads the book's description on Amazon.com and would like to read it, I would be interested in a book exchange.

Still feeling indulgent, we had chicken with ginger ale sauce for Sunday dinner from Lynda in Tanzania; one of the bloggers I love to read. She has a lot of wonderful recipes. Some of you might be wondering what I am doing eating chicken when I said I was going vegan. Sadly, I have not been able to continue with my vegan diet. It simply takes much more energy and planning than I can muster at this time. Whenever I am a little more "up", I hope to incorporate vegan eating as often as I can.
The chicken dish was delicious accompanied by brown rice and a mixture of steamed gai lan (chinese broccoli), crimini mushrooms and green beans.

In my first making of this dish, I learned that next time I need to somehow get the more fast out of the chicken first. Perhaps this means boiling it or partially cooking it and straining off the fast. I also need to measure the ginger ale more carefully or use more chicken to have a thicker sauce than what I ended up with. Nonetheless, it was a delicious dish which I will try again some time. My roommate pronounced the sauce "really, really good" and asked what was in it.