dinner – The Abode

I’ve never had Indian food before this year. No naan, curries, masalas, or chutneys of any kind lmao. However this year is different.

I’ve kind of been making it my mission to try new food whether I cook it or go to a restaurant. It’s been working out well, but I feel like I am picky eater in disguise. I can’t say I don’t like something if I’ve never tried it. Sometimes I just get in my own way of enjoying something new because I can’t imagine how it tastes. It would help out greatly if I started tasting more things so I can get a better judge of flavor.

I’m only giving this long winded section that people normally hate about recipes because it applies to the situation. I’m incredibly clueless when it comes to this specific asian cuisine. The flavors are unknown to me and I have no idea what goes into the dishes; so I unfortunately and Americanly avoided trying something new. All I knew was that it always smelled and looked amazing.

Butter Chicken is kind of like the new Orange Chicken to my understanding. Not flavor wise but foreign food being popular in America wise.

The first time I had butter chicken it was a frozen meal from Trader Joe’s. I thought it was good, but I knew I was missing out flavor wise since frozen meals never capture the real thing well enough. This year I tried a new butter chicken that wasn’t from Joe’s but it was from Deep. That was much better and I gathered a better flavor profile. So good that I decided that I wanted to try to and make it myself because buying it was getting too expensive.

I did ask my Indian coworkers for any tips or must have ingredients and they were all very helpful in giving suggestions( Luv ya’ll ). The main thing I gathered from their tips is that it’s tomato based and lots of stirring lol.

So let’s get into my process.

*Ingredients: Heavy Whipping Cream, Ginger, Turmeric,* *4 cloves of garlic, Tomato Sauce, Butter, Garan Masala, Paprika, and Chili Powder*

I always say that I don’t need to buy too much every time I go to the store but I’m going to be honest this time and admit that I only had the rice at home. Sadly it was not Basmati rice but in my defense groceries are too expensive and I was on a budget.

You can certainly use real tomatoes instead of sauce from a can but I don’t have the tools at my disposal to do that. If you would like to donate to the blender fund please let me know.

The only thing I did differently than the recipe was, as per the suggestion of my boyfriend, that I salt and tenderize my chicken and let it sit up to 30 minutes. It’s supposed to make the chicken moist or something like that. I think it worked. The chicken wasn’t dry and was juicy.

The cooking process wasn’t too bad. My coworkers were right about one tip, it is tomato based. The stirring part wasn’t that bad so maybe I misheard.

Despite the name, not a lot of butter is needed, but then again, I feel like I’m making an americanized recipe so I could be wrong. I only used bit of butter when I was cooking the chicken. I did put in some oil to see if I could try and crisp it up like the recipe was saying but I feel like I put too much butter in mine. It still turned out fine.

I only used what I could describe as a handful of ginger lmao. You can see in the ingredients pic how much ginger I used. It was probably half of the relatively small ginger I bought.

I think the recipe used 5 cloves of garlic but I only used 4. I wasn’t trying to pussy out or anything, 4 just felt better for the portions that I had. The recipe calls for you to only smash the garlic, not mince, and to leave it in the for the entire process so that the flavor can gather. I would say don’t forget to take them out unless you like eating garlic cloves. I’m sure it’ll probably taste good.

The rest of the process wasn’t too bad. It does help to put your chicken to one side of the pan while the garlic and the ginger cook together.

The most exciting part about all of this was adding the heavy whipping cream. I’m a big slut for putting cream in things. I love putting it in my soups or ramen broths. It just elevates the flavor.

I was concerned that I used too much tomato sauce because it was so rich, but I think I was just unfamiliar with Butter Chicken’s game. It’s incredibly rich and flavorful. In fact, I was upset that I didn’t have more sauce.

Another small win was that my potion sizes were incredible. I made enough for just me and my boyfriend, no seconds unfortunately.

That’s lowkey kinda good cause this was the most heartburn inducing meal I’ve ever had.

Still I loved it. It was easy to make and I’m happy to add another recipe to my arsenal. It was so good we had it twice in one week.

I probably would’ve loved it more if I had a mango lassi tbh but cream soda is a nice substitute.

Thxs Shay ❤

Shepard’s Pie

I’m starting to learn that me and potatoes don’t have a good relationship.

I love to eat them and they love to be eaten by me but they make it so hard.

I was feeling rather festive today since it’s St. Paddy’s Day. Normally I would make a corned beef inspired dish but I didn’t have time to go out a buy any but more importantly, I got a root canal done last week on Thursday so I can only eat soft foods. It definitely limits a lot of what I can eat and I was advised potatoes in any form would suffice just fine.

I’ve never made a Shepards pie but I’ve eaten one. It was pretty good and it looked fairly easy to make. I’m starting to learn on my cooking adventure that the easier it looks to make, the harder it actually is.

Like every meal that I decide to make, I had to go grocery shopping right away after work. I looked at a recipe but I didn’t follow it to a T. I knew I had most ingredients at home save for the ground beef, the potatoes, and the veggies. Basically everything important I needed lmao.

I feel like there’s always that one thing you can’t find when you’re buying ingredients for you meal, at least in my case there always is. I’ve gotten better at improvising and substitutions for my meals, so I’m glad that I’m becoming a stronger cook but god damn.

I found everything relatively quickly. The potatoes were good, however I knew I was going to have problems when I looked at the ground beef they had left. In this household we are strictly 80/20. I love my fat, it adds to the flavor and I will accept nothing less. Except I had to today because there was literally nothing left but 90/10. I was dejected but the show much go on.

I had planned on using canned veggies since I was lazy and didn’t want to do any more chopping or cutting than I needed to. Also I’ve been playing a modded Minecraft server and that has been taking up a lot of my time. I’ll get more into that on another post though.

Right so, canned veggies and less chopping. I found the green beans and corn easy enough but I feel like it can’t be a Shepard’s pie if there’s no carrots.

And just like the chicken broth fiasco, there were no canned carrots.

I could’ve just gotten fresher carrots in the produce section but you’re talking to a Minecraft fiend so I was not open to the suggestion at all. I just had to have fucking canned carrots.

Once again I found myself, thankfully on a much nicer sunnier day, patrolling the street for carrots. I checked the first corner store by my home and found none. I already suspected they wouldn’t have any, I’ve never seen any there but a girl was hoping.

I made the trek with a sack of potatoes in tow up the street to the other corner store I knew. To my dismay and my aching arms, there were no carrots there. But they had mixed veggies so I took those as payment.

me on da porch after trekking for something so fucking meaningless like carrots #firstworldproblems

Making it was not that hard. My only problem was with the beef that I choose. I like to season things. You’ll never find anything bland in our house. But this meat and I were fighting. I knew I was using adequate seasoning but whenever I tasted it, it just tasted bland. Bland enough to where I had to ask my boyfriend to taste test and step in. We tried adding butter to meat so that it would add more fat. It worked a little bit but I didn’t want to try anymore as my meat was getting over cooked.

I didn’t even sweat the mashed potatoes. I could make that shit in my sleep. However I underestimated how much butter we had left so I had use to maragine halfway through. Aint nothing wrong with margarine, I just don’t really like cooking with it all too much. It’s my god given right for my butter to taste like it should kill me. I’m a crocker. I love Country Crock butter guys. It’s more than just a spread to me. Anyway, I use heavy whipping cream, butter, sour cream, salt, pepper, garlic salt, and more butter just to be safe when making my mashies.

Even though I went through all that hard work for those 2 cans of mixed vegetables, I didn’t end up using them. Stupid, I know right. But imagine if you were me, making a Shepards pie for the first time but everyone is hopping on Minecraft without you. You’d skip it too.

The recipe I was following was hard as shit to read when it came to preheating the oven and baking it. I had to stand there and reread that shit 10 times while I was getting fucked by creepers, zombies, and skeletons. I found 425 to be suitable for my oven. The recipe said I didn’t have to cover it with foil so I personally didn’t. I probably should have, it wasn’t dry or anything like that but it probably would’ve made the top more golden.

It was cool to make, my only regrets would be the beef and the lack of carrots. I should’ve just taken the time to cut the carrots instead of taking the easy way out. The normally tastes better when you put more effort into it.

An effort was made and it was good, I would probably rate it a 6/10.

~ Thx, Shay

The Abode

Join me as I engage in Stereotypical American Behavior: Liking/Loving Butter Chicken

Jesus was a Fence not a Shepard