Topic: Hargiwald's Swedish CTM

[Hargiwald]

Hi and welcome to my first posted recipe. The base used is SnS's base: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2757.0, which doesn't mean that other bases couldn't substitute, but naturally a vastly different base will give other results, great or bad, who knows?

On another side not, while I would say that this is very similar to Tikka Masalas I've had at restaurants, especially my favourite place, keep in mind that I'm Swedish and there might be some stylistic differences. However, just like the BIR CTM's, the ones we get here are sweet and mild and full of flavour, but rarely, as far as I've seen, containing anything coconut.

Now that that's out of the way, let's go:

Chicken Tikka Masala (Serves about 6 very hungry people)


Ingredients:

400 ml base sauce (SnS's in my case)
200 ml tinned chopped plum tomatoes (Italian Napolina)

0,5 l water
1 tsp dried methi
3 bay leaves
Green cardamom pods, a lot of them, about 20. Crush them lightly so that that the seeds are exposed but won't leave.

3-4 fairly large garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced.
1 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp garam masala *
2 tsps dried coriander leaves
2 tsps dried coriander seeds
2 tsps chili powder
2 tsps ancho style chili powder (sweeter and milder, kashmiri mirch might be a good substitute, but I wouldn't know)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp dried mint leaves
0,5 tsps cumin
0,25 tsps fenugreek

3-4 dl cashew nuts, finely ground (that's 3-4 dl before you actually grind it)
1 dl of mango chutney
4 tsps lemon juice (Skip it if you want to, just don't nag about it. It doesn't take away any of the sweetness)

Precooked marinated chicken for 6-7 portions, I can't say how much because when I made it I used to little anyway. I also can't give you a good recipe for a marinade because the one I tried wasn't any good, but I suspect you could find a good marinade recipe on here. Next time I will fix these two issues.

Optional: Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing.
Red food colouring (I put some in, but the stuff I had at home is liquid and it seems that the general food colouring on here is powder so you'll just have to figure out how much to put in yourselves.


Method:

Start with putting water, methi, cardamom pods and bay leaves in a saucepan and bringing to a boil. The heat should be lowered slightly after a few minutes and you can let it stand and simmer until you need the stuff, just don't burn anything.

Then fry garlic, ginger and tomato puree gently in butter for about 1-2 minutes, making sure not to burn it. Add more butter, make sure you have a fair amount melted butter in there now now, and the spices and keep the gentle frying going until you get what SnS describes as the tofee aroma.

Start adding base, tinned tomatoes and the boiled water (including cardamom, bay leaves and methi) little by little but fairly quickly, meanwhile stirring. Raise the heat and add mango chutney, ground cashews and lemon juice.

Let it simmer until you feel it's just a bit thicker than you want the final result to be. Add chicken and cook for a few minutes. Then add the cream. Unless you feel it's too thick or watery, it should be done as soon as you've got the temperature up again. Otherwise simmer or add water until you get it right. Taste with salt and possibly sugar if your mango chutney doesn't bring enough sweetness. Garnish with coriander leaves if you feel like it. There's also the option of leaving the cardamom pods and bay leaves in, but I think it's a pain to pick all of the cardamom out personally. People in general also seem to enjoy chewing and sucking a bit at the cardamom pods before spitting them out, so it's often worth it leaving them in.

I hope you like it, but either way, tell me what you think. Any suggestions for improvements are welcome, I'm not quite done with this anyway. 




* In case this spice mix looks vastly different in England, it wouldn't surprise me if we Swedes got this messed up, this is what's in it, according to it's packing (from most to least prominent): Cumin, Cardamom, Coriander (probably the seeds), black pepper, clover, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

[Bobby Bhuna]

20 cardomom pods! **** me!  ;D

This isn't a typical BIR style recipe. It sounds quite mad! I can't help but notice (amongst many other things) how little base is used here, plus a tin of chopped tomatoes etc etc. I guess if this is very similar to your Swedish dishes (which having eaten Indian in and around Malmo it doesn't sound like to me) then who's to argue but have you tried many of the recipes from this site? I found Swedish Indian cusine to be similar to ours. That said, it is a long country and no doubt with the high immigration in the south - areas such as Malmo (and there were a lot of foreigners) could explain our different experiences.

[Hargiwald]

Well, I've been giving it some thought and in all honesty, the tikka masala of my favourite place looks just like all others but it is a bit different in taste, but not vastly... Well I don't know.

And about the cardamoms, I think I'll have to do some heavy revising on that part, I do suspect that the pods I have are getting a bit old and don't give off as much taste as they should, so there's a big risk that anyone who tries this with fresh cardamom gets a cardamom shock. (Mine are still green but just barely)

I also followed this recipe very closely yesterday because I was in the mood for a Tikka, and I think I might have got some measurements wrong, because while good it didn't taste quite like the time before. For one thing I will have to mint things up for the next version of this recipe, but if you still dare try it please do and any suggestions are welcome.