Topic: CTM - Chicken Tikka Masala

[Curry King]

Here is a CTM as I make it and it always goes down as a favorite, I should make it more often 

This should serve around 3 people.

Ingredients:
2 or 3 tbsp Oil (veg or olive)
1 tsp garlic & ginger puree
Half a tbsp tomato puree
Pinch chilli powder 
1 Heaped tsp spice mix
1 level tsp tandoori masala
3 Large ladles of curry gravy (Will clarify how much exactly)
1 portion pre-cooked chicken tikka (3 or 4 chicken breasts)
3 or 4 tbsp cream (More if prefered)
2?x1? piece of creamed coconut (or to taste)
1 tbsp sugar
Red food colouring (optional)
Small handful of chopped coriander 

Method:
Fry the garlic and ginger puree for a few seconds in the oil.
Add the tomato puree and fry for a minute or 2.
Add the chilli powder, tandoori masala and spice mix, cook for a minute or 2 moving round the pan.
Add a ladle of curry gravy and stir in.
Add tikka chicken mix in and then add the rest of the gravy.
Add the sugar and coconut stir in until the coconut has dissapeared.
Take of the heat and add the cream, stirring in as you go.
Stir in the red food colouring and return to the heat.
Cook through for a couple of mins.
Garnish with the chopped coriander. 

I will update the exact quantity of gravy used next time I make it.

I will hopefully make one this weekend and put up some pictures to go with it.

[pete]

I see you have sugar in yours as well
The coconut in mine was powdered
I have recently bought some, but I don't know how different it tastes, yet

[Ashes]

This is a base sauce that i discovered while playing around a few weeks ago..
I was thinking its quite good when the wife piped up " oh I like these kind of curries its like CTM"
That spoilt it for me cause im not a CTM kind of person (or maybe I am  )
but for those of you who are, i can give my base sauce and you can add whatever you like to it.

Base Sauce

Onions 900 g
ginger 50 g
garlic 50 g
1 tsp of salt

cut up and mix with 1.5 litres of water (Kris Dhillion proportions)

Add a Bouquet Garni (100 Best Balti Curries)

5 whole cloves
8 black peppercorns
4 cm/1.5 inch cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
3 brown cardemons , slightly broken
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds

Cover, bring to the boil and reduce the heat to a simmer for 40 - 50 mins
remove the spices and blend until smooth

In another pan add 8 tbsps of oil, heat to medium,
then fry 2 medium/large sliced tomatoes,
let the tomatoes "melt" and reduce until most of the water
has evaporated (around 5 - 8 minutes - maybe longer maybe shorter)
add i heaped teaspoon of tomato puree and cook for another minute
stirring it into the oil and tomatoes.
( Dont be tempted to add the puree too early, the tomatoes should
be broken down and the water mostly gone)

Add 1 heaped teaspoon of turmeric and one heaped of paprika
to the tomato mixture and cook on a simmering heat for about
7-10 minutes checking that the mixture doesnt stick

Add the onion mixture to the tomatoe mixture
bring to the boil, remove lid and reduce the heat to a simmer
for 20 minutes. skim off any scum you meet on the way.

Use as a base sauce for any tomato type curries you like.
Would work well with CTM

[Curry King]

I have some powdered coconut but not tried it to be honest I always use the creamed.  I found that if you didn;t add sugar it just wouldn't be sweet enough, the CTM ive had from my local is sweet almost too sweet.

[traveller]

Ashes,
I made this base sauce of yours this morning in the hopes to turning it into a CTM today. The simplicity of the entire process led me to try it.   I didnt think it would have much flavor and the base sauce looked rather pale in color but after i did the tomato step, I tasted it and it had a lot of flavor!  The only things i added were fresh coriander and some dried methi leaves at the end.  I made some chicken tikka this morning and will assemble it together this evening into CTM.  The "melting" tomato step and cooking it in the oil really adds to the dish!!  It is really surprising with out any masala powder, a sauce can have so much taste!!!  I was almost afraid to taste it and had my masala box ready to add masala - but didnt need any!!

[Ashes]

Hope it works well Paast10, id forgot about this recipe and was just contemplating if i could dig out an old recipe i used to make in the old days,. Actually ive lost most of my best homemade stuff which is a shame because a couple of the best curries ive tasted have been my own. I have a balti recipe which should stand up to most but the one recipe i really regret is a prawn curry i made 12 yrs ago. It tasted amazing and I havent been able to reproduce anything like it since. However, i was at a good friends house a couple of monthes ago and he pulled out some recipe books and aload of handwritten scrawls of my early curry experiments and i found a prawn recipe which could have been the one im referring to. But after reading it i cant believe it could taste anywhere as good as i remember,. i suspect the imagination is greater than the reality.

Hope you have a nice curry evening
Ashes

[CurryCanuck]

This recipe is a definite " must try "...thanks for the post .

CC


PS
Don't you just luv the members on this site who go out of their way to experiment , formulate and create , based on the input of their forum colleagues ....well done !!!

[CurryLover_NZ]

Hi,

made Curry King's Chicken Tikka Masala this morning (day off work) - eating it tonight.

Pictures here:  http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1148.msg9941#msg9941
 
I've never had one myself but the result was very pleasing - sweet and creamy but with a slight spicy/chilli kick - does that sound about right ?

It was my son's favourite back in the UK - although I am not sure if I have made it red enough for him to think it's the 'real deal'. On that point, which is best - liquid colouring or powder ? My liquid stuff doesn't seem to penetrate everthing as well as I would like.

I cannot seem to find creamed coconut here either (yet). I used some tinned coconut in my CTM, but had to guess the amount - in the end I used 200ml.

I was making this for 4 adults and so multiplied everything on the recipe by 4. This meant 12 ladles of curry base. As  a result, I ended up with what seemed like too much sauce for the amount of chicken I was using (4 large breasts). I used 3 of Darth's curry base bags as each one holds 4 of my ladle scoops. In the end, I scooped 4 ladle-fuls back out to get the meat/sauce balance right. In fairness, Curry King does indicate in the recipe that the gravy amounts should vary according to what you normally use. Should I reduce the spices if I am using less gravy (i.e. 2 ladles per portion) ?

I also made some of the Pilau rice posted by Pete:

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=396.0

It came out well in the end - the best I've made yet and so aromatic and flavoursome - although I might have added a tad too much salt. I did have to add some more water at the end of the oven cooking time as the rice was still a bit hard and powdery. I then gave it another 15 mins in the oven. I guess when you change the amounts you have to do things like that ?

Once the rice had cooled, I took out all of the whole spices before putting it in the fridge. It doesn't 'present' as well, but it does mean we won't end up biting into a cardomon seed. That shouldn't affect the flavour should it ?

By the way, what oven setting (in degrees) is 'Low' - I set mine to 150 ?

[traveller]

Ashes, it came out really well yesterday!!!!  So good my husband was saying he was going to eat it again today but I had to tell him we finished it all!!  I only made a little bit of base sauce and used 2 chicken breasts.  I dont have room to store base sauce, not in my little fridge, nor in my freezer - so I have to make it fresh each time.  I am making this for company on wednesday!!!
I think someone was looking for a base sauce that wasnt brown in color, but more pale - so this one would work for them.  If only I could remember where that was.
Thanks for the great recipe.  Oh, the only change i made to the final step was that I didnt add any coconut to the finished product.

[Yellow Fingers]

I think someone was looking for a base sauce that wasnt brown in color, but more pale...

This is something that has intrigued me. I've had several curries recently that were bright orange in colour. They were perfectly nice standard BIR curries. The thing is, I could never achieve this almost see through quality to my finished dishes. They are universally some shade of brown. It makes me think they have to be using a very light yellow base sauce, which must presumably be very underspiced.
I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

YF