Grandpa Gotta Cook—Tikka Masala

This Time On, Grandpa Gotta Cook...

If you've been following this weekly series of Food Fight Friday posts lately, you'll know that I've pretty much gone to the crockpot for all my cooking. Results have varied, but not nearly as much as my regular cooking, and some have been major hits, worthy of a repeat.

However, for the most part, I would say they were, well, rather tame. Flavorful, but in an organized manner. More Western appeal, if you will.

Last Saturday, though, I decided I wanted to re-orient my style, so to speak, by reaching to the Old World for my recipe.

Yes, Food Fight Friday adventurers, you can make Indian food in a crockpot.

[Cue the intro music]

Every once in a while, you just got to let your hair down. Not into the food mind you—that would be gross. A lawsuit waiting to happen. I can hear the ambulance chasers now.

What I mean is, you want to do something you've never done before, and get a little exotic. Even if exotic is pretty much the same where the food is from as hamburgers are here. Nothing fancy.

For me, that exotic dish was none other than Tikka Masala.

I've tried different Indian meals, but I've always had them combined with other types, and so I don't even really know their names or what they're made of. That might not be the best way to go about cooking a meal you haven't done before and aren't sure you really liked, but hey, that's how we roll here on Grandpa Gotta Cook. Cooking by the seat of your pants, as it were.

It's a gamble. You might get lucky. You might not. In this case, maybe I could have done a little more research before diving in. More on that later.

First of all, I've read how the crockpot is the lazy cook's best friend. In the case of Tikka Masala, I'd say, not so much. There's eleven different spices involved here, and no, they weren't all a tablespoon or teaspoon each. I had to measure each one accordingly. For those keeping track at home the recipe called for:

Chicken breasts chunked, onion chopped, garlic minced, ginger, tomato sauce, olive oil, garam masala, cumin, ground coriander, paprika, turmeric, cinnamon, cayenne pepper (to taste—very important), black pepper, bay leaves, heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk (which is what I did), cornstarch, and lemon juice.

Wondering what all that looks like when you put it in a crockpot, sans the coconut milk, cornstarch and lemon juice? Refer to the top image. The one above is pretty much it, too, just with the bay leaves removed and several hours of cooking underway. Depending on time frames (and how early you want to start it), the Tikka Masala can cook for four hours on high or eight hours on low.

Just because I'm me, and things don't always go according to plan, I used a mixture of high and low to get the job done.

With about 20 minutes left to cook, that's when the coconut milk, lemon juice and cornstarch get mixed up. Looking a little lumpy here, thanks to all the coconut fat, but it did smooth out a little once in was in the crockpot.

Like so. You can also see that the color of the mixture has changed somewhat from a brighter red to something lighter and creamier looking. You can also see that the chunks of chicken have been cooking down, too. I hate it when meat does that. It seems like there's always a need for more of it.

Basically, that's what the final dish looks like. A lighter color, a creamier texture, and loaded with spices.

I made rice for the meal. Nothing special, so there's not an image of it. However, I did take a picture of the naan bread, because, well, it's naan bread. And I really like it. The packaging said to heat the pieces of bread in the oven for two to three minutes and to sprinkle some water on them beforehand. So, I sprinkled. I'm not sure what it did, though. Naan tasted good regardless.

Taste Test

Well, you know how I was talking about gambling earlier and how you might get lucky? Yeah, well, there was that other side of the coin, too. It's not that the Tikka Masala was horrible, it was just a tad too strong in two flavor departments—cayenne pepper and tomato sauce. No cayenne would have been better since the other spices were spicy enough on their own. I'm not sure what to do about the tomato sauce, though. I didn't expect it to dominate as much as it did with all the other stuff mixed into it.

Thus, my foray into the wilder side of crockpot cooking was a solid miss. My son tried to be diplomatic, but I didn't see the daughter-in-law until the next day. Bad sign. My wife didn't protest my offering to throw the remaining sauce away.

If I ever try this again, I will probably use something fancier than straight up tomato sauce, like a marinara, and then either forget the cayenne pepper, or look for a reasonable, but different flavored substitute.

Regardless, it looked good and the house was filled with aromatic wonder for a good six hours. If only it tasted as good as it smelled.

And no, it didn't take my mind off the pizza I reported eating last week. I tried. I failed.

Maybe I'll get some more of that pizza next Tuesday.

Until we join together again over separately prepared meals my Food Fight Friday compatriots...

...Enjoy!

_{All images courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen}