Chicken tikka masala is a westernised Indian dish based on baked chicken chunks (chicken tikka) cooked in a curry sauce. It was hailed as "Britain's true national dish" but is popular throughout the world.
Composition
Chicken tikka masala is chicken tikka, chunks of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt then baked in a tandoor oven, in a masala ("mixture of spices") sauce. There is no standard recipe for chicken tikka masala; a survey found that of 48 different recipes the only common ingredient was chicken. The sauce usually includes tomato and either cream or coconut cream and various spices. The sauce or chicken pieces (or both) are often coloured orange or red with food dyes.
Other tikka masala dishes replace chicken with lamb, fish or paneer.
Chicken Tikka Masala (video)
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Indian Food: Chicken tikka masala
Korean Food: Kimchi
Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of some select vegetables with varied seasonings. Kimchi is the most common Korean banchan, or side dish, eaten with rice along with other banchan dishes. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and cooked with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew and kimchi fried rice.
General information about kimchi
This side dish of fermented vegetables continues to be an essential part of any Korean meal. Early kimchi dishes were relatively mild, spiced with fermented anchovies, ginger, garlic, and green onions. Koreans still use these ingredients today, but the spice most closely associated with modern kimchi is red pepper powder. Korea boasts more than two hundred types of kimchi, all rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins created by the lactic acid fermentation of cabbage, radish, and other vegetables and seafood.
The kimchi served at a meal will vary according to region, season, and may differ according to the other dishes on the menu. A seaside region's kimchi will be saltier than that of a landlocked area, and summer cooks produce cooling water kimchis to contrast with the heartier cabbage kimchis of the autumn and winter. And a delicate cucumber kimchi sits better beside a bland noodle dish than beside a robust beef stew. To understand kimchi at its simplest, think of it is as divided into two kinds: seasonal kimchi (for short-term storage, made from vegetables that are fresh in the markets at any given time) and Kimjang kimchi (for long-term storage, made in quantity in late autumn).
How to make Kimchi (video)
