Back in the Saddle Again

My kitchen missed me, I think. The FSM knows I missed my kitchen. And since my misadventures in Chicago generated some ideas for culinary misadventures, I opted to carry them out while they were still stored in my brain (whose reliability and usefulness is highly in doubt most of the time).

Idli-palooza
Of the four big kitchen tools I hauled home from Chicago, I was most anxious to try out my new microwave idli steamer. While I could probably survive on idlis and sambar, I've got to feed the boys something else. Since we just so happened to have a good amount of sauce left over from our America's Test Kitchen chicken tikka masala experiment and I was anxious to try adding some coconut milk to a chicken tikka masala recipe after dining at Tiffin last Friday, I'd imagine I don't have to tell you I whipped up yet another Indian feast (albeit a leftover-ish one) last night.

I was only marred by one setback: Gandhi Bazar was out of the freshly prepared and ready to pour idli batter it sells in its cooler. Bummer! So the clerk recommended the Gits brand of idli mix. We also picked up some Deep frozen Madras-style tomato chutney, recommended by the other clerk, and another pouch of our favorite MTR sambar to accompany them.

For a first-time outing with the idli steamer and idli mix, I was quite pleased with the results--or at least I didn't horribly screw up. The batter was awfully foamy at first, and I don't think I mixed it well enough to create the "smooth" consistency the directions told me to create. But the idlis were very edible, and that's what counts, right?

The chutney was fabulous! I'm pleased to say that I'll probably never attempt to replicate my favorite onion chutney from Madras Pavilion (which really should be called tomato chutney, methinks, but hey, I'm not going to complain or protest) from scratch again. Why go through the frustration--not to mention the mess--when I can just pop one of these little bowls in the microwave, nuke it for 40 seconds and be done?

Broiling Done Right(er)
Since we only had leftover tikka masala sauce, I got another chance to broil the chicken. Heh, I seem to recall last time expressing a desire to have more time to let the chicken absorb the spice rub. Wishful thinking that was! (I'll explain later.)

Anywho, despite being pressed for time, the broiled "tandoori" chicken came out much better this time. I did again use the Hi setting for the broiler, but I cut the time almost in half: five minutes on one side, five minutes on the other and then an additional two or three minutes on Lo because the husband was concerned that after ten minutes of broiling on Hi, the chicken wasn't quickly reaching 160 degrees when he speared one with the food thermometer. The smoke alarm did not go off this time, and the breasts did not look like burned sacrifices when they were finished. Now that's what I call a culinary victory!

As If I Didn't Do Enough Shopping While in Chicago
The husband came home early from work because he was the walking dead and desperately needed more than three hours of sleep. While he napped, I edited some monographs then took a nap myself. Since we were both refreshed and re-energized by the early afternoon, we opted to head out and have a little fun in addition to picking up a few groceries.

Having read in several places online that TJ Maxx and Marshall's sometimes have high-end cookware and culinary supplies at pretty decent discounts, the two of us headed over to the TJ Maxx in the Arboretum after swinging by Sur La Table (again, it's an addiction, which is a disease, and should not make me the subject of ridicule) to look for the Mario Batali polycarbonate pizza wheel but wound up buying a knife guard designed specifically for chef's knives (the one I brought home from The Chopping Block worked, but I didn't like that it left part of the blade exposed), some food-grade mineral oil to keep the Batali "magic" spoons in good condition and a chocolate-marshmallow treat for the husband. (I'm now kicking myself for not picking up that Batali pizza cutter at The Chopping Block while in Chicago. It was on sale and right there in front of me!)

Our local Maxx did have some very nice higher-end cookware and bakeware, as well as a Le Creuset cannister of some type, but we didn't acquire any of these pieces. What we did acquire was a 11.5" x 13.5" x 0.75" bamboo cutting board from TruBamboo for $9.99 (woohoo!) as well as three too-damn-cute cat plates from Japan that are very similar to some too-damn-cute cat rice bowls from Japan we already own. The plates together were less than ten bucks, so we were quite pleased. Good finds, if I do say so myself.

I didn't realize until we got home and I started shooting pics of our goodies for this blog that the bamboo cutting board needs to be tempered daily for a week before use. While the manufacturer (obviously) recommends its brand of bamboo cutting board oil, I poked around online this morning and determined the food-grade mineral oil from The Surly Table will work just fine. Hot damn!

By the time we wrapped up a trip to the North Lamar Half-Price Books (Addiction! Disease!), picked up the boy from daycare, hit HEB and hit Gandhi Bazar, we got home around a quarter 'til 6, and I'd so wanted to have supper on the table by 6 PM so that we could have have a relaxing evening and get to bed early. Wishful thinking that was!

I promise I'll have pictures from the trip to Chicago up as soon as I can. I'm still waiting for the younger sister to email the pics she took for me, plus I have some more photos to shoot myself. And yes, if I don't find a better way to organize and manage my time so I can get everything I must do in a day done, I am going to shoot myself.