So this awesome recipe is from the Cosmopolitan Cuisine VI page 46. It's quite easy to make, super filling, and defiantly worth the repeat.

By the way, I am so sorry I haven't been posting in a bit I have been studying and I wrote my college paper so waiting for results to come out so I can carry on with my next course. Anyway back to the recipe, you can marinate this and freeze works perfectly, and its a good idea if you entertain a lot to have some ready home-made meals at go.



500g chicken fillet cubes
1/2 tsp crushed ginger and garlic
1 tsp fresh ground chillies
1 tsp crushed cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 Tb grated, mozzarella cheese
1 egg beaten
1 tsp corn flour
2 Tb mascarpone cheese
2 Tb lemon juice
1 tsp green chutney

Wooden Skewers - soaked in water
2 Tb butter
1 Tb lemon juice
1 Tb finely chopped, coriander leaves

1. Combine all the ingredients and marinate the chicken for around 3 hours.
2. Thread 5 pieces  of chicken on to each skewer.
3. Grill on a braai or electric griller until tender. 
4. Melter butter and lemon juice and brush with skewers when done. 
5. Sprinkle coriander leaves over skewers and serve. 

Holiday's everywhere, festive season so you can imagine the braai/bbq parties, this is a quick recipe to marinate your chicken with. Served with salad, and/or the side dish recipe posted before this called Creamy Sliced Potato Baked and will be linked here so you can find it easily. Mumsie marinated the chicken I was there watching and taking pictures obviously lol .

So literally this recipe has so many new ingredients I would never have expected and in all honesty I did not even know off. My aunty made this the other day, and said it was a mash up of 2 recipes. Now I will probably never make butter chicken any other way but I will swear the smell of this dish and the taste will blow your mind!
Now after saying this I do know some of the ingredients are not commonly known to most and won't be found just about everywhere. But I will mention places you can check, and remember there is always online shopping when it comes to such things.

For the paratha if you live close to Indian takeout places you can simply order it, for us who live no where close to Indian restaurants we gotta make it, I think the best is to make a naan recipe, and for more of an authentic feel you want to give to the meal shape it weirdly lol.

• Marinate the chicken pieces over night, usually chicken fillet cut into cubes are used. 
• Braise some sliced onions till golden brown, than add your marinated chicken to the pot, you may add some water so it does not burn out while cooking. 
• When half way cooked add tomato puree (how much will depend on the quantity being made - be careful you don't add so much because the taste may over power the spices).
• When almost done add 2 Tb Kasoor methi, 2 Tb brown sugar and 3 Tb crushed cashews and give a boil. 
• Lastly, add your fresh cream, stir and give another boil so all the flavours and spices can blend well together.
• Garnish with fresh coriander, paratha and yoghurt chutney (yoghurt and ground green chillies mixed together).

• When it comes to the Tandoori Masala depending on how much you are looking, do not only add a few teaspoons. Tablespoons will do, and the main taste in the dish is tandoori, so be very generous. 
• Mace is not the same as nutmeg so please don't get it confused. I am not sure if its sold in supermarkets in a spice bottle. I do know its available at spice shops. A pinch is more than enough. 
• Kasoor Methi sold in boxes at supermarkets and spice shops, if you cannot find in your area you can buy online. The box does go a long way because you don't use that much or in every dish. Its green and looks like dry parsley.

So I whipped this up quick in the morning, I had to type the recipe out quick before I forgot what I put in it, simple ingredients. My aunty made the crispy baked potato wedges in the side, the recipe which I have posted previously and I will link it on this post.




Mayo
Red chilli paste
Crushed Ginger
Garlic Sauce
Mild Peri-peri Sauce
Machacho Mild Dry Spice
Robertson's Chicken Spice
Tomato Sauce
Lemon Juice
Turmeric
Red Chilli Powder (bhookie)
Freshly Ground Pepper

• Please Note: In the recipe there is no salt, all the spices and sauces have salt already if you add salt as well it will become salty. You can taste and decide if it needs salt or not. 
• Now after making the marinade add it to the chicken and marinate. 
• Place the chicken in a pyrex/baking dish, add some water and drizzle with olive oil and cover with foil. 
• Grill in the oven at 200 degrees till done, make sure you keep turning the meat, also make sure that it stays a bit saucy. Even though this is a grilled dish a little sauce is good. 
• When done serve with salad or crispy baked potato wedges. 

So this recipe was actually called a Nandos recipe, but it has no nandos spice or sauce, so I decided to change the name to the not-so-nandos-chicken. My aunty made this the other day, her on holiday means I get new recipes and cooking lessons.. It's a quick and easy recipe, which I hope everyone enjoys. Can be served with roti, naan, paratha or like how we served it with garlic bread.


MARINATE CHICKEN PIECES:

Red chilli powder (bhookie)
Tumeric (araad)
Lemon Juice
Crushed Garlic

• Cook till the chicken is done, can use a bit of water so it doesn't burn out while cooking.
• Next, fry some potato wedges.
• Once the chicken is cooked take a pyrex (baking/oven dish) and mix with ingredients below:

Made by my aunty Fatima, when she made Friday lunch akni + dhay. Its quick to make and goes with all Indian rice dishes. Its spicy mangos and you need achaar masala to make this. I have said previously said that achaar masala is widely found in Southern Africa, if you from other countries you can check at the Indian section in the supermarket or the spice shop, you can look for the recipe online to make it yourself, I don't make it personally never have I will check around for the recipe to share with you all so you can try making it yourself as well.

Measurements are for 5 mangos.

• Cut and peal the mangos.
• In a saucer-pan add: 3 Tb achaar masala, 1 Tb mustard powder and 1/4 cup oil
• Warm up the saucer-pan but DO NOT BOIL.
• Add this to the mangos, toss and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• In the same saucer-pan add: 2 tsp cornflour (mazina), 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 Tb oil
• Bring this mix to a boil till its translucent and add to the mangos.
• Make a vagaar with chopped curry leaves, garlic, mustard seeds and a little oil.
• When it begins to boil (pop) pour over the mangos and toss. 

Apple Kachoomar

These are 2 recipes my aunty Fatima made to accompany the akni + dhay recipe previously posted. Goes well with traditional Indian rice dishes, perfect for a Friday lunch. Mind I only have a picture of one of them, sorry about that. When I try and make this next time I will defiantly take a better picture and update this post.
I will also say, I know in southern africa achaar masala is sold almost everywhere, if you are international you can try checking in the supermarket in the Indian section, you can check at the spice shop or you can look up a recipe online. I personally don't know how to make it, but I will check for the best recipe to post up so anyone can make for themselves.

• Slice up some onions and soak them in salt water.
• Than drain them out.
• Make a seperate mix of apricot jam and green masala.
• Mix this with the onions.
• Serve with the the Indian rice dish. 

Apple Kachoomar

Mango Achaar

Credit goes to my aunty Fatima for making Friday lunch for us, loved it. This is another traditional Indian rice dish, with many different ways to make and serve it. I will show how this one was made, I will also posting 2 kachoomar dishes (small side dishes that goes with the rice) and also a mango achaar recipe (pickled mangos).
Those recipes, will be posted separately, but also linked on this post after-ward.

Low quality pictures for this one, I am sorry about that, when I try making this next time around I will update the post with better pictures.

• Soak a pinch of saffron in boiling water for a while.
• Braise chopped onions in ghee/oil with; cardamom (elachi), cinnamon stick (taj), clove (lavang) and whole green chilli. 
• When the onions are golden, add the chicken and the saffron with the water.
• Also add chopped carrots and peas. 
• Cut up some potatoes and fry them.
• Add liquidised tomatoes, the fried potatoes and fresh green coriander to the chicken.
• IMMEDIATELY after adding the above ingredients add your half way boiled rice to the pot. 
• Seal the pot shut with some foil and put the temperature on high till it starts boiling. 
• When it starts to boil put the temperature on low and leave to steam till the tomatoes have cooked.  
• Serve with dhay, kachoomar and mango achaar. 

Masala Dabba, there is no Indian house-hold that does not have one. This is known as an Indian Spice Box, it can be found sold in local spice shops, spices not included.

Now this is a handy little thing that helps with storing your main spices neatly, usually most Indian spices are bought in bulk or plastic packets and so to keep using from that packet will cause an unwanted mess, makes clean up such a hassle and lets be honest its not good on the eyes either. With this tin box, you can keep topping up spices that finish, also its easy to store, use and you will never forget a spice.

It can be found it a whole different range of sizes, so if you tend to cook Indian cuisine once in a blue moon or every day you can choose to your liking. There are small differences when it comes to what spices to store from house-hold to house-hold, there are some staples that must always be in your spice box, but the rest can be what dry spices you usually add or prefer.

In my masala dabba/spice box I find the spices stored in are staples, and are the base in literally every Indian recipe.


WHAT MY MASALA DABBA HAS:

Turmeric (yellow colouring)
Paprika (fresher the better)
Salt
Ground cumin
Ground coriander seeds
Taj/Indian Bay leaf - if you see pictures of this they look like sticks - I would say checking your spice shop for them instead of using just a normal bay leaf
Whole cardamom
Whole Pepper
Cloves

You must be thinking how big is your tin, there are times one spice is replaced by another in the tin, ideally that is how it usually is.
Also, most people mix their ground cumin and ground coriander together and store it as one.

Now I know some people also put gharam masala (combination of all dry spices freshly ground together) or even cinnamon that's entirely up to one-self and what your taste buds like.
If you are a beginner to Indian food, or you think its time to learn how to cook I would say take a good look and even smell these spices because you will be using them quite often!

It takes practice but as you learn to cook and when you start making marinades you will learn to use your instincts when it comes to measurements of the spices. I would say in the start make your marinade first than taste when you feel it tastes fine than add your meat, because it was save you from making an error and trust me we have all been there.

This is just a quick post explaining what a masala dabba/spice box is and what are the main spices stored in it.
I do plan to post once a week a new Indian spice, the low-down on it, what it looks like, what it smells and tastes like and what its mainly used for,
Any questions or comments, and if you feel I have missed any key points in this post let me know. Feel free to like, share and subscribe to this website for personalised emails on all updates.

So this is a great weekend dish, get the whole family involved in the making, it will be fun. My dad was on the plating duty lol. So this is quite an easy dish to make from the marination till the serve up. A healthy alternative than going out and getting take-out, same burger but packed with more good flavour.

Please note to all my international subscribers, the machacho spices and sauces are mostly found in Southern Africa, and I'm not sure if it can be found anywhere else. I do apologize, I will suggest if you want you can still try this recipe but substitute the spices with what is available in your area (if I am wrong and these spices can be found internationally please let me know so I may update this post).

Marinade:
Machacho's mild peri peri sauce
Machacho's mild dry spice (powder)
Salt/Pepper
Lemon Juice
Ground red chilies
Chili Flakes (not too much)
Paprika
Turmeric
Ground ginger & garlic
Ground cumin & coriander
Robertson's chicken spice

Preparation:

• Take your chicken fillet, make slits in the meat. Be careful not to go so deep. 
• Marinate the chicken and make sure the marinade goes in to the slits and keep over night or for a few hours. 
• We used a water griller to grill the meat, but any griller will do. 
• Keep basting the chicken as you turn with the next over marinade. 
• When the chicken has cooked, butter up some burger rolls, add chicken, cheese, lettuce, and a sauce of; mayo, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, machacho peri peri sauce and the dry spice mild machacho. 
• You can serve with fried chips.