Butter Chicken

Food .. any type of it; gets me going. When I was got the news that I have to travel to the US for two months; the first signs of alarm were: What will I eat???

Not that I hold back from eating anything but my earlier experiences had suggested that I would get crapped out with bland meat sooner than later. I started prepartions on a war-footing. Started furiously searchin "Mr. Know it all a.k.a GOOGLE" for accurate answers. As always, got thru to more food related porn sites(just kiddin... u figure whether abt the food sites or the porn ones :P) than anything. The few that threw out them recipes were so complex that I felt like I would be delivering a baby rather than a barbecue. Most masalas mentioned there were words that sounded like mean minded abuses in some unknown languages...

I was at my wits end. I was enthused with cooking but I wanted variety too. I wasnt in a position to carry all of the stuff I had gathered I would need to prepare that smorgasbord. Thats when it happened.. Like always my mom jumped in to my rescue. She told me abt some pre-made masalas.. daalo, ubalo, chicken milao and all done... Parampara, thy name is God to a desi foodie in foreign land...

So here I landed with the confidence of using these pre-made masalas to devastating use and got myself a bag of chicken ...I was all armed to make hot and spicy Indian curries, the sort that would make any American shed a tear when I open my lunch box. Pleased with my armor of eveything from Moghlai to kolhapuri to tandoori; I set about on my way...

But alas; my bubble was soon to burst. The final product was a watery gravy smelling Indian-curryish...All my pride in my culinary expertise was draining down as well. I needed a fix and a damn good one. Research ensued on war-scale; searching websites and books. Talking to people with experience. Advice, since its always free started flowing in like those Indian -idol sms'es...

Kanda ghaal, use ginger garlic.. put masalas too, have u marinated the meat with curd? fry the chicken first... use mutton and not chicken.. marinate in the masalas overnight.. chuck this its a scam.. so much so that I was even more confused... What should I really do?

I swept aside all random suggestions. Put on my thinking hat and approached the best chef I knew: no not my mom, Sanjeev Kapoor. Searched his website and saw the method. (I am using SKs name as I dont recollect where I saw the recipe).. I relied on Parampara to provide me with the masala ingredients and set about treating the rest of the prepartion like always
marinate meat with curd and ginger-garlic.. lime juice... Cut Kanda... etc

Went about with the prepartion with dedication unbecoming of me.. fried my onions tillexactly golden brown and thn slipped in my chicken.. Sauted it tillsome time before pouring in the masala and blob of butter... Held on patiently for the time prescribed and then dheere se slided the lid from the vessel.

Wow!!!! I had overshone myself. Bettered expectations in a way my mom would be proud of me... There it was.. The most amazing BUTTER CHICKEN I had ever made.