Sunshine and smile, hivers! I'm back again for another new blog post for this week. In today's blog, I'm going to share with you all how I made an Indian cuisine for our laboratory activity in specialty cuisine. Let's get started!

Last Wednesday we had a laboratory day wherein we cooked Indian cuisine. Since our professor told us that we will cook a full meal of North Indian cuisine. The difference between North Indian cuisine and South Indian cuisine is that North Indian cuisine use plenty of spices and crops, while South Indian cuisine is rice as their staple food. They also use coconuts on their dishes. I choose to cook the chicken tikka masala with Cucumber Raita as the side dish. I choose that dish because it is easy to make, plus the ingredients are easy to find in our place. The garam masala will also be made from scratch. Meaning, we cannot buy the garam masala powder; we need to make our own garam masala. Here's the full ingredients so you can try making this at home.

Chicken Tikka Masala (Main Dish)

• 500 g Chicken
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 large white onion
• 4 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 cups of fresh tomatoes
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Garam Masala

• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp green cardamom
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp star anise
• 2 leaves bay leaves

Cucumber Raita (Side Dish)

• 1 cucumber
• 1 carrot
• 1 red chili
• 2 green chilis
• 1 red onion
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 coriander
• 2/3 cup Greek yogurt
• A pinch of salt and pepper
• A pinch of garam masala

Before I cook, I make sure that I prepare myself by making sure that I wear my chef uniform and my essentials. I took a picture before I arranged my things and did the mise en place.

As you can see, my table is quite messy, but it's ok because I will arrange that in a minute. I just put out all the things that I needed on the table, and I also prepared the trash bags for the excess.

After I arrange my things and do the mise en place. First, I put all the spices to the chicken so it will be marinated . For my garam masala, I use powdered spices and smash them using a mortar and pestle. I cover the bowl using the cling wrap and set it aside.

After that, because the chicken is still being marinated in 2 hours, I chop all the vegetables and other ingredients for my side dish and also for my main dish. I peel the cucumber and carrots and slice the tomatoes into tiny cubes. I also prepared the sauce for my side dish. I just put yogurt and spices for the sauce. And I just adjust the taste since it's very sour because of the yogurt and the lemon.

When the 2 hours were done, I decided to cook the chicken. First, I put butter in the pan and then put the marinated chicken together with the sauce. I waited for the sauce to boil and the chicken to be cooked.

When the chicken is cooked, I set it aside and then put the diced tomatoes in the pan. I also put some spices on it and tomato paste.

During that time, my professor told me that I cannot use cream that I bought because the cream that I bought is for the dessert only, and there is a specific cream for cooking. And instead of cream, why not use coconut cream as an alternative? But it is too late because I don't have it now. I just put water in the pan, and then I let the tomatoes cook. During cooking, I request my classmate to buy a coconut cream outside of the school since she is not cooking this time because she is from batch 1. Thankfully, she was able to buy a coconut cream, and I put 1 cup of coconut cream in the pan even though I put water on it.

When the tomatoes are cooked, I put the mixture in the blender, and then I blend it. I blend it so the tomatoes will be smooth, and the sauce will make it into a puree. Thankfully, my sauces are just enough to fill the blender because I was worried that maybe my sauces are too many and it will be a waste if I just throw them.

After I blend, I put the sauce again in the pan, and then I add the chicken on it. I waited 20 minutes until the sauce thickened.

While waiting, I see my classmates are busy cooking, and the place is very messy at the same time. Some of my friends are struggling to make the sauce since they don't want the taste of it. Maybe they are still adjusting to the taste of how the Indian meals taste.

I also do the plating since the basmati rice is cooked. My classmate cooks our basmati rice in one pot so the work will be easier. I use a big plate for the plating because Indians use big plates for their meals. I also mix the side dish and add some spices so I can put it on the plate.

When the chicken tikka masala is cooked. I put it on the plate, and then I add the side dish and drizzle it with white sauce. After plating, I serve it to my professor, and then she tastes my dish. Overall, she said that the texture is good, the taste is good, and overall the presentation is good. She even said that it tastes so good.

After my professor checked my dish, my classmate took a picture of me holding my dish. This picture will be served as my documentation for my recipe that is submitted to my professor since it was mandatory to put pictures as documentation that we did the laboratory for this course subject.

She even took a picture of me while I'm eating my dish, and also my friend eats my dish haha. As you can see in the picture, we are very excited to taste how it tastes, my dish, since I never tasted this during preparation. It turns out perfectly, and I was thankful that it was not bland.

We also had a chance to take a picture with my professor and my other classmates. It was indeed a fun and exciting time.

My friends from the other department went to the kitchen so they could taste my dish that I made. They said that the food is good and very tasty, even though Razyl didn't like the food that has a lot of spices. The plate that I prepared was empty, and they are the ones who are the finishers haha.

After that, we also had a picture with my best friends with our dishes, but I'm just the one who doesn't have a dish since it was consumed after I checked with my professor. And the other food that is not put on the plate was put in the Tupperware, and I didn't get it since we are in a hurry because the other sections will be using the kitchen.

And that's the end of my blog, hivers! This kind of experience cooking other specialty cuisines is indeed fun, but at the same time, it will dry up your pockets because some ingredients are very expensive. I was able to experiment on how to make my own curry and to get to know some spices that I'm not familiar with. Kudos to my professor, who really did help us to overcome making these dishes.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, and stay tuned for my next cooking blog! Ciao!