A Love-ly Valentine's Dinner For Four

On Valentine's day, Nuno went to work in the morning and both my girls went to school.  Anita and Annabel had their valentine's dance and exchanged valentine cards with their friends.  I decided I would spend my day listening to the likes of  Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, and Louis Armstrong; preparing a delicious dinner and dessert to commemorate the occasion.   And because Valentine's day is so special, low carb would NOT be on the menu tonight, instead we would eat things like naan bread, basmati rice, and dessert! 

Indian Butter Chicken

Here, you can see, step by step, the making of the butter chicken - chopped tomatoes, fried in butter, garlic and spices.  The tomatoes are then pureed into a fine paste and strained.  More butter is added to the puree, along with ginger and kashmiri chili pepper. Next, I add the cooked, chopped chicken breast  and some whipping cream.  And the final touch - chopped cilantro.  In the last photo, is the Nann bread I warmed up in the oven, just before serving dinner. 

Our Valentine-inspired table

The girls were so excited when they came home from school and saw the special Valentine table set for four! 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Above, you can see, some of the steps involved in preparing the sticky toffee pudding.  This was my first time making sticky toffee pudding in this manner.  I made it once before, but the toffee sauce was made separately.  The lovely thing about this recipe, is that the sauce is made simultaneously, along with the cake batter.  If you are interested in making this delicious pudding yourself, hop on over to my friend Rachel's blog - Baking Brownies for Mozart .  You can find the recipe there! 

Butter chicken and basmati rice with nann bread for dipping; washed down with  a glass of white wine (the girls had juice, of course).  It was absolutely delicious!  This is possibly our most favourite meal around here.  Nuno and the girls requested I make this for our special Valentine's dinner. 

And last, but certainly not least, freshly baked, sticky toffee pudding.  This was absolutely delicious!  My favourite part was the toffee sauce and the scattered bits of crisp, toasted edges.  Adding vanilla ice cream really makes this dessert over-the-top FABULOUS!  The cold of the ice cream marries the warm toffee sauce and it's magic in your mouth!  Thank you to Rachel for sharing the recipe. This one is definitely a keeper!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day and shared it with someone you love; whether it was a friend, husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, son, daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, cat, or dog.  After all, Valentine's day is a celebration of love.  And love comes in many forms.  How did you spend your Valentine's day?  I would love to know!  Did you cook something special?  Did you go out for dinner?  Did you exchange valentines with friends?  Did you do something special for someone? 

Or will you be celebrating this weekend?

Happy Thursday!  Have a wonderful day! xo

For the Love of Butter Chicken

First of all, I would like to say, "Welcome to my blog!".  After months of "Should I?  Shouldn't I?", I have finally taken the plunge and created my own blog.  Here I will post some of my culinary adventures where I can express my love and passion for cooking.  I really hope you enjoy and will follow me on my trails.  This very first post is regarding Saturday's lunch - Indian butter chicken.  
I have adapted this recipe from Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi, where I first found him cooking on a youtube video.  Here are some of the ingredients used to make the sauce:

Diced tomatoes and spices should be cooked until soft and mushy, for approximately 10 minutes.

Once tomatoes are soft, pulse in the food processor until smooth.

Next step is to pour sauce through a sieve to remove all tomato seeds, skin, etc.  These are thrown out, and you are left with a smooth, aromatic, tomato gravy.

Sauce is then returned to skillet, add your chicken (I like to use cubed chicken breast).  The last step is to add whipping cream, which makes the sauce creamy and delicious!  

I always like to serve basmati rice and naan bread with the butter chicken.  The best part of the butter chicken, for me is the sauce.  The naan bread is perfect for dipping!