Day 7 – Balti Chicken with Paneer and Peas
Curry is the perfect way to handle the Melbourne midwinter chill. This one uses Quorn Meat Free, Soy Free Pieces to replace the chicken. I had hoped to get the bigger Fillets to cut into big chunks, more like the original recipe, but after two supermarkets didn’t have them, I gave up and resorted to the smaller pieces.
This recipe originally comes from the book Fat Free Indian. Since I am following a Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet, I have made a few modifications to reduce the carbs and up the fat, and halved the recipe to minimize leftovers. You will need:
330g Chicken or “Chicken”
1 Tbs tomato puree
1.5 Tbs yoghurt (I used cream)
3/4 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp garlic pulp
1/2 tsp ginger pulp
pinch of ground cardamom
1/2 Tbs chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (I used stevia)
1 Tbs oil
1/2 a cinnamon stick
2 black peppercorns
1/2 c water
55g paneer
1 Tbs fresh coriander
1 green chilli, deseeded and chopped
25g fromage frais (I used a 50/50 mix of sour cream and cream, I also doubled the amount to 50g, as recipes from this book tend to pack a decent chilli punch)
35g frozen peas, thawed
Mix the tomato puree, cream, garlic and ginger pulp and the dry spices. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan and cook the sauce mixture over a low heat for about 3 mins.
Add the water and bring to a simmer, then add the “chicken” and cook for about 2 mins. Cover and cook over a low heat for about 10 mins.
Add the paneer, half the coriander and half the green chilli. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5-7 mins.
Stir in the cream/sour cream mix and peas, allow to heat through and serve topped with the rest of the coriander and green chilli.
This was a really easy recipe – the long list of ingredients makes it seem much more complicated than it actually was. It was also hearty and super tasty. The mock chicken was just a little dry, so next time I’m planning to replace half of it with halved button mushrooms for a moister texture.
This is definitely joining the regular rotation.
I will definitely give that a go one day but with chicken and not “chicken” 🙂