Chicken Tikka Masala

In less time than it took me to write this blog, I prepared a fresh hot meal using ingredients from Alan's Orchard and Savory Spice Shop. Forget takeout and delivery, cooking this meal is faster & fresher. Next time you are ambling around downtown, add these 2 stores to your list. If you are super efficient you can even get to both stores within the complementary 15 minutes allotted with a press of a button on the meter. Then set aside 20 minutes at home to make this.

This Chicken Tikka Masala is not only fresh, it's bursting with flavor. First, stop at Alan's Orchard on Quimby and pick up your organic half & half, Murrays boneless skinless breasts, Fage 0% Greek strained yogurt with honey, and a Jersey Fresh tomato sauce. Murrays is interesting - they have a code and a website and you can learn more about the family farm where your dinner was raised. Get your frozen yogurt, then head over to Savory Spice Shop on Broad Street. The Tikka Masala is their most popular spice blend and I understand why. I also purchased dried cilantro and tomato powder (if you do not use tomato sauce). You can purchase the spices in small plastic ziploc bags or bring in an old spice container and they will take $1 off your new purchase.

The chicken is cooked in 5 stages, each with a new layer of flavor and texture added every three minutes. First you cube the chicken and brown it in olive oil. Then you add the Tikka Masala rub, which is the powder combined in equal parts with extra virgin olive oil and water and blended. Next the tomato, water & honey mixture, then the yogurt and half & half mixture. Serve immediately!

photo: Tikka Masala Mix, www.savoryspiceshop.com

Free Pizzas 4-7 today at HomeMade Pizza Co.

Yes, free pizza. HomeMade Pizza Co. opens this week on Quimby Street and they want you to try it before you buy it.

Home made food is blurring the lines lately. Does it mean 100% following Grandma's recipe, or does it mean dolling up something from Trader Joe's? Is it bringing home a pot pie and heating it up at home make it homemade? Does it have to be from scratch? Where is the rule book?

Apparantly, a new game in town is redefining the term. To HomeMade Pizza Co., the newly opened take & bake joint in Westfield, NJ, homemade means a kitchen preps it for home cooking. You buy it and put it in the oven at home. You get credit for getting a hot meal on the table, whether or not you food shopped, sliced & diced or even dirtied a dish. You don't really make it at home, but you bake it at home.

It's fun to have a say into what goes on the pizza. The long list of fresh interesting toppings offer exponential pie combinations. You can indulge your 13 year old drama queen and your 16 year old lacrosse player and your 8 year old basketball shooter and your 6 year old diva and your 3 year old princess. And your husband. And yourself! And all at the same time by dividing up pizzas with individually selected toppings. You can also choose white, wheat or vegan (no cheese, extra sauce).

You receive cooking instructions for baking and grilling! You need a large pizza stone for the grill, but a cookie sheet will probably do - especially if it is round and 16". One caveat: it's not the plain pie you are used to if you are from NJ. The crust is indescribably Midwest. It's bubbly, and brown, but ultimately thick and satisfying.  Domino's was founded in Ann Arbor, MI where I attended college. I ate thick crust pizza for years. Turns out this restaurant started in Chicago.  I know my food! It's not bad, but don't think it's Vinnie's Pizzeria or thin crust from Star, Sun or Nancy's. It's, well, got a home made touch.

At the end of the day, will this place do well? I hope they rock. Yes there are so many pizza places in town already, including yet another just around the corner that has yet to open their doors.  HomeMade is looking for a slice of the Westfield Pizza real estate.

If you can wrap your brain around the concept, and you like what you taste, I think HomeMade will have lasting power. Yesterday, the owner Eric Fosse and his crew fired up a grill on the sidewalk, set up a tent, put out some crayons, doled out samples and announced their arrival in style. I tried the plain, the bbq chicken and the BLT. They were all good, particularly the chicken. Let Westfield Foodie know what you think!

-WF

If your daughter can tie her shoelace, she can also cook you dinner

Just ask Lleyton. In this adorable 2-part homemade cooking show - Cooking with Lleyton Shea -  a 7 year old stuffs herbs up a chicken, oils up a bird like a pro and yes, even trusses it. She paired it with her favorite vegetable - green beans!

I've been wanting to write more about the people in Westfield and the food stories they share. People love to tell me about what they cook, where they ate, a rare find in a specialty store. People call me and ask how to set their ovens, how to make vodka ice cubes (you can't), and what was the name of that place you liked. Well here is a perfect example of being inspired by a fellow Westfielder, who shares a family recipe.

What stood out the most in Lleyton's show is how approachable cooking is. This is not some clever kid making kid food and cracking jokes. It is a serious young lady who knows her way around the kitchen. She made real food the real way! How many of us can say that? Even a 7 year old can roast a chicken and make a healthy flavorful cooked veggie. What is your excuse?

At the end of the show Lleyton gets to choose a balloon with a recipe, which her mom pops with the chopping knife. (Kudos, btw, to mom and her herb-chopping technique.) Stay tuned for lobster ravioli....