Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Azerbaijan Food

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!



I was going to cook something delicious yesterday but my husband brought some food back so I ended up not cooking. It was Azerbaijan food! I love them. Until early this year, I have never eaten Azerbaijan food. I think it is somewhat close to Iranian food. (I am not sure so sorry if I am wrong). 

I love their beef and lamb Kofta kebab and also chicken kebab. And of course, I love dolma and babaganosh and all these appetizers. 



The food was really good. I can not wait to go back to the restaurant sometimes. 

After the dinner, I made Chai. I know it is indian tea and I should have made it the night before because we had indian food. Well, I just thought about it yesterday and did not think about it the night before. I had all the key ingredients for Chai at home so I made it. It was super delicious. I love all these spices such as cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, etc. I like my chai very sweet. It makes me relax and cozy. 





Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Baked Chicken Tikka





Welcome to 7th Kitchen!


Last night, I made this baked chicken tikka. I bought this jar of Tikka Paste so I wanted to try. 
But the Tikka Pasta was not what I thought it was. Actually, I wanted to make "chicken Tikka Masala" but this paste was for marinade and grilling. 

Well, it was my mistake that I did not check well before I buy it. So change of plan. I decided to follow the recipe on the back of jar and make baked chicken tikka. 

It was not exactly what I expected. I followed the instruction and marinade the chicken in yogurt and the paste mixture in the fridge for a few hours. I baked it for 40mins. The chicken was tender but I did not like the taste. 



This is the paste I used. I have used this brand before and I really liked them. I don't remember what I bought before but I remember I liked them. I tried a few different kind and all of them were good. But this "Tikka Paste" was not my favorite.



I was checking Patak's website and it seems like what I should have bought instead was "Tikka Masala Curry cooking sauce". It seems like this company is in U.K. but now I can find this brand at normal supermarket in the U.S. (At least where I live) but supermarket does not carry all of their products. I would like to try many different product from them. 

If you can not find them at your local supermarket, you can purchase them from Amazon. 


One great things about living close to a big city is that there are so many different kind of grocery stores in the city. I know some Indian grocery stores in NY and I love visiting them because you will encounter many different ingredients you never seen before. 

I just realized that I have not been there for a while. I should go again! They have many different brand of paste and sauces. Also, one of the place had this spice tin box which I love to own. 

As I have wrote in my blog before, I used to live with an Indian lady who used to cook Indian food all the time. I was so lucky to have homemade Indian food everyday. I should have learned more cooking from her. Now, we live far away so we can not see each other quite often but I am so grateful that I met her. She is kind of like my mother/sister figure. She took good care of me. I will never thank her enough. 



Anyhow, my dinner yesterday was not exactly what I expected so I would try to make a great one today. The best thing about last night dinner was the salad. It was just a simple salad with lettuce, tomato and corn. I used Trader Joe's cilantro dressing which I love. This dressing remind me of the tostada salad from cheesecake factory. I just love cilantro! 

Monday, July 13, 2009

Cheese Cake Factory Bang Bang Chicken & Shrimp

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Yesterday, I went to the Cheesecake Factory for late lunch/early dinner. I love Cheesecake Factory because their menu is huge. But I almost always order same things. Three things I order when I am there are "Grilled Skirt Stake", "Toastada Salad" or "Bang Bang Chicken & Shrimp". Yesterday, I ordered Bang Bang Chicken & Shrimp. 

I love the sauce. It has peanuts, coconuts, cream, gingers and the flavor is just amazing. It is so rich, you can not eat a lot of them but the first bite always makes me smile. I would definitely try to recreate this at home. 

I never get to eat cheesecake there because by the time when I am done with the main course, I am so full and there is no way I can have a cheesecake. Well, maybe someday, I will go there just for the cheesecake. 



On Sat, I baked brownie but I forgot to upload picture here so here it is. I might made a mistake in measurement because it was so sweet but also salty. I think I add salt which was required amount in the recipe. Is it because I used Kosher salt? I am not sure. Well, everybody seemed to like it so it is OK. 

Thank you for visiting my blog. I love writing this blog and I really appreciate all the people around me (including everyone who enjoy my blog). It is amazing how many wonderful people I encounter in my life. I am blessed :-) Thank you all!