Torviewtoronto: North Indian Meal: Rice, Tandoori Chicken, Dal and Raita

I tried and enjoyed using four North Indian spices blends from Jaswant's Kitchen to prepare this meal. The blends are made with 100% natural ingredients. We can make delicious Indian meals without buying a variety of spices using the spice blends from Jaswant's Kitchen and following the recipes on their site. These blends make cooking Indian meals easy for those new to Indian cuisine.

To prepare this red lentil or dal curry I used the Tadka Masala and Garam Masala. Blends such as Tadka Masala allows us to eliminate the need for buying/ preparing a variety of spices, and cutting onions and garlic.

I made half the quantity of this red lentil recipe from Jaswant's Kitchen...
1/2 cup red lentil
2 cups water
1/2 tbsp Tadka Masala
1/2 tsp salt to taste
1/8 tsp garam masala

Wash the lentil, then add water, masala, salt and cook it in the pressure cooker on medium high heat for about 2 whistles. Remove from heat and wait for about 10 minutes before opening the pressure cooker. Add the garam masala and stir. Serve hot.

Tadka Masala is their “cooking” blend, which replaces the step of frying onions, ginger, garlic and spices that is the base of most Indian dishes. With this blend often there is no need to fry anything, which allows us to control the amount of fat used in our meals. This blend is used to make dals, veggies, meat curries and more.

Garam Masala is the“finishing” spice that is used in many recipes once cooking the dish is completed.

To make this flavourful Tandoori Chicken I used the Tandoori Masala, which mainly is used for grilling meat, fish, paneer or vegetable. The end product has a beautiful aroma and deep yellow colour. I adapted the Tandoori Chicken recipe from Jaswant's Kitchen and doubled it to marinate the chicken pieces overnight and left it in the fridge.

4 chicken thigh/leg pieces
1 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tsp Tandoori masala
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tsp oil
2 tsp vinegar

Wash the chicken, make deep cuts on the chicken and marinate the chicken with all the ingredients. Cover and leave in the fridge overnight. Bake in the middle rack for 35 to 40 minutes in a preheated 350F oven until the chicken is well cooked and the meat inside is white. If checked with a meat thermometer it should read 170F. After the chicken is baked, cover and leave the meat to rest for 5 minutes. Squeeze more lemon juice over the chicken if you want and garnish with red onions and serve.

With the Raita Salt, we can make a quick, delicious raita or add it to fresh fruit with a squeeze of lemon. This seasoned salt added to orange juice gives it a little extra zing.

I usually enjoy eating apples with salt and pepper, and really enjoyed having it with a pinch of the Raita salt. These spice blends sold online and shipped within US and Canada makes cooking authentic tasting, healthy Indian food at home easy.

Offer:
Use the code TORVIEW (case sensitive) on their site between April 17th to 26th to get Free shipping on your orders. Valid only for Canada.

Giveaway:

If you are in Canada and would like to win a giveaway of their "Starter Kit" ($50 value) which includes 5 of most popular spice blends, 2 cups of lentils (Black and red), a packet of whole spices and 15 Printed recipe cards in a beautiful gift box. Then enter the giveaway here before April 26th.