Saag-Chicken (Chicken in Spinach)

Ingredients:
Servings: 4-6
• 3 lbs chicken pieces, skinned and cubed
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large onions, minced or extremely finely chopped
• 1 (400 g) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 48 ounces spinach, washed & chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 big cardamom pods
• 2 whole cloves
• 7 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon water

Directions:
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 and 1/4 hr
1. Fry the chicken in 4 tbs oil for around 3-4 minutes until lightly browned and set aside.
2. Put the spinach in a pot, add 1/4C water.
3. Bring to the boil and remove from heat.
4. When cool, grind very well (almost to a paste) in blender and set aside.
5. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and add ginger, garlic and onions.
6. Fry until lightly brown.
7. Add tomatoes, salt, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, turmeric, cloves and cardamom.
8. Sprinkle with 1 tbs water.
9. Cook for 10 minutes on a low heat.
10. Add chicken and milk to the pan.
11. Simmer until the chicken is tender (about 10 minutes).
12. Add spinach and garam masala to the pan.
13. Cook until spinach starts sticking to the pan (about 15 minutes).
14. Remove from heat, add butter and cover until ready to serve with rice.

For a vegetarian dish (Saag – Paneer), simply replace chicken with cottage cheese and follow the steps

Strip steak recipe

Ingredients

• 1 or more NY strip steaks at least an inch thick, if cooking more than one steak try to get them as close to the same thickness as you can
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon of a neutral oil (such as peanut)

Instructions

• Remove steak from refrigerator and season it liberally with kosher salt and pepper, place on a cooling rack inside of a half sheet pan
• Pre-heat the oven to 275º
• Cook steak in oven until its internal temperature is around 90-95º, approximately 20-25 minutes but it will vary based on the thickness of your steak. The end product will appear somewhat dried out and brown but should not appear cooked (or all that appetizing quite frankly).
• Heat a heavy bottomed skillet on high-heat, use enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan
• Once oil just begins to smoke, cook steak on each side for a couple minutes without moving it (this allows a crust to form). If your steak is extra thick add time to cook steak on the side.
• Place the steak on a cutting board and tent with foil, let stand 10 minutes and serve

Variations

• If you'd like to cook your steak to a higher degree of doneness, just add some oven time.
• While the steak is resting is a great time to make a quick pan sauce. Simply deglaze the pan with a liquid (water, stock, wine, etc), add some fat (butter or cream), and seasoning. Maybe some shallots too. Finish with a pat of butter and your sauce will have a gloss just like the pros. Just be careful that if you use alcohol it has the tendency to flame up--many eye brows have been lost during a pan sauce. 

[From http://www.itsfordinner.com/]