Butter Chicken & Methi Naan 3 course meal gift pack Method Instructions




Welcome to your instructions for The 3 Course Meal Kit Gift Bag 


Welcome to your instructions for the The 3 Course Meal Kit Gift Bag
We want you to enjoy preparing your dishes using the meal sachets in our 3-Course Gift bag, and for it to be helping you in achieving tasty authentic North Indian home-style food.

The sachets are designed to make meal preparation quick and easy, and for you, the cook,  to control the chilli and the oil or ghee levels, thus suiting it to yours and your family's preferences. 

The dishes in this particular 3-course bag are the treat foods from the region of Punjab (and not the daily food). These dishes are richer and so are perfect for a special meal!

Please note that these method instructions are for your own personal domestic use, and are subject to copyright. They may not be shared, forwarded, copied or reproduced in any format.  Any commercial use is prohibited.

To re-order any particular favourites as you cook your way through your meal kit sachets, then simply click on the image of the dish to re-order that sachet.

To re-order the gift bag, click HERE

Your instructions

Below are your step-by-step instructions for:
- Starter - Onion Bhaji
- Main - Butter Chicken
- Side -  Methi Naan
- Dessert - Besan

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Dishes to make in advance.

Marinading the chicken - Do this a couple of days before (but cook the chicken as you make the sauce)
Naan dough - you can make the naan dough the day before, wrap it tightly in cling film and refridgerate it
Besan - Make this the day before

Timings for the butter chicken, naan and bhajis

Butter Chicken - Start cooking the chicken as you prepare the sauce
Naan bread - as the sauce is simmering, cook the naan dough under the grill
Bhaji - make these last and aim to serve literally as guest arrive or you are ready to eat.

So just to clarify, on the day of eating, you will...

- Have marinated the chicken a couple of days prior
- Made the Besan and the Naan dough the day before

1. Start with preparing the bhajis up (so up to the end of step 2.) and warm the oil for frying
2. Cook the chicken, and start making the sauce
3. As the sauce is simmering, cook the naans under the grill and wrap them in a tea towel
4. Whilst the sauce finishes cooking, fry the bhajis
 
then sit down and enjoy your meal!

Please note: The chilli quantity in each of the instructions below are a guideline. Feel free to make each of the dishes as mild or hot as you like. Do also bear in mind that the heat from every chilli can vary...it's an art not a science! So you can put in a conservative quantity at first, and taste the finished dish and add more at the end if you'd like the dish to be a bit hotter.



Starter
Onion Bhaji Mix Instructions
This mix will make approximately 10-12 full size bhajis or approximately 30 canapé size bhajis




Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Remember to start heating your oil just before you begin preparing the ingredients. Do not leave heating oil/hot oil unattended, and do not let children near hot oil.

You do not need a deep fat fryer, simply use a saucepan or wok. Once you have fried the bhajis, allow the oil to cool, and filter it back into the bottle (make sure to mark up the bottle as 'onion bhaji oil'. Re-use the oil a couple of times (make sure to filter it again each time).
Please think of the environment and make sure to recycle your oil once you want to get rid of it.
 
1 medium potato, washed
1 medium onion, peeled
A handful of spinach leaves
1 sachet of Pure Punjabi Bhaji Mix
1 litre of sunflower oil, for frying (you can use vegetable oil if you don’t have sunflower oil. Do not use rapeseed oil or any strongly flavoured oil. Sunflower or vegetable oil only)
Extra chillies (optional - if you like really hot dishes)

 
Method:
 
1. Before starting, heat some sunflower oil to fry the bhajis in. If using a temperature-regulated fryer, heat to approximately 180 degrees centigrade. If using a saucepan or wok, heat the oil on a high temperature.
 
2. Leaving the skin on (unless it's an old, wrinkly potato - then peel!), cut the potato into pieces that are similar in size and thickness to French fries. The potatoes must not be any chunkier otherwise they will not cook properly. Top and tail the onion and cut into long slices (see picture below of the potato and onion sliced and coated with the spices). Add the sachet of bhaji mix spices to the potato and onion and coat completely (if the potatoes you used are quite large, you may need to add an extra pinch of salt at this point).
You can prep to this stage, cover with clingfilm, and leave for no longer than 50-60 minutes, or the potatoes will release water.

 
3. Add the flour and coat over the vegetables. Add water a bit at a time, until you have a thick batter, which acts as a ‘glue’ to hold the vegetables together (see picture below). The amount of water will be approximately 60ml. Add a handful of spinach leaves and mix through thoroughly. At this point, dip your finger into the batter and taste to see if you'd like to add more chilli, if so, finely mince the chillis and add them. *Tip: if you want to make mild and hot bhajis, cook the first half of the batter, and only add the extra chilli to the second half of the batter.


4. Now it’s time to fry. If using a saucepan or wok, take a piece of potato or onion from the batter and drop into the oil. If it starts frying/bubbling away – the oil is ready.
 
5. Using a tablespoon (to make large bhajis), or a teaspoon (to make canape size bhajis), gently spoon the batter into the oil. Do not try to make the bhajis round, as this is not the traditional shape. The shape should be random and non uniform (some describe the traditional bhaji as looking like 'birds nests')

*Safety note - let the batter gently slide off the spoon into the oil and do not drop it in from a height.

6. Fry the bhajis for approximately 5 -7 minutes until crisp and golden brown. Drain well on kitchen paper and serve immediately. * Tip: the better you can drain your bhajis, the crisper they will be.
 
We love to see your culinary creations! So post your dish as ‘Pure Punjabi onion bhajis’ on social media and tag as @PurePunjabiLtd so we can see!

Pakore (Punjabi onion bhajis) are traditionally served as a starter or welcome snack, and are delicious with our Tamarind Chutney Mix.
*Healthy eating note: Bhajis are an occasional food, and are not eaten as part of our every day diet.

* Tip: Only want to eat 1 or 2 portions at a time? Use half the mixture at a time, i.e. half the spice mixture, half the flour, 1/2 potato, 1/2 onion, a few spinach leaves. Then re-seal the spice bag and flour bag and save them for another occasion.


Butter Chicken Mix instructions 
This mix will make Butter Chicken for 4 people



Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Marination time: overnight (or a couple of hours if you forget, but overnight really is best)
Cooking time: 30 minutes

3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon cloves garlic, finely minced (approximately 4 large cloves)
550g vine tomatoes, roughly cut into chunks (see notes below)
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and very finely minced (this weighs approximately 40g before peeling the ginger)
4 green birds eye chillis, very finely minced (if you like it very hot, add as much as you like)
1 sachet of Pure Punjabi’s Butter Chicken Mix (1 x pot containing marinade, 1 x blue dot sachet, 1 x pink dot sachet)
150ml double cream, allow to come to room temperature before using (otherwise it may split)
500g chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces (see notes below)


Once prepared, your ingredients should look as follows...



Notes

Intolerance to cow's dairy:
Should you (or a family member or friend) have an intolerance to cow's dairy, do not forget that you can substitute the butter and cream for:
  • Goat's butter & Goat's double cream (St. Helen's Farm is our favourite)
  • Buffalo's butter & Buffalo's double cream (Laverstoke Park Farm produce buffalo dairy products, do check each one that you buy as some of their products are blended with cow's dairy)
In Punjab, we predominantely consume Buffalo's dairy, and also consume Goat's dairy...so these substitutions would be a fantastic to use for making this dish.

Vine tomatoes:
The quality of the tomatoes really is critically important for this sauce. Whilst the marinade for the chicken has been taken care of, you want a great quality sauce - and the tomaotes really do form the base of the sauce. You need to ensure that the tomatoes are a beautiful, deep red colour. Remember that the more intense the red of the tomatoes, the more flavour (and natural sweetness) you will get. If we ourselves were cooking this for our family, and we culdn't get good quality vine tomatoes, we wouldn't cook the dish and we would wait till we could get great tomatoes...on this basis, we pass this advice onto you :)

Cutting the chicken:
We would always recommend cutting thinner and wider pieces, as the chicken cooks more evenly and becomes very tender this way. to do this, butterfly the chicken breasts before cutting into pieces. Then it creates a uniform thickness.



1. Open the Butter Chicken meal kit and open the glass jar only. Tip the entire contents of the jar onto the cut chicken pieces. Massage the marinade onto the chicken for 2 - 3 minutes (using clean hands is best as this really gets the flavours of the marinade into the chicken).


2. Cover the chicken with cling film and leave to marinade in the fridge overnight night. Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 miutes before cooking, so that it isn't freezing cold before grilling it.
(note: when taking the chicken out of the fridge in anticipation of cooking it, do not leave it in the sunlight).

Method for the sauce:


As you start making the butter sauce, grill the chicken under a medium to high heat. Grill or barbecue the chicken, but do not oven cook or pan cook, as this will change the taste of the mariande.

Note: the chicken must be fully cooked through before being added to the sauce (in step 11)




3. Heat a medium sized frying pan and heat it over a low to medium flame. Take one tablespoon of butter, the minced garlic and the blue dot sachet and put them in the frying pan. Gently cook for 2 - 3 minutes, until the garlic and spices very gently sizzle.

4. Add the tomatoes. Stir them so they become coated in the spiced butter. Only keep these on the heat for 2 minutes - you do not want to cook the tomatoes. You only want to warm them, but not cook them (this is how you keep the bright colour without having to add food colour). 

Adding synthetic food colour something that many restaurant unfortunately do. If you warm the tomatoes without cooking them, this is how you retain the bright red colour without adding anything artificial to your food - win win!


5. Pour the warm (but raw) tomatoes into a bowl and blend them with a stick blender. Make sure you don't leave any of the spiced garlic in the frying pan. Once you've emptied the frying pan, just wipe it out quickly with some kitchen roll
(we will be using it again in a minute and don't want any tomatoes seeds left in there).

6. Sieve the blended tomato mixture into a bowl. Keep the liquid tomatoes in the bowl, as we don't need them immediately.

7. Taking the same frying pan that we used earlier (which we swiped out to make sure there were no tomato seeds hiding anywhere)...put the frying pan back over a medium flame and add 2 tablespoons of butter, the finely minced ginger and finely minced chilli. Gently fry for a couple of minutes. 

8. Now add the sieved liquid tomato mixture. Gently simmer this for 10 - 12 minutes so that you now cook the raw flavour out of the tomatoes. 

 

9. Turn the temperature down to the lowest setting, and add the double cream. Stir the cream through.

 

10. Add the entire contents of the pink dot sachet and stir.

11. Add the grilled chicken (which is already compltely cooked through). Leave to gently simmer in the sauce for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve piping hot.

 

* Tip: Only want to eat 1 or 2 portions at a time? Make the entire Butter Chicken Mix, freeze the remaining portions as soon as they've completely cooled, so that they're ready for the next time you want to eat Butter Chicken. Don't forget to thoroughly defrost each portion before re-heating and serving. Ensure that food is always served piping hot.


We love to see your culinary creations! So post your dish as ‘Pure Punjabi Butter Chicken’ on social media and tag as @PurePunjabiLtd so we can see!


Methi Naan Bread Instructions

Methi aan is traditionally a special occasion / feast bread, and often served with poultry and meat dishes.

This mix will make 4 small to medium Naans, (not restaurant size!)



Prep time: 10 minutes
Rest time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
 
1 sachet of Pure Punjabi Methi Naan Bread mix
130ml whole milk (plus a splash more, if needed. Use non-dairy-milk (unsweetened),  if lactose intolerant or vegan)
2 tbsp. sunflower oil
Butter, for buttering the cooked naans (or non-dairy spread if lactose intolerant/vegan)
A little plain flour, for dusting the work surface & rolling pin 
 
Method:
 
Before starting, turn your grill on to start heating. It needs to be on the hottest setting. *Safety note: do not leave any cooking equipment unattended when on, especially if there are children around.
  1. Add the sunflower oil and milk to the dry ingredients.
  2. Making a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients, add the milk and oil, stirring with your fingers, in a whisk-like motion, as you go. You may need an extra splash of milk, just to combine all the flour, so the dough comes away cleanly from the bowl (but it should not be a sticky dough).
  3. Empty the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes. The dough will start out quite tough, and become smoother as you knead it.
  4. Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it with cling film, and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
  5. Once the dough has rested, divide it into 4 equal portions.
  6. Roll each piece into a rough circle, and then, if you wish, slightly pull one edge to make more of a tear-shaped naan. This is not essential, but it the traditional shape. The naan should be roughly 4mm thick. *Note: Too thin and the naan will not puff and will be brittle, too thick and it will be doughy in the middle.
  7. Put your rolled out naan onto a baking tray and put it under the hot grill, be careful not to leave it as it can change colour very quickly. Once the first side has browned, turn it over. Once the second side is under the heat, it should start to puff. Be careful that the bread doesn’t touch the top of the grill (as it will pierce it), and just watch out for any steam (as you don’t want to burn yourself!).

8. Once both sides are cooked, you can lightly butter one side, then cook the rest of the naan breads.


Methi Naan is a special occasion bread (not an every day bread).

* Tip: Only want to eat 1 or 2 portions at a time? Make the entire Methi Naan Mix, and divide the dough into 4 portions. Freeze the portions that you want to save for next time (just wrap them really tightly in cling film and then put them in a freezer bag). The next time you want naan, just get the frozen naan dough balls out of the freezer 3 -4 hours in advance, then roll them out and cook them under the grill.

We love to see your culinary creations! So post your dish as ‘Pure Punjabi methi naan’ on social media and tag as @PurePunjabiLtd so we can see!