Butter Chicken, the Sound of Music

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings ,These are a few of my favorite things....When the dog bites, when the bee stings, When I'm feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, And then I don't feel so bad.

So I have been feeling down the past few days, have been eating worms - my own big plate of them. The weather hasn't helped much either - cold and wet and getting colder and wetter each day.

Then I started to hear the reports of how other's have been suffering, not only in Cape Town, all around the world. You only have to spend a few minutes on any news site and you'll know just how hard other peoples lives are.

 I also remembered back to many moons ago, when I was an extra in our school play, The Sound of Music. It was a soundtrack I knew very well, as it was one of the vinyls my parents had, which my Mom loved to play for us, especially on rainy days.

I started to think of some of my favourite things, and now I don't feel so bad.

This Butter Chicken recipe is certainly not the most authentic one you'll find, but I love it and it's tried and tested and I have never had anything other than compliments on it. It's a happy day meal for me, as it is a real indulgence with butter and cream - but who's complaining? Not me!

Butter Chicken

5 Skinned and Boned Chicken Breasts
100 g Butter
Oil for frying onion
1 Large Onion, sliced and chopped
¾ Cup of Tomato Puree
¾ Cup of Cream
¾ Cup of Plain Yoghurt
2 ml of Cayenne Pepper or Paprika (your choice)
Salt and Pepper
1 Handful of Roughly Chopped Fresh Coriander leaves
1 Squeeze of Fresh Lemon juice
Fresh tomato to garnish (optional)

Chop the chicken into 3cm cubes.
Heat a pot on the stove, and add the butter.
Fry the chicken in the butter until just turning golden.
Remove the butter and the chicken
Add enough oil to fry the onion until soft and starting to colour
Add the tomato puree, yogurt, cream, cayenne and season to taste.
Add back all the fired chicken and butter.
Stir and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
The sauce will thicken and reduce down by about half.
If you want to speed up the thickening sauce, remove the lid and increase the heat.
Occasionally stir until ready.
Just before you serve, add the coriander and squeeze of lemon juice.
Cook for 1 minute more and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
Serve with lots of basmati rice and fresh tomatoes.