[lauren] oh my god, can we just begin already?
[lauren] what's going on, it's lauren from hot for food
[lauren] and today i've decided to turn on the camera
[lauren] and do another
[lauren] RECIPE?! video.
[lauren] so we're just gonna start from scratch,
[lauren] come up with an idea,
[lauren] and make it and make up a recipe on the spot
[lauren] and yes, i'm being sarcastic when i say
[lauren] RECIPE?!
[lauren] duh.
[lauren] i make up recipes, so there is no recipe until i test it,
[lauren] and i actually write down what i did.
[lauren] so whenever i post a photo on instagram,
[lauren] or twitter,
[lauren] and all you lovely hot for food fans
[lauren] go "where is the recipe?" or "recipe?!"
[lauren] i will admit i get this much annoyed
[lauren] which is how i came up with this video concept
[lauren] because i'm like "there is no recipe! what do you want from me?"
[lauren] kay, so let's just do this.
[lauren] i don't know where to start.
[lauren] oh my god, can we show this freezer, john?
[lauren] it's a really sad excuse for a freezer.
[lauren] these are in the freezer and i actually wouldn't mind using them
[lauren] they're two veggie chicken breasts,
[lauren] so maybe let's use two veggie chicken breasts,
[lauren] for something chicken/
[lauren] chicken-like. chik'un.
[lauren] c-h-i-k-'-u-n. not real chicken.
[lauren] i've got so many leftover sauces.
[lauren] leftover dressings, relish.
[lauren] soy milk,
[lauren] ughh
[lauren] i got lots of veggies, i got lots of kale.
[lauren] as usual.
[lauren] i don't know, what do we do with this chicken?
[lauren] john, we were talking the other day about how
[lauren] on our first date,
[lauren] like one of our first official dates,
[lauren] i came over here before i lived here.
[lauren] and john made me a vegan dinner
[lauren] and john was not vegan at the time,
[lauren] uh, but he was interested in it because i was vegan.
[lauren] and he made vegan butter chik'un.
[lauren] and i was so impressed that someone actually made me dinner
[lauren] no one had ever done that before, let alone made me a vegan meal.
[lauren] and it was really good!
[lauren] except.
[lauren] it wasn't really butter chik'un, john.
[lauren] it was more like a tomato paste curry.
[lauren] so we were talking the other how it was like,
[lauren] "oh i have to redo your butter chik'un"
[lauren] it was good! it wasn't bad.
[lauren] it was good! it was more like a chana masala type curry.
[lauren] so could we redo the butter chik'un now?
[lauren] i've never made butter chik'un before.
[lauren] i'm thinking maybe we could do
[lauren] butter chik'un for two cos i only have a little bit of chik'un.
[lauren] it's a lot of spices, i think. isn't it?
[lauren] the thing is, because we're a food blog
[lauren] we have kind of everything always in the pantry
[lauren] we will have a lot of spices,
[lauren] we've got, i have coconut milk/
[lauren] so let's make a better butter chik'un than john diemer.
[lauren] and go!
[lauren] the better butter chik'un.
[lauren] let's just start with this chik'un
[lauren] and i'll get some spices and stuff going.
[lauren] oh, we need, um, onion.
[lauren] garlic.
[lauren] at some point, we'll need cilantro.
[lauren] this cilantro's almost on its way out.
[lauren] my issue with butter chicken is there's never green in it,
[lauren] like there's never any vegetables in it.
[lauren] peas are not in butter chicken.
[lauren] that's where you also misstepped.
[lauren] you put, you did tofu and you did peas.
[lauren] it's gonna be better with this like, vegan chik'un.
[lauren] soo butter chicken is creamy and i'm assuming they use cream
[lauren] and butter.
[lauren] so i would rather use coconut milk.
[lauren] hopefully that will work.
[lauren] so here is a question:
[lauren] now obviously, i know nothing about indian cuisine
[lauren] so i don't wanna hear about how this isn't authentic or whatever.
[lauren] i'm just gonna try and make it.
[lauren] do i use whole seeds like whole coriander seeds, whole mustard seeds, whole cumin seeds?
[lauren] or do i use ground ones?
[lauren] i don't know.
[lauren] indian curry is not just like using curry powder,
[lauren] or yellow curry powder. you have to use like a bunch of different spices.
[lauren] but i wonder if you could also add this in.
[lauren] garam masala i think is what i mainly need
[lauren] but i don't have like fenugreek.
[lauren] which i don't even know what that is.
[lauren] garam masala smells like the right thing to do.
[lauren] garam masala with
[lauren] cumin.
[lauren] so these veggie chik'un breasts are frozen,
[lauren] you can cook them from frozen, actually.
[lauren] in a pan.
[lauren] in canada we have president's choice blue menu brand,
[lauren] but in um, the US you probably have gardein,
[lauren] you've got in-house brands at target, at wegmans,
[lauren] at walmart, i think?
[lauren] or you could use already done strips
[lauren] and just cut those into chunks.
[lauren] i'm gonna cook them in a little bit of coconut oil,
[lauren] in a pan,
[lauren] what's amazing about the veggie chik'un breasts
[lauren] is that they take no time to cook,
[lauren] because it's not real meat.
[lauren] you don't have to worry about salmonella,
[lauren] or if it's still pink in the middle.
[lauren] and they actually taste really really good
[lauren] they have the texture of chicken,
[lauren] they have the taste of chicken from what i remember anyways,
[lauren] so you wanna brown these the same way you would with regular chicken.
[lauren] we're gonna cut them into slices and chunks
[lauren] and cook them down and then
[lauren] remove them from the pan and do the curry
[lauren] in the same pan.
[lauren] so the only thing with these veggie chik'un breasts
[lauren] is that they're not gluten-free.
[lauren] so sorry, but all you VGF- HCF people,
[lauren] i don't know what that stands for
[lauren] HCLF. is that high calorie low fat?
[lauren] who cares?
[lauren] you're not gonna eat these.
[lauren] but that's too bad, sucks to be you
[lauren] because this is gonna be delicious.
[lauren] so we'll start with uh, half of a white onion
[lauren] because we're not making a lot.
[lauren] now we're gonna sauté this onion first.
[lauren] i might need to add a bit more coconut oil
[lauren] i think we do.
[lauren] we'll add another tablespoom.
[lauren] i guess part of building a curry
[lauren] is getting the spices all toasty and fragrant,
[lauren] so you gotta put them in now,
[lauren] so let's do- start with a teaspoon of garam masala.
[lauren] i'm just gonna do ground spices
[lauren] because i'm tryna make this kind of a quick butter chik'un,
[lauren] instead of a long drawn-out thing.
[lauren] where if i used whole seeds, i have to let it cook for a long time, i think.
[lauren] so i'm just gonna do a teaspoon of cumin.
[lauren] gonna do one teaspoon of coriander,
[lauren] if your pan starts to get a little dry,
[lauren] just add a little bit more coconut oil,
[lauren] i added like another teaspoon to the pan here
[lauren] i don't know, should i add anything else?
[lauren] ginger?
[lauren] i guess i'll just add half a teaspoon of ground ginger,
[lauren] kay, so your onions get kinda soft,
[lauren] your spices are all in there, you can really smell it
[lauren] it smells good.
[lauren] and at this point we're gonna add garlic.
[lauren] kay, i'm gonna add like two cloves of garlic?
[lauren] big cloves.
[lauren] i use a garlic press,
[lauren] to mince them but you can do whatever you want
[lauren] you could chop it up really finely,
[lauren] let the garlic soften just for like,
[lauren] a minute?
[lauren] so if you add your cream first,
[lauren] and then we'll try to get that orange colour.
[lauren] oh! red and yellow make orange.
[lauren] so i need to add some yellow so i need to add turmeric,
[lauren] don't i?
[lauren] i'm gonna add half a teaspooon of turmeric,
[lauren] simple primary school; making colours
[lauren] cos butter chicken is orange,
[lauren] it's not red. i'm gonna do one teaspooon of curry powder.
[lauren] if your coconut milk's already combined,
[lauren] meaning there's not thick cream at the top and water at the bottom,
[lauren] then start adding it,
[lauren] but mine, i just sorta mixed it up
[lauren] cos it was separated so i'm gonna slowly add this
[lauren] to our curry and onions.
[lauren] bring that to a simmer and then we're gonna add the tomatoes.
[lauren] i haven't added any salt yet.
[lauren] i'm going with a whole teaspoon of sea salt.
[lauren] start with a quarter cup of crushed tomato.
[lauren] i'm essentially gonna add it till i get the colour that i want
[lauren] so we did a quarter of a cup,
[lauren] i'm gonna do another quarter of a cup.
[lauren] i'm gonna let it reduce,
[lauren] see what happends to the flavours,
[lauren] the thing with the curry,
[lauren] is you gotta let it cook for a long time,
[lauren] you gotta let it reduce,
[lauren] then i'll taste it again cos i don't know where we're at/
[lauren] so let's just wait.
[lauren] oh my god, i don't have rice cooking!
[lauren] that takes like, an hour
[lauren] okay, cook up whatever kind of rice you want
[lauren] i got basmati rice, one cup. two cups of water.
[lauren] i'm gonna add butter to my rice.
[lauren] yes, it's vegan butter!
[lauren] everyone asks. we're a vegan food channel.
[lauren] earth balance. one tablespoon.
[lauren] let that ish boil.
[lauren] this is looking good,
[lauren] butter chik'un sauce, everyone.
[lauren] it's been simmering for about uh, twelve minutes
[lauren] i think we need to add sweetness.
[lauren] we put butter in butter chik'un
[lauren] cos they always add cream and butter,
[lauren] let's start with one tablespoon,
[lauren] and you know what, for sweetness,
[lauren] we could add nutmeg or cinnamon as well
[lauren] as a spice.
[lauren] i feel like cinnamon would make it like,
[lauren] like a very little bit cos cinnamon's very overpowering.
[lauren] let's do like a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon,
[lauren] okay, i think we're about ready,
[lauren] it's been simmering for about fifteen minutes,
[lauren] i did add the cinnamon in near the end,
[lauren] but you'll wanna put that in with the spices at the beginning,
[lauren] but in the description below,
[lauren] all the instructions and ingredients are there.
[lauren] you can add the chik'un in on the stove top
[lauren] but it's so hot, i'm just gonna do it right here.
[lauren] we'll put this back on the heat for another couple of minutes,
[lauren] just to let it simmer into the chik'un.
[lauren] looks like butter chicken to me.
[lauren] okay, the rice is done so let's plate this baby!
[lauren] i cooked the rice in butter. that is essential.
[lauren] it's a very rich dish, but
[lauren] that's what butter chicken is.
[lauren] creamy, tangy, buttery,
[lauren] fragrant,
[lauren] are you coming in?
[lauren] is it the better butter chik'un?
[lauren] oh come on!
[lauren] don't say that/
[john] it was really good.
[lauren] it is really good.
[lauren] okay, while we're gonna finish this together,
[lauren] i hope that you make better chik'un for
[lauren] maybe your first date, or to impress your date,
[lauren] or to turn them vegan,
[lauren] cos that's what i did,
[lauren] we post every wednesday,
[lauren] and make this, let me know what you think.
[lauren] if you wanna see me tackle something else
[lauren] i've never made, leave suggestions in the comments below.
[lauren] okay i'll see you guys laterrrr.