Hi! I have some very good news! Now, they responded, but unfortunately, it was a bot-made email. So I thought, “Well if they don’t respond to me online, then they have to respond to me in person.” However, my dad actually went in and talked to one of the chefs there while I was at school, and he came back with some great news. One of the chefs invited me to the restaurant so that I could ask my questions! I started my conversation with one of the very kind chefs there! His name is Jerome, and he has tons of culinary experience, including working in Fairmont, Edmonton, and Whistler!! He was super kind and willing to answer all of my questions! Big up to Chef Jerome! I read what I wrote in my script, and he began by asking me what went wrong when I made my butter chicken so that he could give me specific suggestions. After I told him, he gave me quite a bit of feedback that will help me next week!

His suggestions/feedback!

• After I told him I had used a handheld blender, he immediately said that that was why I still had chunks in the sauce. So next time I’ll be using an actual blender.
• He also said that if I wanted to make authentic butter chicken, I could even blanch the tomatoes to get rid of the chunks.
• I told him about my problems with the overpowering flavour of the crushed tomatoes. He said that the ingredients in the crushed tomatoes consisted of salt and citric acid, so that may be the reason behind the strong flavour. He said that it was fine to use crushed tomatoes, but to balance the flavour he suggested that I add way more yogurt and heavy cream.
• Kind of going along with the previous point, he asked me if I used any sugar. I told him I did, but barely. He said it was crucial to add sugar and to put in a generous amount of it. Next time, I’ll definitely do that.
  Additionally, he also asked me what I marinated my chicken with. I told him I used lots of spices and olive oil. He suggested that next time I also incorporate yogurt!
• He told me it’s good to marinate the chicken overnight, which I did do.
• Also, he suggested I add some cashews in there, as they taste really good in the dish, and are for sure an essential!
• As for the question I had about “really finding that restaurant butter chicken flavour,” he told me there wasn’t really a restaurant butter chicken flavour. It was just that in restaurants, they use a lot more oil, heavy cream, etc., whereas, at home, we control how much of those things we add. He said that rather than restaurant butter chicken, homemade butter chicken is far more authentic and healthy.

Next week will be my improved butter chicken!

Hi! I decided to focus on writing a script this class. However, I have decided to change the restaurant I contact from Swagat to “Chef’s Butter Chicken.” This is mainly because Swagat is almost a 30-minute drive from my house! Meanwhile, Chef’s Butter Chicken is less than a 5-minute drive away. I noticed that their restaurant also had an Instagram page, so I decided to DM them.

Here is what I wrote:

I have been working on my final presentation on my own time, as I do not have any classes to spare to dedicate to that. It’s coming along really well, and I have gotten a lot done! The restaurant hasn’t responded to me yet, but after all, it has only been an hour. If they don’t respond, I’m planning on going to the restaurant and doing the little interview in person. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it next week (on the extra long weekend), because I’m going camping. It seems I’ll be running a little short on time, but I can manage. I’m thinking of doing the interview (if they don’t respond to my DM) on the 31st, and then I’ll make the butter chicken on Thursday! That’s all for today, see you next week!

Hi! This week, I wanted to make Butter Chicken. Since Genius Hour is coming to an end pretty soon, I wanted to really only make Nepali/cultural dishes from here on out, as that is what I said I’d do in my first blog post. Butter chicken is not originally from Nepal, but I will still be making it since India is quite similar to Nepal. However, I should also start finding an expert. As of right now, I am thinking of finding a Nepali restaurant to contact and ask for tips on making butter chicken. I’m making it this week so that next week I can use the tips to make it better. I’m thinking of contacting the restaurant Swagat because their food is really delicious and I’ve been there a lot of times. Also, next week would be an ideal time to go in and talk with my expert, because, after that, I think I still have a week to use those tips to make the dish. That’s the plan so far!

Recipe: https://cafedelites.com/butter-chicken/

Editied Recipe: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uv8ZPBWWyC3g1PTUiJJ23Bsbml82ndp0XK-ciSwvIY8/edit

This dish turned out really, really good! If I knew at the beginning of Genius Hour that I would be able to make my own butter chicken from scratch with zero assistance, I would have never believed that. However, now I am able to do just that! The butter chicken was super delicious, to say the least! I was pretty worried at the beginning that the dish would not taste anything like restaurant butter chicken, but in my opinion, it tasted really similar to restaurant butter chicken! To balance the overpowering taste of the crushed tomato, I used whipping cream and plain yogurt, but next time I could definitely use a lot more because the flavour of the crushed tomato was still really strong. The chicken that I made was also super delicious! Since I marinated it and left it in the freezer overnight, the spices really thoroughly got to soak in. The chicken was not bland at all, and it was very flavourful and rich in spices. Additionally, I think I could’ve cut the chicken a little smaller. Moving on, I definitely could have blended the sauce way better, as I could still feel some onion chunks when I was tasting the dish. Instead of using a handheld blender, I think I’ll use an actual blender so that no chunks remain. Last but not least, next time I am thinking of making naan to go along with this dish. Overall, I am very, very happy with how this dish turned out. With some improvements, I could see this dish being close to restaurant quality! I am super proud of myself for making this dish all by myself. I would have never been able to make this dish singlehandedly at the very beginning of Genius Hour. I think making this dish really really showcases my growth throughout this project!

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vvl-H-g6AqVWIi_My9SWOBUJzBMWUU4t/view?usp=sharing

Here are some things I learnt from making this, and some things I would do if I were to make the dish again:

• Find something to balance the crushed tomato flavour
• Cut the chicken a tad bit smaller
• Blend the sauce a lot better, so that there’s absolutley no chunks/pieces of onion left
• Make some naan to go along with it!

Hi! This week, I decided to make Momos. Momos are a traditional Nepali dish, and they’re very authentic and popular. They’re a type of dumpling with ground chicken and other ingredients as the filling. Nepal, as well as Tibet, is known as the birthplace of the Momo. But as I said, they’re super similar to dumplings. Although, the way that they’re wrapped is different from other dumplings. Instead of being in a crescent shape, they’re in a more ball-like shape. the filling can be vegetables or chicken, but my family enjoys the chicken more. They are also usually served with a spicy tomato dipping sauce. I am going to use the recipe I found on Google, but I’m also going to add some extra ingredients that my mom recommends. I’ll also be using my mom’s recipe to make the dipping sauce.

Recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nepali-momo-4635126

Editied Recipe: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uv8ZPBWWyC3g1PTUiJJ23Bsbml82ndp0XK-ciSwvIY8/edit

This dish turned out super good! In the end, the filling ended up having the perfect ratio of ground chicken to the rest of the things in it (like green onion, cabbage, etc.), which made it very tasty and delicious. The tomato sauce was also really good, as it had the perfect amount of salt and other spices in it. The wrapping of the Momo itself was also a really good consistency, as it was the perfect amount of chewy. Honestly, I am super happy with how these Momos turned out! However, the only thing that I would redo is the wrapping part of making these. Wrapping Momos is actually quite hard because it requires you to put a specific amount of filling so that it doesn’t all burst out when you wrap it. Additionally, the whole scrunching motion that you have to do to wrap them was a little hard at first, but I got the hang of it eventually. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job at making these! I’m glad that I was able to learn how to make this cultural dish, and I think next week I’ll be making another traditional Nepali dish!!

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1our77wT6GnIe8Jdydj6Jfm1DaX-MkpS7/view?usp=sharing

Here are some things I learnt from making this, and some things I would do if I were to make the dish again:

• Work on my wrapping skills.