Where Kate once again cooks by the seat of her pants

Greetings one and all! I know a lot of you out there are doing some holiday baking, and I may do a little more this month, but today I decided to use my dear boyfriend as a guinea pig. He's a brave soul and has a nose and taste for food, so he's really a good person to try news tastes on.

Originally, I had wanted to make butter chicken, or chicken makhini. One slight problem in that I was out of tomato paste and it was pouring rain out. So I adjusted. What did I have? Chicken, butter, a few mushrooms, some peppers, assorted spices. I came up with a taste I really enjoyed, but will be tweaking a bit:

1/2 stick of unsalted butter

1/4 cup of beer (I had Harp in the house)

2 t coriander seeds
1/2 t coriander powder

sliced mushrooms

1/2 long hot pepper chopped

about ten grinds black pepper

1 pound chicken tenders

1 minced shallot

1/2 teaspoon salt

heat a large frying pan at medium-low heat. Add coriander seeds and shake pan gently until the seeds start to pop. Add butter to the pan. When it's melted, add the shallot, the mushrooms and salt, stirring until shallot is translucent. Add the long hot pepper  and powdered coriander and stir to coat. Increase the heat to medium and add the chicken to the pan. Cook until chicken is just done, about fifteen minutes.

I served this with aloo gobi, a recipe I will bring to you next week. I think it would also go well with rice and a green salad.

Enjoy whatever holidays you celebrate, if any!

Questions? Comments? Death threats? Happy to hear from you!