An hour later, HH asks me what I'm making, and I gaze at him all confused, my dreams of nachos coming to a halt.
"Aren't we going out?"
"I told them to come over. They're going to be here in an hour and a half. We can just stick one of our frozen lasagnas in the oven."
Um. Nope, boy. That isn't how I roll. When people come over, we do things proper with the fixins, because I'm all southern like that.
So I looked in our fridge and pantry, and saw that we had chicken, oven-ready lasagna noodles, lots of basil, tomatoes and mushrooms. And a glorious thought came to mind.
Butter chicken lasagna.
And it was all like God was up in that idea, because when I ran next door to get groceries, butter chicken sauce was on sale for 99 cents. NINETY NINE FREAKING CENTS. And it wasn't even the no-name kind, but the kind that actually looks legit (well, as legit as you can get with butter chicken, which is kind of like the Orange Chicken of the Indian world).
Yes, I could have made my own sauce, but NINETY NINE CENTS.
And coconut milk was also on sale. For EIGHTY NINE CENTS.
The Chinese in me was an olympic trampolinist (Trampoliner?) at that moment.
I was slightly worried because, really, I was pulling the recipe out of my butt, but when it finally came altogether, it was good. So good that the four of us ate like we had just tunnelled out of North Korea and had never seen food before.
Butter Chicken & Sweet Potato Lasagna (serves 6 HANGRY people)
(I don't really measure when I cook, so adapt as you see fit!)
Pull out a 9x13 pyrex dish and heat up your oven to 400 degrees.
Butter Chicken
4 Chicken breasts, cut in thin slices
1 Can Coconut Milk divided in half
2 jars Butter Chicken Sauce
half a red onion, diced
Fry the red onion until aromatic. Then dump in chicken and fry until cooked through. Pour in one jar of butter chicken sauce and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Pour in half the can of coconut milk, let it heat through and reserve this Butter Chicken in a bowl.
In the same wok, pour in the other jar of butter chicken sauce, the rest of the coconut milk and let simmer until heated through. Set aside.
Lasagna
15 strips oven-ready lasagna noodles
475 g Ricotta
1 cup basil, chopped
10 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 package frozen spinach, thawed
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
2 large portobello mushrooms, sliced
200g sweet potatoes cut into thin rounds (use a mandoline for best results)
Mozzarella & Cheddar, grated to cover the lasagna
Mix ricotta, basil, spinach, tomatoes, salt and pepper in a bowl.
Cover the bottom of the pyrex with a layer of Butter Chicken. Then lay down 5 noodles. Cover noodles with a generous amount of the ricotta mixture.
Cover this mixture with a layer of sweet potatoes and then lay down another 5 noodles.
Spread more butter chicken on top of the noodles and repeat the process!
When it comes to the last layer, instead of the sweet potatoes, use the mushrooms, and then finish off the butter chicken.
Place the last 5 noodles on top, and then pour the plain butter chicken + coconut sauce all over the noodles. This moisture on top will prevent the top noodle layer from curling in the oven. Finally, pour the grated cheese all over the top, as you see fit (for me, the cheesier the better!)
Cover with tinfoil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove tinfoil, turn the temperature down to 350, and bake for another 10 minutes.
Sorry about the poor quality pictures! We had guests, so I pulled out HH's phone to snap some quick pictures. I assure you, it tastes WAY better than it looks!! |