Reminiscent "Chicken" Tikka Masala (READ: Jennifer tries to make Indian food)

Back in Berkeley, I have an amazing core group of friends who I call the Floormates. They are my support group, biggest source of laughter, and essentially my second family. They define a majority of my college experience.

Meet my psychotic, dysfunctional, crass, nerdy, offensive, weirdasballs family. 

One of the things the Floormates and I love to do is go to Indian Flavors and eat their chicken tikka masala. ONLY this.

so. many. ingredients. (not pictured: red pepper flakes)

Honestly, Indian Flavors isn't extremely above average when compared to what else Berkeley/SF has to offer. But for some reason we can eat this dish once a week for a whole year and still not tire of it. And now, it's just so...us. 

I don't really get it either. But when it comes to me and the Floormates, there's a lot of things no one would ever get. Honestly. 

Frying: onions, ginger, garlic and spices

The Indian food cravings started pretty much the first weekend summer vacation started. And I haven't really gotten a chance to hunt down some good Indian food around here, so I finally caved and bought those stinkin', over-priced spices because DANGFLABBIT I was finally going to try and make Indian food.

Adding the yogurt and milk...and I had a bad feeling that I royally messed up. Because this looks horrifying.  

Well, obviously this chicken tikka masala was nothing like the one from Indian Flavors, though I didn't really think it would be. But just the idea of that dish reminds me of the Floormates and makes me look forward to returning to campus (happy vibes!) And since I used curry powder, I am going to consider it Indian food and call it a day.  #setthebarhigh 

Oh, this dish was also JENNIFER VERSUS CHICKPEAS ROUND 2.

hey look guyz it's a picture of the devil taking a bath in boiling water

I decided to substitute chicken with tofu and chickpeas to give myself a good source of protein. And the first thing I did when I got home was boil those little fckers in a pot of hot water.

HA, I thought, I will boil those little fckers until they are as soft as a baby panda, that's how soft. And they will hate it, because in my mind I envision these chickpeas have feelings. And I wanted them to feel the same amount of the pain they caused me weeks ago and then some.  ...did I tell you I am the nicest girl on the floor?

Can't call this tikka masala, so I'll just call it Jennifala? Or just, Jennifer's Indian Food.

Except some how, even when I boiled these chickpeas like I was supposed to, they still found a way to shaft me. WHAT.

Because guess what guys, boiling chickpeas takes eons. Like, the dinasours already had their party and peaced out and these fckers still were not done. GUHHHHHHHHHH....foiled again.

Luckily though, I kept my resilience, and I had my stupid peas, and I'll admit...they did add to the dish. I still have a lot left over, but since they are already boiled I just refrigerated them and can microwave them next time. HMPH.

Difficulty: 6 -lots of ingredients to prepare, but it felt like it took longer because of THOSE PEAS.
Willingness to make again: 6-7 -with canned peas I bet it will be a lot better.
Over-all: 7
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/06/skinny-chicken-tikka-masala.html#more

Notes:
1) The flavor wasn't as strong as the Indian food I get in restaurants. But it was still good as it was thanks to the spices/red peppers.
2) Substitued "garam fancyspicename" with curry powder and cumin. I like indian food but I am not going broke over it.
3) Thank god for canned tomatos.
4) Maybe could have used more onions/garlic?
5) The curry paste wasn't that thick. Maybe because the tomatos were watery or needed to use more yogurt?
6) This would be great on rice or makeshift Naan of some sort

 Missing these fools: the Floormate thanksgiving 9th grade

the Floormate thanksgiving 10th grade

TL;DR: chickpeas STILL suck. STILL!