Chicken Tikka Tonight

30 August 2011 - Chicken Tikka Masala

After the hectic few weeks I’ve had, I was looking forward to a slightly quieter week this week and was excited to be cooking a curry on one of the last days of winter. I invited Alex around for dinner and was going to cook her Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Tikka Masala.

This recipe asks for the chicken to be marinated the day before. As I’m super organised and efficient, I had the chicken marinating over night and had all the ingredients ready to go for the next day. I had to call Dad when I was doing the shopping as I didn’t know if I could use whole peeled tomatoes instead of plum tomatoes (turns out they’re the same thing) and thickened cream instead of double cream (Dad didn’t believe me there was no double cream in Coles, but said I could make this switch if I wanted to).

I was all prepped and ready, only problem was, I had no one to eat with. Alex got a sore throat and dogged it, Sian was going out and Cam (who I called as my second chance offer – sorry Cam!) was in Melbourne... Jo lives alone. But I persevered! Although I don’t really eat curry, wasn’t sure what Chicken Tikka Masala is meant to taste like and really wanted to (and did) just eat the scraps of Sian and Ange’s lunch, I soldiered on and cooked my god damn curry!

It was all pretty simple, combine all the ingredients, cook the rice, wait for the chicken to cook and serve. Easy peasy. I was pretty excited because I didn’t have to buy any spices as I already had them all. I’ve been waiting for this to happen!

I think the chicken was slightly overcooked by the time I was eating it, but I’m not sure why this happened. Firstly, I didn’t cut the chicken as small as the recipe said, secondly I didn’t cook it for as long as the recipe said and thirdly... there is not thirdly, but it shouldn’t be over cooked!

Anyway, I sat down (alone) and ate (alone) and had no one to ask if it tasted how it should. I figure since I followed the recipe it probably tasted the way it was meant to. It was nice anyway, it’s not about to become my favourite meal of all time, but it was nice and relatively easy so I’m sure I’d cook it again. I froze the leftovers (to eat another night when everyone abandons me), watched a movie and went to bed ridiculously early as I wasn’t sure how to entertain myself after the movie I was watching finished.

What a fascinating insight into my life this has been!

Tips: Watch the chicken as it overcooked quite quickly

Music: Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/chicken-tikka-masala

There's nothing funny about chickpeas.

Lauren's Vegetarian - no bacon - Yummy Chickpea Curry - 19 July 2011

Lauren had been bugging me and bugging me to cook her recipe so I finally manned up and decided to cook Lauren's, vegetarian, no bacon, yummy chickpea curry.

Even after the great description she wrote at the top of the recipe (“This chickpea and tomato based curry with a blend of fragrant spices is warming and healthy. Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt, a sprig of coriander and a warm naan”), I was slightly skeptical for three reasons

1. My favourite vegetarian recipes are the ones that include bacon

2. I don't really like the texture of chickpeas

3. I don't really eat curry.

It was a bold move to say the least. Sian and I went for a walk in the pouring rain and froze to death which was an interesting decision so a nice warm curry was just what we wanted.

As much as I enjoy a recipe that includes product placement, Coles didn't stock the right type of chickpeas so I used a different one instead. I'd never used chickpeas before so wasn't sure if I needed to drain them, but luckily I did or it would have been disastrous.

I didn't put chilli in, even though the recipe called for it because we didn't have any and I don't like chilli. I did have to buy some more spices though to add to the insane amount I have that take up half of the top shelf of our cupboard! Soon I’ll have every spice they sell in Coles and cooking won’t be so insanely expensive all the time!

Lauren suggested I eat it with some baked sweet potato. We all know I can't say no to sweet potato, so I popped that in the oven with some paprika on it to season. Yum.

It was really simple, Sian bitched and moaned about it not being ready when she was hungry, but I didn't give in and left it to simmer for the right amount of time. I played around with the presentation of the rice which didn't really pay off, but was good fun regardless.

The overall result was really nice. The combination of the sweet potato and the curry was amazing and I was quite impressed. The texture wasn't too bad, and after I added a fair bit of salt to it all I couldn't stop eating it. Sian was loving it sick and had it for lunch again the next day too. Success.

Tips: Definitely have it with sweet potato

Music: The Fratellis