Hubby was away (he's back now yay!) so I decided to experiment a little in the kitchen. I adore Indian food as I am sure you know by now, so I decided to make some spicy Naan. Then I needed something to go with it and we had been discussing whether we could give up potatoes or rice... So I did spiced spuds :) And then I decided I needed something more saucy and made a coconut chickpea curry.
Here is the result - super tasty :)
Chill garlic and plain naan
The recipe is basically standard naan recipe and add roasted chillies though I chose to also add fresh chillies and garlic. Here is the recipe from Food and Wine - http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/roasted-chile-naan
Start by mixing some dry yeast (1 teaspoon) with sugar (2 teaspoons in the recipe but I only used a little over 1) and some warm (room temperature) water - a quarter cup. Leave it to sit for 10 minutes.
In the mean time mix flour (recipe says 4 cups all purpose but I used a mixture of standard flour and wholewheat flour as I didn't feel like opening another pack of the normal stuff) with 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
By then the yeast will have turned like this:
Next whisk up milk (three quarters of a cup at room temp) with Greek yoghurt (one half cup). Then add in the Yeast mixture.
Then mix in the dry ingredients and kneed for a couple of minutes until it forms into a soft dough.
Form it into a ball and place it in an oiled bowl for a couple of hours, covered in clingfilm.
Leave it somewhere at room temperature until it doubles in size.
This should take a couple of hours an looks like this once risen properly.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured flat surface.
Kneed it some more and cut it into 12 pieces that you roll slightly into balls. Now what I would recommend is to leave sit like this at least another 30 minutes as I started using them right away an my later attempts were better than the early ones, and not just because I had figured out the cooking method.
Then roll them out into ovals, no need to leave them rise again, I did these to order.
Now to prep the Chillies, the Recipe had Serrano and Fresno but I just used what I had in the fridge.
Sliced. Into a small Le Creuset cast iron pan.
Slice some garlic.
Toss through some oil.
And into the oven for 10 min at around 180 Celcius. I left them a little too long but they were still fine, I would just cook them a little less next time.
Heat a pan up to a medium high heat, I used a crepe pan (nice and thin) and did it around 6 or 7 out of 9 on the induction. If the pan is hot enough and you turn them fast enough, they should puff up quite quickly and cook fast. Before putting them into the pan you need to rub each side with oil (recipe said butter which is of course more authentic but I went with oil). For the chilli ones put your chillies on top as you place the bread in the pan.
Once they bubble up then turn them over.
Done!
So fun seeing the bubbles of air and knowing that the yeast did its job! The smell of yeast is also strangely intoxicating.
Here are a few of the resulting naan with chillies, I chose to mix fresh and roasted chillies when I put them on the breads, more fun that way but I admit they are hard to keep on, maybe my dough should be wetter for them to stick more? Don't forget to season with sea salt when done.
Here are a few more :)
I also fancied some plain ones so after making 6 chilli naan I moved onto normal naan. These had longer to rise a second time and had a better structure / texture for my taste. Yum!
Totally legit ;)
I don't know whether you have seen my steamed roasted chips recipe I did for a Meatless Monday post a while back? If you haven't you should check it out (link - http://www.mylifeinsin.com/2016/02/meatless-monday-steamed-chips-fries-in.html) The method is super simple and really give you gorgeous crispy chips with far less oil and no deep frying.
I decided to take the method and apply it to Indian spiced potatoes, a kind of roasted aloo jeera of sorts, with a few different spices.
Step one - slice the potatoes into rounds and put them in the steamer for 20 minutes then when done I put them in the fridge for 15 or so minutes to cool an dry a little. Preheat the oven to the highest you can, mine goes to around 250 Celcius.
Whilst they cook, mix a few spices together. I used turmeric, cumin, coriander, garlic powder, ginger powder, salt and pepper.
Then add some sunflower oil as well as whole cumin seeds and whole fennel seeds. Mix it all together.
Toss the potatoes in (should now be cool)
Then once the spuds are nicely coated, put them on a tray with baking paper in the hot hot oven.
I think I met them cook about 20 minutes but just keep an eye on them and turn them halfway through and remove when browned.
A quick check when I was turning them.
Result! SOOOOO good! Toss them in some sea salt
Super crisp on the outside with that lovely fried flavour, but nice and fluffy on the inside. YUMMM
These will be done again for sure.
Coconut Chickpea Curry
I needed some sauce, naan is no fun if it is just with dry dishes, so I decided to make a curry. Started out with finely sliced garlic and grated ginger.
And sliced three green chillies.
I cooked a diced onion in a pan with all sorts of different whole spices such as cumin, fennel, cloves, nigella seeds and cinnamon, plus a little fenugreek.
Added the ginger, garlic and chilli.
Then a sliced onion.
A couple of chopped tomatoes once the onions have softened.
Half a bottle of chickpeas. Toss them through (I didn't add any of the chickpea water).
Add about half a small coconut milk pack.
Added ground coriander and ground cumin. Salt and ground pepper.
And stir through. Then just let it bubble away. I finished it off with lemon juice and some fried shallots as I wanted it to be a touch less rich / sweet.
Yum!
A lovely meal that lasted me three days :)
Do you do any special style breads? Any potato dishes for me to try? Let me know below! I want to try to stuff naan some time soon :)
For more Meatless Monday posts see here :)
