The reason why packages of naan sell for $2.69 at Trader Joe's is because no one has the time to wait around for dough to rise for three hours before a meal. It's a bread that has a very short shelf life and this is because it tastes the best when piping hot and fresh from the oven. But, these reheat pretty well in the toaster the day after too. For today's experiment, I used ingredients that I had on hand. So, the yogurt inclusion isn't plain yogurt, it's vanilla whole milk yogurt. I like whole milk yogurts. The thickness and texture is very similar to Greek-styled yogurt. My pizza stone broke a few months ago (apparently it couldn't survive the self-cleaning setting of the oven), so I used the reverse side of a heavy baking sheet. Most of my bakeware, if it's not glass, is made of steel from the Baker's Advantage product line.
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| Freshly baked naan |
Makes 4.
Ingredients
1 tsp yeast + 3/4 c. warm water (110 degrees F)
2 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
pinch of baking powder
2 1/2 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
bowl of water
Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine yeast and warm water. Let the yeast proof for about 10 minutes.
2. In a larger bowl, whisk together: flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Stir in yogurt and olive oil. Next, add the yeast-water liquid. Mix until the dough comes together.
3. With floured hands, knead the dough until it is smooth. Put dough into a clean bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm room for 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Punch down dough and divide into 4 equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball and set aside.
5. Dip dough ball into flour and roll out into a 1/4" thick oval shape on a clean kitchen towel. If you're using a baking sheet instead of a pizza stone, it's not necessary to preheat the sheet in the oven. Simply place the rolled out dough onto the sheet. As many as will fit on its surface with roughly 1" spacing.
6. Before putting the dough into the oven. Use your fingers to moisten the top of the naan with water. The added moisture help the dough from forming a hard pita-like crust. Bake for 4 minutes, flip the naan over and bake for an additional 1 minute. Remove from oven.
A couple weeks ago I had the worst-ever bowl of cream of mushroom soup at Palomino's in Bellevue. There was no excuse for it. Certainly not on my part since I finished reading Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential that weekend, in which Bourdain clearly says what foods to avoid on certain days. For example, never order seafood on a Monday (because the fresh stuff comes in on Friday morning for F/Sa/Su). And, sure enough, the dungeness crab sliders that came with my soup were cold, soggy, tasteless, and ugh, the crab tasted like it was frozen and reheated a couple times. Never order cream of anything at a restaurant, he warns. That is because you can hide all sorts of things in a cream-based soup. Heck, if I can make a decent crab bisque with a meatless carcass, imagine what an experienced chef can do in the kitchen. Anyhow. Here's a much better rendition of mushroom soup.
Ingredients
8 oz fresh white mushrooms, sliced
1 qt organic beef stock
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp unbleached AP flour + 1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 tbsp organic white wine
1/4 c buttermilk, or cream
sea salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste
fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)
Directions
1. In a medium-sized pot, melt butter over medium heat and saute mushrooms until tender; about 5 minutes. Remove mushrooms from heat and set aside.
2. Add remaining butter and stir in flour. This will make a roux. The flour will clump together into a ball, but not to worry, it will smooth out once the broth is added. Speaking of which, gradually add the broth, whisking until the flour dissolves in the broth. Pour in the rest of the broth and add the wine. Return 2/3 of the mushrooms to the pot. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Turn off heat and let the soup cool before using an immersion blender. The idea is to not purée the mushrooms, but to chop them up into little bits. Return remaining mushrooms to the pot along with the buttermilk, salt, and black pepper. Bring up to a boil for five minutes.
4. Remove from heat and ladle into bowls.
This is the first year I haven't taken the lazy uninspired route of making this dish...which typically meant going to the grocery store and buying the corned beef already brined in a neat little package. What is a little distressing is that the spices I had to acquire for this dish costed almost as much as the brisket; and the meat was on sale for St Patrick's Day. This dish is an expensive cooking experiment (roughly $15 in ingredients, excluding spices already on hand). I hope I don't screw it up too badly.
Brisket is a pretty unforgiving piece of meat that needs to be slow roasted for its connective muscle tissue to break down into delightful pleasures of eating. If you cook it too fast on high heat, the meat gets tough. If you cook it too slow on high heat, the meat is still tough. But, if you don't want to bother with basting the meat every 40-50 minutes while it roasts in the oven there is another modern convenience called the slow cooker; or as it says on my unit...a Crockpot. I am using Steamy Kitchen's recipe process for this because it looks really easy to do. One of my beer friends advised against using a Guinness dark beer so I am using Pike's Naughty Nelly artisan ale instead. No, I still don't drink beer. I don't care for bitter in my beverages, and while I love the smell of fermenting hops (smells like bread, go figure) it's just not for me. Beer is great in recipes though, like beer can chicken, steamed with clams or mussels, or in chocolate stout cupcakes.
Made Irish soda bread today. As I managed to get buttermilk-sticky flour and raisins all over my counter, the process reminded me of a forgetful baker who first conceived the recipe. At first, it is like making a biscuit dough, but then caraway seeds are added and then it seems like you're making rye bread but without the rye flour nor the yeast. You think a savory bread is going to be made until raisins are added. I divided the mass of dough into four portions and shaped them all into mini rounded soda bread loaves. A floured kitchen towel works really well for kneading sticky dough.
This ingredient ratio comes from the Seattle Times. Nearly all of the ingredients are represented, except for the heavy cream for the egg wash. I substituted buttermilk. In retrospect, two cups of raisins is too much for this recipe. There were so many unused raisins, I had to stick the stragglers back into the dough. And, while baking, the dough pushed some of the raisins out to the surface.
Ingredients
4 c. unbleached AP flour, sifted
1/4 c . organic granulated sugar
1/4 c. unsalted butter, cold
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp caraway seeds
2 c. organic seedless raisins
1 1/3 c. buttermilk
1 whole egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp buttermilk (for egg wash, optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
1. In a food prep: sift together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in unsalted butter until coarse crumbs form.
2. Empty food prep into a large mixing bowl. Stir in caraway seeds until evenly distributed.
3. In a 2-cup measuring cup, mix together buttermilk, an egg, and baking soda. Pour into flour and stir to combine. Fold in raisins. Dough will be sticky.
4. Turn out dough onto a clean, floured kitchen towel. Knead a few times so that the dough comes together and shape it into a large ball; or divide into four equal portions. With a sharp knife or the edge of a pastry scraper, make a cross 1/4" deep in the center.
5. (optional) Brush bread with beaten egg yolk and buttermilk before baking.
6. If baking one large round, bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. If baking smaller rounds, bake for 50 minutes.
This is also pretty straightforward. I am writing it up as a post because I think the flavors taste good together. To rehydrate dried mushrooms, simply place them in a large bowl and add boiling water. Let them soak before using. The leftover liquid is mushroom dashi and can be used to flavor soups.
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
3 large bell peppers, sliced into 1/2" pieces
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 c. dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated
1 tbsp low-sodium natural soy sauce
sea salt, to taste
olive oil, for frying
Directions
1. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When the oil easily spreads across the bottom of the pan, add garlic and stir until lightly browned.
2. Add bell peppers and mushrooms and stir fry until the peppers have changed color. If using green bell peppers, the green with be a much richer lawn-green color. This should take no more than five minutes.
3. Season with soy sauce and sea salt while frying. Remove from heat and serve.
