Naan Bread

I should preface this by stating I'm not Indian. I've never been professionally trained in Indian cuisine (or any other type of cuisine actually!) This is not a traditional recipe and it's not cooked in a traditional tandoor clay oven. This is just me trying to re-create a very difficult recipe in the average domestic kitchen.



Naan Bread
Makes 4

1/3 cup milk
1 tspn dry yeast
180g bread flour
1/4 tspn baking powder
1/8 tspn salt
1 tspn sesame seeds
1 tspn nigella (or kalonji) seeds
2 tspn vegetable oil
1/3 cup natural yoghurt

Warm the milk (in the microwave or on the stove) until it is lukewarm, then stir in the yeast and set it aside for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl then mix in the sesame and nigella seeds. Tip in the milk, oil and half of the yoghurt. Mix the dough well with your fingers or a fork. If the dough is too dry then add a bit more yoghurt. If it's too wet then add some more flour.

Once you get the dough to a good consistency (soft and tacky, but not sticky), turn it onto your kitchen bench and knead it well for 5-10 minutes.

Rub a small amount of oil on the inside of a large clean bowl, gently put the dough into it then cover and leave the bowl somewhere warm for a few hours - until the naan has doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 200C and lay some baking paper on the bottom of a good-sized baking tray.

Slice the ball of dough into quarters and gently roll out each quarter until they are about 6-7mm thick. Carefully place the naan onto the baking tray. To keep the bread from drying out too much in the oven, dip your fingers into a small bowl of water and flick the water droplets over a piece of dough. Repeat this for each piece of naan.

Cook the bread on the top shelf of the oven for 8 minutes, then turn the naan over and bake for further 6 minutes.

Spicy Lentil Soup and Garlic Toast

Yep - it's another lentil recipe. This time I'm dedicating the recipe to the world-wide Meatless Monday movement - an initiative about cutting back meat consumption for the sake of your health, budget, animal welfare, global hunger and environment.

I got this recipe from my Aunty and really enjoyed it. If you're the type of person who has plenty of spices on hand all the time (like me) then this is the perfect, quick, vegetarian meal to make when the pantry is (nearly) bare.



Spicy Lentil Soup
(Serves 4)

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 tspn each of ground ginger, ground coriander, ground cumin and paprika
1/2 tspn each of ground pepper, cinnamon and turmeric
1/4 tspn each of nutmeg and chilli powder
120g red lentils
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1.2L vegetable stock
Fresh coriander (optional)

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and saute the onion until it has turned translucent. Add all the spices and toast them briefly.

Add the lentils, tomatoes and stock and simmer the soup for about 20 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

Season with salt and fresh coriander.

Perhaps you'd like some garlic toast with that?

When I first started dating my partner (what feels like a century ago. In a good way of course!) he fell in love with my garlic toast. It's nothing special, but he likes it and I always make it for him when he needs cheering up. (Men can be such simple creatures sometimes.)



Garlic Toast
(Serves 4)

8 slices of bread
Butter
Garlic powder
Salt
Chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 160C. Butter the bread, sprinkle on the garlic powder, a very small amount of salt and the chopped parsley. Cut each slice of bread into three, pop them on an oven tray and bake for about 10 minutes, until the bread just begins to turn golden.