Now that I’m feeling a little more comfortable with baking standard wheat bread, other kinds of yeast breads seem much more do-able. I recently made a recipe from a magazine that involved baking little buns around korean-spiced cabbage-beef filling. They were good, and that boosted my confidence even further.
So when I saw a recipe (via a blog which I can’t remember at the moment) for Indian Naan bread, I thought “Hey, I could do that!” Joe and I used to go out for Indian food all the time before Julie was born, and it’s something that I miss. Especially the bread. We really should try going back out for some now that the food allergies are behind us, but in the mean time, I’ve been cooking chicken tikka masala at home using this stuff.
It’s just a seasoning packet, which I buy at my local co-op, but it’s really easy to make and it tastes really good and my family pretty much eats it without complaint. Naan bread would fit perfectly with this meal, so I made up my mind to give it a try.
Here’s the dough after its first rise – the recipe said to make it into golf-ball sized balls and let it rise again.
In order to get to this point, I had to employ a couple of diversionary tactics. One was letting the girls play with soapy water in the sink.
Another was agreeing to make chocolate chip cookies. Okay, Julie didn’t have to twist my arm that hard, and I figured what else should we do while we waited for the dough to rise?
mmmm…don’t ask me about the weight watchers points. Please.
Anyway, dinnertime rolled around, and I took some pictures as I did my cooking – here’s the bread on the indoor grill.
The stack of done ones after the first batch was done. I was using the foil to cover them up and keep them warm.
Oh, and here’s rolling the dough out from balls to flat bread loaves. And the melted butter for slathering on each side as its grilled.
And finally, dinner. Just before I tucked in.
It was good, and everyone ate well. The bread was tasty, though not quite the same as what I’ve had in the restaurants. It kind of reminded me of what soft pretzels would taste like if they were grilled. Oh – and the tikka masala packet doesn’t say to add spinach to the dish, but I throw some in at the end just to add a little green to the plate.
It might not have tasted the same as in the restuarant, but it definitely looks as delicious! YUM!
I have a great naan bread recipe; it involves cooking in a cast iron skillet on the stove top and then under the very hot broiler in the oven. Obviously, it’s not safe to do when you have little kids underfoot, so I haven’t made it in a while, but it’s really delicious. I would love to master Indian cooking someday…
(Happy belated Birthday!)
Yum, I think it is time for lunch–nothing nearly as good as was you have posted about.
I only recently learned the merits of soapy sink water. We do it in the bathroom. When we’re done (not before the fingers are very pruny) we change shirts and wipe down the bathroom (bonus, it is a little cleaner than when we started).
You may want to consider posting your question about improving the a glove thumb join to a Ravelry group. There is a glove group and there is a fingerless glove group within Ravelry. If anyone has tips on that subject those group members probably would.