Naan stress naan

by Kate Djupe

naan recipe notes

 

  • This is one of those recipes that does not actually require exactness in measuring. I am going to give you measurements to start, but once you have made this a few times, you can put down the measuring spoons and back away from the precision.
  • I bet you can knead this by hand. I will do a lot of recipe tests for you but kneading a dough by hand when I have a stand mixer is not one of them. 
  • The naan can be cooked in a variety of ways. You can use a cast iron skillet or tortilla pan like me; a skillet or dutch oven; a pizza stone in your oven (500°) or on your Weber grill (as hot as you can get it); you could grill your naan , build your own tandoori oven or just buy a commercial one like Apna Bazaar's:

  • This is a pretty flexible recipe as far as ingredients go too. I have made this recipe with bread flour, King Arthur's Sir Lancelot flour (more protein), whole wheat flour (sifted to remove the bran), all purpose flour and combinations of all of the above. My favorite is just plain old bread flour (I use King Arthur's). A quick rundown on some of the differences:
    • All-purpose would be my flour of last resort - the naan is sweet like white bread, super soft and made one big puff of a bread instead of many little bubbles. 
    • Whole wheat flour - the naan is super dense and all things whole-wheaty. However, it was nice to mix 1/2 cup into any of the other flours.
    • Sir Lancelot flour - a bit more toothsome than bread flour but you wouldn't know the difference if you weren't doing a side by side comparison.
    • Bread flour - the right mix of soft and toothsome; sweet and sour; and it has many little air pockets of awesome.

With this much flexibilty in the measuring, the ingredients, mixing method and cooking method, are you wondering if this is even a recipe at all?

non-recipe for naan

1 lb flour 

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt (table)

 

1 cup warm water (the water should feel comfortably warm on your fingers and not hot)

2 1/2 tsp (1 pkg) yeast 

1/4 cup yogurt (if you try this with creme fraiche before I do, please report back)

1 Tbsp olive oil (or ghee or melted butter)

 

1 cup flour, for flouring the counter and rolling your naan

 

Butter, ghee, oil or that buttery glaze left in the pan after glazing carrots - anything you can dream of spreading on your cooked naan

Minced garlic, sesame seeds, caramelized onions, chives, shaved Himalayan Zen pink salt - also anything you can dream of spicing up your naan

 

  1. Mix the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer (or whatever you knead-by-handers use). Mix the water, yeast, yogurt and olive oil in a measuring cup.
  2. While your stand mixer is running on low (with the dough hook attachment), pour in your water/yogurt/yeast/olive oil.
  3. When your dough is starting to come together, turn the speed up to medium-high. This dough takes a few minutes to come together so do not start fretting or adding extra liquid. 
  4. When your dough is smooth and shiny (5-8 minutes), move it into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic and put in a warm place until the dough doubles in size (about an hour). 
  5. Punch your dough down, put on floured counter and cut into 8 pieces. Liberally dust your dough with flour as you are working with it so that it doesn't stick to your hands, rolling pin or counter. 
  6. Roll each piece into a ball; then with a rolling pin into a 6" circle. If your dough keeps shrinking in size, let it rest for 5 minutes and try rolling it again.
  7. Crack open a window - there is a 50% chance that your kitchen will get a little smoky until you find the right temperature/timing whil cooking these naan.
  8. Warm your cast iron skillet on medium high heat. If you are making these for a dinner party, heat more than one pan so that you can cook multiple naan at a time. 
  9. Place one dough circle into your hot, dry pan. After 30 seconds, you will start to see little bubbles. If you want a very flat bread, flip as soon as you see bubbles. If you like browned spots like I browned spots, let your dough cook for another minute before flipping. 
  • Cook your naan until it has the coloring that you like (usually no more than 2 minutes). 
  • Brush your hot naan with butter or oil and sprinkle on any toppings that you like. 
  • Eat eat eat

    • This dough will hold in the fridge after step 4 for several days. When you are ready to eat, pull a dough ball out of the refrigerator and start rolling and cooking at step 6.

    Enjoy.

    Columbus Firefighters

    by Kate Djupe

    The firefighters of Columbus have been in the news because of the SB5 protests. 

    The people in our house love firetrucks.

    Almost two years ago, we started visiting the fire stations around Columbus at least once a week.

    If you knock on their door and ask nicely, the men and women at the station will almost always entertain you and your kiddos with tours of the trucks.

    The excitement of my kids is always matched by the enthusiasm of the firefolks.

    That is Larry. He is one of our favorite firemen.

    When I started to feel self-conscious about knocking on the same firehouse door every week, we started visiting other stations.

    Once we realized that they honestly didn't mind our visits, we started taking our self-conscious friends with us. 

    We also made trips to the Central Ohio Fire Museum. 

    The stations are free, the museum is not. 

    If we had to, we would pay for each visit to the fire stations.

    Instead, we say thank you every week, take Jeni's ice cream when it is hot outside, deliver cookies on Christmas Day and we do something we call "Truck or Treat" after Halloween (the kids give their candy to firefighters while we check out trucks).

    I think I can safely say that these days, we love the firemen and firewomen just as much as we love the trucks.

    And the firedogs.

    We aren't related to any firefighters, but we know so many by name.

    They share the details of their lives while pointing out the details of their trucks.

    I started taking photos on the visits because I thought I might be able to discover where the magic could be found;

    that something special that made my kiddos fall so deeply in love.

    Somewhere in these years and photos, I might have fallen in love with their beauty too. 

    And I am continuously impressed with how kind and brave and patient these firefolks have been.

    I had a long post written about the politics of fighting against firefighters' rights (and the police and teachers and every other state employee) to collective bargaining but I have a feeling I would not be saying anything you didn't already know.

    I just wanted to share something that we love and stand beside.

    Boxed pectin is for sissies

    by Kate Djupe

    There have been a lot of oranges coming through this house.

    I used the zest for blood orangecello (or blocello, as it has come to be known); the juice for drinking, blood orange curd, margaritas, and a few other projects to come. But at the end of all of that zesting and juicing, I found myself with piles like this and no good ideas.

    I had always heard that you shouldn't put citrus in compost bins for a host of reasons all of which I now know to be wrong. You can compost all the citrus you want if it is in small pieces (some sour oranges do not break down if they are kept whole - I don't know the science). 

    So, armed with this new information, I knew that I was going to be finding a quick way to break all of these remains into small pieces for composting.  

    Let's hold that thought for a moment (because this is how my brain works)...

    • When I was making jams last summer, I found myself trying not to use those packages of store bought pectin. I don't know why. Perhaps just to see if I could?
    • Pectin wasn't available in boxes back in the oldie days. 
    • Apples and citrus are full of naturally occuring pectin.
    • I have piles of blood orange remains that I need to break down for composting.

    Do you see how this happens? One minute, you are perfectly sane while juicing a perfectly normal amount of oranges and the next you are considering making your own pectin. (Those italics denote sarcasm,)

    Homemade Blood Orange Pectin

    Note: I used the Googles to see who had already tried this about halfway through my own process. There have been a couple of people - each with their own very different process. I will not be applying the Cooks Illustrated treatment to pectin making. Instead, I will be adding to the variety of techniques that are out there and encouraging you to make it up as you go.

    1. I chopped up the zested, juiced orange remains and put these blood orange carcasses in the blender. I added as little water as I could get away with.
  • As I finished each batch, the pink mush went into a big stockpot. 
  • I covered the pot and left it sitting on the counter while I attended to family stuff for a few hours. (I don't know if this is necessary in your pectin making adventures. I didn't have a choice.)
  • Bring the mess (it looked a bit like ground pork) to a boil (I had a lot of oranges so this took a good long time). Well, mine didn't actually boil boil. But it was more like simmering and if I didn't stir it, it would burn at the bottom of the pot and around the edges. I stirred and let it simmer for about a twenty minutes.
    •  See the burnt bits on the edges?
  • Strain the mess through a fine mesh strainer. I pushed and pushed to get every last drop of liquid out. My resulting pectin was cloudy and ultimately separated into clear and cloudy after sitting for awhile. This is where I would do things differently. Next time, I would not try to push on the solids so aggressively to get the liquid out. Take what you can get gently. By doing so, the pectin will be mostly clear. 
  • Discard the solids left in your compost bin (or trash can - I don't judge. Mostly. I mean, you are making your own pectin, so surely you are out there enough to have a compost pile, right?) 
  • I boiled the liquid pectin for an additional 5 minutes. 
  • To test your pectin, pour some of your pectin into a small bowl of rubbing alcohol. In a few seconds, it should gel up enough to pick up with a fork. If it droops off the tines, it will result in a loose jam. (tip courtesy of eatyouridols)Update
  • Depending on your pectin/rubbing alcohol test results, you can further reduce your pectin on the stove or pour it into a jar.
  • Eatyouridols says that pectin will hold in the refrigerator for a week. I added a little lemon juice to mine, put it in sterile jars, left 1/4" headspace and processed in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

    • (Remember - I have 2 different colors because I pushed a bit too much on the fruit to get the liquid out. The top half will result in clearer jams.)

    I tasted the pectin. It is bitter (not surprisingly - it is made of orange piths) but has some of that distinct raspberry flavor of blood oranges. I am very excited to play with this in the summer. 

    Things I want to remember:

    • One package of store bought pectin is 3 liquid ounces. Until I make some jam with those early June strawberries, I won't know if this pectin can be substituted in equal amounts. 
    • If I want my jams to be clear, I will only use the pectin in the top half of my jars. If my resulting product can afford to be cloudy, I know that I can use the pectin from the bottom of the jar as well. 
    • If I make my own apple pectin, I can skip the composting and make fruit leathers with the remaining mush. Crazy.

    One final warning: Making your own pectin results in an INSANE amount of dirty dishes. Seriously insane. But then again, so is making your own pectin.

    As always, I want to thank my husband for putting up with the madness and for taking some of these pictures when my hands were ridiculously sticky and stained red.