Naan...ish

Given that naan simply means 'bread' the recipe below does of course qualify. But in terms of giving the kind of breads I was thinking off - the kind you tend to get when you order naan at an Indian restaurent - it's no so successful. However, I think they are quite nice in their own right.

When I started looking up naan recipes and asking my Indian friends, I quickly realised I was in trouble: Almost every source advocated the use of a baking stone in order to achieve the desired product. I didn't want to get a baking stone, nor did I want to give up just yet - so in the end I got what follows:

Ingredients:
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) lukewarm water
- 50 g fresh yeast
- ¹/₂ tsp sugar
- 880 g (almost 2 lbs) wheat flour + more for rolling
- ¹/₂ L (2 cups) A-fil ^[1]
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 tsp nigella seeds

The yeast was stirred into the lukewarm water, followed by sugar, about half of the flour and the A-fil. Then the salt and the nigella seeds was added and the rest of the flour was stirred/kneaded in in portions. The resulting dough was slightly sticky.

The dough was left to rise for 2 hours (1 hour most likely would be sufficient), before dividing into 8 parts. Each piece of dough was rolled into oblong breads about ¹/₂ cm (¹/₅ inch) thick using plenty of flour.

The breads were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper - the size of oven I have now fits three bread on one sheet. They were baked at 225 C (450 F) for 15 minutes.

As I said, they weren't quite what I originally had in mind, but I still liked them - especially as a side to curries.

^[1] Lactobacillus acidophilus-containing thickened milk. Buttermilk, unsweetened yoghurt or a mix thereof are probably good substitutes (although this may then change the amount of flour needed).

Hummus

The other day when I was about to make some hummus, I search my archive for the recipe and realised I never did get round to adding the good hummus recipe here. Well, this needs correction..

Ingredients:
- 2 'cans' chickpeas ^[1]
- juice ¹/₂ lemon (2 tbsp)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 large clove garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3-4 tbsp tahini
- salt & pepper to taste

The chickpeas were drained and puréed in a blender (I added as little water as the paste is otherwise very thick) in portions. The chickpea paste was transferred to a bowl and the rest of the ingredients were stirred in. Depending on your preferences you might adjust the amounts of tahini and olive oil - although I personally find it hard to believe, I know some people are not fond of tahini. Paprika also adds a nice touch.

^[1] Actually the stores around here have taken to selling various beans in a new paper based container. My guess is this is motivated by environmental concerns. Anyway, these new packages are roughly the same size as the usual can, so that each holds 230 g (8 oz) after draining the liquid.

Red Basil

Not unlike other varieties of basil, I was unfamiliar with red basil until I came across it at the store. As before when faced with such options, the new item went directly into the shopping basket - what to do with it could always to be found out later.

I found this plant to be surprisingly (and a bit disappointingly) mild and subtle in flavour - I haven't seen any more since, so I don't know if this is general. Because of this, using it for wok and curry dishes is almost kind of wasted as the flavour is easily trumped by other strong flavours - although I must say it does look beautiful.

I did use it with some success for baking fish: pieces of white fish (e.g. cod) were wrapped in foil together with leaves of red basil and baked in the oven.