Food for a rainy day: Oasis Naan (TWD: BwJ)

Our first June TWD: BwJ recipe is oasis naan.

When my friend Phyl found out that he was hosting, he proposed a Twitterbake of butter chicken and naan. We were all supposed to make it on a Thursday...and then were all too tired/busy to cook. And then we were supposed to make it on Friday. So Thursday night, I quickly mixed up the dough with warm water, yeast, flour, and salt, and kneaded it on the counter until it was smooth. You're supposed to leave it on the counter for a couple hours or refrigerate it overnight; I stuck mine in the fridge. And then we got invited to a last-minute barbecue at our friends' new house...couldn't pass that up! So I missed out on the Twitterbake once again, and my naan dough lived in the fridge for an extra day.

Finally on Saturday, even though we were heading to the ballpark for dinner, I made the butter chicken and naan. Because both naans in BwJ are made with the same base dough, I decided to try both recipes: Persian naan and oasis naan. And because I'd only made a half-batch of the dough, I made one large Persian naan and two small oasis naan.

The oasis naan is cut into small pieces, rolled out into six-inch circles, punctured with a fork, and then sprinkled with scallions, kosher salt, and cumin seeds. Then it is baked for a short time in a 500º oven on a preheated baking stone. Apparently I didn't puncture my bread vigorously enough because mine puffed up quite a bit...which we actually liked. I will blog the Persian naan when it comes up, but I will say that all of the adults preferred the puffy oasis naan, and it was the perfect tool to eat the butter chicken.

The butter chicken recipe was easier to make than our standby recipe (curried chicken with tomato almond sauce) and the flavor was very similar; I did miss the peas and onion chunks, though. The naan was delicious; our usual naan recipe is brushed with ghee, so we missed that a bit, but cooking these in the oven was much less hectic than trying to do it on the stovetop as my other recipe calls for. And we really loved the puffy texture; I think, with the exception of the missing ghee, that we have a new favorite naan recipe.

Indian butter chicken and naan is not a traditional tailgating meal, but it was delicious and enjoyed by all!

Check out the recipe here on Phyl's blog or here on Maggie's blog. Or better yet, buy the book! And check out other TWDers' naan experience here.

Twitter avatar fun: Jamie Oliver and a recap

About a year ago, Nancy suggested that a bunch of us Twitter pals liven up our avatars by choosing a chef-of-the-month, cooking one of his or her recipes, and using a picture of the dish as our avatar for the month. I have had such great fun exploring many new-to-me chefs and trying out different styles of meals!

Our December chef was Jamie Oliver, and he was actually chosen by a group vote. Although I've heard a bunch about JO, I'd never actually tried one of his recipes. I spent a bunch of time browsing on his site, and actually enjoyed reading the articles as much as perusing the recipes. I love his commitment to teaching kids about nutrition and how to prepare their own healthy foods ~ especially as someone who witnesses the nutritional habits of teens on a daily basis!

Life has been a bit hectic these days, so (as seems to be usual for me), I choose a recipe for a good dinner rather than picking something that would make a good avatar picture. Ever the practical one, that's me! :) I picked Jamie's chicken tikka masala (recipe here). The dish took about an hour and a half to prepare (which includes a 30 minute marinade of the chicken) and smelled absolutely delicious. It made a nice dinner, but I have to say that we much prefer a similar recipe that I've been making for the past couple of years: chicken with curried tomato almond sauce (found on the Daring Cooks website). That recipe contains cinnamon and peas, both of which lend the dish just a hint of sweetness that was missing tonight. Still, we all enjoyed dinner and I look forward to trying more JO recipes!

And now, the recap:

January: Thomas Keller's caramel corn
February: James Beard's snickerdoodle pear cake (a quick and easy favorite!)
March: Emeril's cheese crackers
April: Jaques Pepin's ricotta dumplings
May: David Chang's steak lettuce wraps
June: Eric Reipert's shrimp and rice pilaf
July: Ina's barbecue sauce and mashed potatoes (a big hit, especially on bbq pizza!)
August: Rick Bayless' shredded chicken with potatoes and tomatoes (we loved it!)
September: Nigella's pumpkin seafood curry
October: Mark Bittman's banana chocoalte-chip pancakes (now in the dinner rotation!)
November: Ghillie Basan's veggie tagine
December: Jamie Oliver's tikka masala

Indian dinner #2: Skewered barbecued chicken with saffron cream sauce

Kayte organized another Indian dinner for us to cook this week, although I think Margaret and I may have been the only two to cook it tonight.

Front left is the saffron cream sauce. I have never cooked with spicely gold before, and when I was at the grocery store this morning, I initially decided to skip it: $17 for a tiny bottle?! When I got home, I did a little research (no substitutions and a little goes a long way) and my hubby convinced me to try it, so back to the grocery store I went. When I got home and was mixing up the sauce, I realized that I also didn't have any cardamom, so I substituted garam masala. We really, really, really loved this sauce, both on the chicken and the naan.

Center is the barbecued chicken. I'm not ambitious enough to cook lamb, as the original recipe calls for. The marinade is yogurt, sesame oil, and a lot of spices. I marinated the chicken pieces for about three hours and then hubby grilled them. The chicken was really moist and flavorful...again, we were big fans (the kids were, too).

Back right is our normal naan. Yum! And for the first time, the kids actually ate theirs, too.

Front right is a cucumber raita, something I've been curious to try, especially since I am a big tzatziki-lover. I'm not sure why, but the spice combination was just not good to me; I couldn't eat it and ended up throwing most of the bowl-full away. Hubby liked it okay with the chicken, but not enough for seconds.

Twittercook: No-butter chicken and corn with aromatic seasonings

While catching up on Twitter yesterday morning, Kayte invited me to cook an Indian-flavored dinner tonight with several of our Twitter buddies. I'm always happy for new dinner ideas, especially in the summer when I have to plan three meals a day instead of just one!

The recipes can be found here: Bal's no-butter chicken and Corn with aromatic seasonings. Both recipes were really easy to make, although I only had a bit of garam masala left, so I threw in some additional spices to make up for it.

I wasn't super excited about the corn, but decided to make it anyway since we had two cobs leftover from the fourth. And I'm so glad I did; it was unusually spiced, but absolutely delicious! The chicken was good, too, but too spicy for the kiddos and me. The kids both took one bite, said "yum," then said, "water!!!" and then ate yogurt and cereal. I managed to eat a little, but it was way too spicy for me. I think I used too much cumin in my fake garam masala, and that there were too many pepper flakes for us. Easy fixes for next time! And hubby was ecstatic because he never gets to eat food that's as spicy as he likes! =) Cooking with friends and a delicious meal...what a perfect way to spend a summer evening!

Tikka masala and naan

I've found another use for my ghee! I've always loved naan, although I haven't had it in a few years. When I saw Tracey's post about homemade naan a couple of weeks ago, of course I bookmarked it.

And now that it's spring break, and I have time, I was happy to make Cook's Illustrated's tikka masala, white rice (with ghee in place of butter...soooo good!), and naan! I followed the recipe and instructions for naan on Prerna's site, and it was pretty easy.

I whisked flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together. And then I combined some warm milk with some of my homemade yogurt, and mixed it in with the dry ingredients. The dough rested for two hours.

I dumped the dough out onto a lightly floured board and attempted to knead it; the dough was really wet and sticky and I had to flour my hands and the board quite a bit...but after a few minutes, it became nice and satiny. I split it into eight small balls, which I flattened with my hands and then sprinkled with garam masala. My hubby and I are new to garam masala, and I think it's fair to say that we're somewhat addicted. I'd actually pulled out some other spices to experiment with as well, but we just couldn't break away from the garam masala, although I did end up sprinkling on some kosher salt, too. I brushed a little water on the other side and then cooked it, covered, in a skillet for about a minute. Perna suggests cooking the other side above the open flame on a gas stove, but for some reason, one of my burners wouldn't light and I was using the rest to cook dinner, so I just cooked both sides in the skillet.

It was awesome and easy. I brushed some ghee over the naan after taking them off the stove. I can honestly say that I could eat this stuff every day; it was that good. I was really surprised that neither of my kids liked it, but my hubby and I were more than happy to finish theirs. This recipe will be a frequent attendee at our dinner table!