Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Naan Bread

After a delicious supper at Bhandari's I decided that I could try my hand at naan bread. It was rather easier than I had thought!


Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 tsp salt 
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups of low fat yoghurt


Method:
I mixed together 4 cups of flour with 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking powder. I then kneaded in 2 cups of low fat yoghurt, but double cream might make it tastier.


Once you've kneaded it for about 5 minutes, oil another bowl lightly and put the ball of dough aside to rest for an hour. Thereafter, divide the dough into about 10 balls and roll them out. 


Since you will probably be using a round frying pan, try to make them round rather than long. When ready, add the dough, once piece at a time to the pan on medium-high heat until the bread puffs up and gets brown marks on it. 


Then transfer it to a hot oven (220 - 290'C). My oven started smoking at 290 so I turned it down. I think this part of the process just cooks the inside a bit more.


Serve hot with butter and garlic.Enjoy with a nice hot curry and a home-made chutney.


Note: I found that they weren't great the next day, so if you're going to make them, eat them all that day (which shouldn't be too difficult). 


I used this recipe: http://low-cholesterol.food.com/recipe/naan-203261

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Easy Coconut Ice

I'm not a fan of the super-sweet but it makes a good Christmas present! This is also one of my gran's recipes:


Ingredients:
1 tin condensed milk
400g icing sugar
350g dried coconut
1/4 tsp salt


Method:
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then pour out into a flat pan with at least 3cm high sides. Allow to set for a couple of hours and then cut into blocks and serve. Actually I would recommend cutting into blocks when half-set. If you cut it too soon, it'll merge again and too late will require too much muscle.



Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Roasted Tomatoes and Tomato-Jam Sauce

I love tomatoes and can't wait until I have my own garden to grow plenty of vine-ripened varieties in! In the mean time, I try to pick out the ripest once from the supermarket.


Roasted Tomatoes
Ingredients:
6 ripe tomatoes (cut in half with seeds and juice spooned out)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Topping (such as Italian herbs, fresh basil, half a clove of garlic in each half etc)


Method:
Put the tomatoes in a baking try with the skin side down and drizzle with olive oil, pepper, salt and add your herbs or other seasoning.
Bake for an hour at 180'C.
The tomatoes may have become smaller and their taste will have concentrated. Their useful shape allows you to fill them with Chevre/Chevin or some Buffalo mozzarella (if you used Basil leaves). Because olive oil is so delicious you can always add a glug over the top and a small splash of balsamic vinegar as well. The tomatoes can be served hot or cold and can be eaten simply as they come out of the oven.


Tomato-Jam Sauce
Ingredients:
1 tsp salt
2tsp sugar
2 tsp chilli chutney
Pepper
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Juice and seeds of 6 tomatoes (scooped out)
1 tsp cornstarch/ mazina


Method:
Add all the ingredients (except mazina) into a small saucepan and once it starts boiling add the mazina stirring constantly. Once mixed in you can leave the mixture to reduce until it's thick and almost jam-like. It will also thicken as it cools, so keep that in mind.
This can be used for finger foods such as bites of crusty bread with cheese, or simply eaten as a spicy jam.