Indian Naan

I had been looking for a good, decent naan bread for a long time and none of the recipes that I tried really turned out how I wanted them- until I found this recipe. The naan is fluffy on the inside with a little crunch on the outside. If you can find Nigella seeds sprinkle them on the naan, it makes a big difference. This bread is a great side dish or appetizer served with chutney. I was so happy when I finally found the perfect recipe!

Naan

(The flavors of Asia)

serves8

Note: Start 6 hours in advance

1 lb 8 oz (675 g) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil, plus as needed for garnish

3/4 teaspoon yeast

1 to 1 1/4 cups warm water, or as needed

Optional: Nigella for sprinkling

1. Mix all of the ingredients except for the water together in a bow.

2. Gradually add the water and knead until a smooth, soft dough is achieved, about 10 minutes.

3. Set aside for about 6 hours in a warm place.

4. Make tennis ball-sized pieces of dough, and place the balls in a warm place until they  rise again, about 1 hour.

5. Preheat the oven to 475 F (240C)

6. Flatten each dough ball and spread it with a rolling pin or by hand by tossing and slapping with both hands. Gently stretch each piece of dough into a round 7 inches (18cm) in diameter, so that the center is 1/4 inch (6mm) thick and there is a border 1/2 inch (1cm) wide all around. Pull one edge out to elongate each round slightly, creating a teardrop shape.

7. Place the bread onto a parchment paper-lined sheet pan and brush with a little butter. Sprinkle with Nigella, if using

(I baked mine on a pizza stone that was place in the top third of the oven and preheated for about an hour)

8. Bake the naans in the oven  until golden brown and puffed, 4 to 5 minutes. Cool completely on racks.

9. Garnish with a little butter.

Vietnamese Shrimp and Glass Noodle Salad

Still suffering from those additional holiday pounds?  This salad makes it easy to get started with a fresh and light diet.

Vietnamese cuisine is well known for its contrasts of taste and texture and this salad is no exception. Crunchy bean sprouts and sugar snap peas are mixed with light glass noodles and dressed in a tangy ginger-lime dressing. The shrimp add great flavor and protein and the Chile rounds the dressing with a slight spiceness. I was a little bit worried that the flavor of the fish sauce would be overwhelming so I started out using a small teaspoon. I ended up adding the whole amount and it worked out perfectly.

Vietnamese Shrimp and Glass Noodle Salad
(From Nigella Lawson)


Vietnamese Dressing:
2 Cloves Garlic, minced or crushed
2 Fresh Long Red Chiles, seeded and finely diced or julienned
2 Tbsp Finely Minced Fresh Ginger
4 Tbsp Fish Sauce (Nam Pla)
1 Lime, juiced
4 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Groundnut Oil
1 tsp Sesame Oil

Salad:
8 ounces Cooked Small Shrimp
6 ounces Glass Noodles
4 ounces Sugar Snap Peas
4 ounces Bean Sprouts
3 Scallions, sliced into thin circles
½ cup Finely Chopped Fresh Cilantro Leaves, to garnish



To make the Vietnamese Dressing, simply mix all the ingredients together. This will keep very well in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator for at least a week.

To make the salad, marinate the shrimp in ½ cup of the Vietnamese Dressing. While this is going on, soak the noodles in freshly boiled water according to packet instructions. Once re-hydrated, refresh the noodles in cold water, then drain. Put the sugar snaps and bean sprouts into a colander and pour over freshly boiled water from a kettle. Rinse them with cold water and drain well, just shaking the colander, so they're not actually wet.

In a large bowl, mix the marinated shrimp with the drained noodles, scallions, sugar snaps, and bean sprouts. Dress with 2 tablespoons more of the Vietnamese Dressing; add more dressing, to taste, if desired.

Sprinkle over the chopped cilantro and toss everything together well before arranging onto a large plate.

Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes

This recipe is another hit out of Dorie Greenspan's book "Around my french table". A sweet-spicy tagine with chicken, prunes and sweet potatoes. You can smell and taste the cinnamon and slight hint of the star anise. The vegetables will get very soft and the cayenne will give it a nice kick. I brought this dish to a Potluck, and everyone loved it, even though it was not completely gone; which I think was due to the other 6 chicken dishes we had at a Potluck for only 24 people.

Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes 
(adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table cookbook)

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour and a half

Ingredients: 

1/4 cups of olive oil
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup of water
salt
1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 large pinches of saffron threads, crushed
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinammon
1 bay leaf
4 tablespoons of honey
1 cup of chicken broth (preferably homemade)
12  prunes
1 pound of sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch cubes

Pour two tablespoons of vegetable oil in the bottom of a dutch oven or cast iron casserole over medium-low heat. Now add the onion, stirring to coat it with oil, then add 1 tablespoon of water, season with a little salt, and cover the pot. Cook the onions gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are soft but not brown.


In a separate skillet, brown the chicken. Heat a tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat. Put the chicken in the pan, skin side down, and brown for 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer it to a plate.


Once the onions are soft, add the saffron, honey, bay leaf, chicken broth, and the rest of the water. Throw in the dates, and then the chicken. Toss the sweet potatoes on top and bring the mixture to a boil.


Reduce the heat to medium, bringing the liquid to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Resist the temptation to lift the lid before the 45 minute mark. The steam is what makes this dish so good. The dish is done once the sweet potatoes are soft.
Feel free to reduce the liquid once the chicken is cooked. Just remove the chicken and sweet potatoes and boil the liquid until it is a consistency to your liking. 

Cookie Heaven

Baci di Dama

Recently I subscribed to a photo blog to get better at taking pictures. When I received the latest post of the blog yesterday it contained beautiful pictures, and also a recipe for little italian cookies. They are made with lots of hazelnuts and filled with chocolate or Nutella and are called Baci di Dama which means "Lady's kisses".  Despite my hazelnut allergy I knew immediately that I had to make these cookies as soon as possible . So I went off to the supermarket the next morning to get the hazelnuts. Unfortunately I had to visit several supermarkets to find them  - it seemed to be a bad harvest last fall. But the effort was well worth it.

The dough came together quickly and I used my small ice cream scoop to form the little dough balls.
By the time the cookies were cold enough to spread them with the chocolate,  I ran out of  time,  so I put them in a container waiting for me to have some free time.

Later that day, when I was ready to finish them, I opened the container and half of the cookies were already gone. I had no clue how that happened....
With or without chocolate these cookies are incredibly good, so start your diet next week and go to the store to get some nuts.

Baci di Dama
(adapted from Dario Milano)

• 300 g all purpose flour
• 250 g butter, softened
• 250 g sugar
• 250 g hazelnuts, grounded
• 200 g dark chocolate

Sift the flour and set aside. Make sure the butter is soft, you can use the microwave, but it's just easier to leave the butter at room temperature for a couple of hours before it's needed. Incorporate all the ingredients by hand wokring the dough gently but quickly; this should only take a couple of minutes. Set the dough aside and cover it with cling wrap to prefent it from getting too dry. Aline a baking tray with greaseproof paper and preheat oven to 180 C. Start shaping the little spheres tryiing to keep their size as consistent as poxssible; if you want you can use a teaspoon or a small ice cream scooper. Bake the biscuits for 10 - 15 minutes or until they become lightly golden in colour, but not brown. Let the biscuits cool down at room temperature, in the meantime melt the chocolate over a simmering bain-marie or in the microwave. Allow the chocolate to cool down as well, it has to have the consistency of nutella (in faact you can use nutella for an even nuttier taste) Next, sandwich the biscuits two at a time using half a teaspoon of chocolate to glue them together.. Store the baci away in an air tight container and keep for up to 5 days - that's if you can resist eating the all batch in one go

Celery-Celery Soup

Happy New Year to all of you.
After weeks of parties, feasts, good food and maybe too much wine you might crave some healthy light dishes that can help you loose those additional pounds that you put on over the holidays. With lots of vegetables and an optional amount of cream involved, this soup might help you reach your goal.
Celery root and celery stalks provide the base for this hearty vegetable winter soup. The apples add a surprise in the center of the soup. Another winning recipe of Dorie Greenspan's new book "Around my french table".

Celery-Celery Soup
(From "Around My French Table" by Dorie Greenspan)


2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 celery stalks with leaves, trimmed and sliced
2 large onions, chopped
2 sweet apples, such as McIntosh or Fuji, peeled, cut into 1- to 2-inch cubes
Salt, pepper
1 pound celery root, peeled, cut in 1- to 2-inch cubes
1 bay leaf
1 thyme sprig
6 cups chicken broth
Creme fraiche, heavy cream or sour cream, for serving (optional)


Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven or soup pot over low heat. Toss in the sliced celery, onions and apples, season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, for about 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. 


Add the cubed celery root and turn it around in the butter. Toss the herbs into the pot, add the broth and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and cook at a gentle simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the celery root is soft enough to mash with the back of a spoon. If you can, pull out the bay leaf and what's left of the thyme.


Working in small batches in a blender (first choice) or food processor, puree the soup until it's smooth. (If you're using a processor or an immersion blender, you might not get a super-smooth soup. If you'd like, you can run the pureed soup through a strainer, but it's really not necessary. As you can see, mine is pretty chunky.) Taste for salt and pepper. 


This needs to be served very hot (especially on a snowy day) and, while it really doesn't need an embellishment, like just about everything else in the world, it's better with cream, so either stir some into the pot or put a spoonful in the center of each bowl and let everyone swirl it into the soup.


Playing around: 
It's fun to put a little surprise in the bottom of the soup bowl. Cut a peeled and cored apple or two into chunks and toss it into a skillet with a little melted butter. Stir it around, season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle the cubes with some curry powder. Heat, stirring, until the powder is fragrant and coats the apple evenly. Put a spoonful of apple and/or croutons in each bowl before you ladle in the soup.


Curried apples:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon curry powder
2 apples, peeled and cut into spoon-able cubes


Curried croutons:
2 cups crustless stale bread, cut into small cubes
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon curry powder. 


For the curried apples, melt the butter in a large skillet. Stir in curry powder. Add apples and saute over medium heat just until crisp-tender.


Do the same thing with the crouton ingredients, cooking just until browned. Season with salt and pepper.

Chocolate Caramel Cracker

Around my house there is a certain kind of food that never lasts long. It seems as if it secretly disappears: suddenly it is all gone and no one knows where it went.
Last year my daughter and I found these amazing chocolate caramel crackers that everyone loved. Since we ran out of Christmas cookies already, my daughter decided to make the crackers again this year and everyone went crazy. It only took her about 30minutes to make them, which includes baking time and it was  super easy. Initially I was going to give them to my neighbor as a gift but by the time I got around to putting them in a bag there were barely any left. My daughter already made twice the amount from the recipe but it still wasn't enough, so trust me when I say that you won't have enough of these crackers!

• Chocolate Caramel Cracker
• Adapted from Smittenkitchen and David Lebovitz, who adapted it from Marcy Goldman who is the genius that first applied this to matzo
• 
  
• 4 to 6 sheets matzo, or approximately 40 Saltine crackers or crackers of your choice
• 1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks or 8 ounces) cut into a few large pieces
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• A big pinch of sea salt
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup semi-, (or chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate) or bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup toasted chopped almonds, (optional) pecans, walnuts or a nut of your choice
• Extra sea salt for sprinkling, (optional)

1.Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 11-by-17-inch baking sheet completely with foil, and then line the base of the foil with parchment paper, cut to fit.

2.Line the bottom of the baking sheet with matzo or crackers, covering all parts. [If using matzo, you'll need to break pieces to fit any extra spaces, which will be annoying because despite being perforated, it does not actually break in straight lines. I have some luck pressing a serrated knife straight down along a section between perforations, if that (hopefully) makes sense.]

3.In a medium heavy-duty saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together, and stir it over medium heat until it begins to boil. Once it has begun boiling, let it bubble for three more minutes, stirring it well. It will thicken a bit as it cooks. Remove from the heat and add the salt and vanilla, and then quickly pour it over the matzo or crackers. You'll want to spread it quickly, as it will begin to set as soon as it is poured.

4.Bake the caramel-covered crackers for 15 minutes, watching carefully as it will bubble and the corners might darken too quickly and/or burn. You can reduce the heat if you see this happening.

5.Remove from oven and immediately cover with chocolate chips. Let stand five minutes, and then spread them evenly across the caramel. An offset spatula works great here. If you're using them, sprinkle the chocolate with toasted chopped nuts and/or sea salt. (The sea salt is great on matzo. On Saltines, it's really not necessary.)

6.Once completely cool ‚ I sometimes speed this process up in the fridge, impatient as should be expected in the face of caramel crackers, break it into pieces and store it in a container. It should keep for a week but I've never seen it last that long.

Spicy Peaches

The first time I was invited to spend Christmas with my husband's family we had a great dinner with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, salad, etc. But when it came to dessert, my mother in law served canned peaches.
I found that rather weird because it didn't really fit with the rest of the festive home cooked meal.
Fortunately my husband never insisted on keeping this tradition when we started to make our own Christmas dinner.
However I recently stumbled over this recipe of spiced peaches, also out of a can, from Nigella Lawson. It immediately reminded me of the first Christmas with my husband's family and I thought that it would be a rather nice addition to our usual  Christmas dinner. Instead of serving the peaches straight out of the can they are spiced and a wonderful smell of ginger, chili and clove went through the kitchen while I was preparing these peaches. I have only tasted a small spoon of the syrup of the dish but that little taste was already very promising....

Spiced peaches

  (From Nigella Lawson)

This is a beautiful condiment to eat with roast ham, hot or cold, and I love it with cheese, too. It makes the kitchen feel like a proper Christmas kitchen - and it's a very easy present to whip up for people too, beautiful in old-fashioned glass jars.

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g/14oz cans peach halves in syrup (not juice)
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 2 short sticks cinnamon
• 4cm/1½in piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced thinly into rounds
• ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
• ½ tsp sea salt/kosher salt, or ¼ tsp table salt
• ¼ tsp whole black peppercorns
• 3 cloves

Preparation method

1. Empty the cans of peaches with their syrup into a saucepan.
2. Add the vinegar, cinnamon, sliced ginger, chilli flakes, salt, peppercorns and cloves.
3. Bring to the boil and let it bubble for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and leave in the pan to keep warm.
4. Serve the peaches with a hot ham, letting people take a peach half each and some of the spiced juice. Any leftover spiced peaches can be stored in an airtight jar and eaten cold with cold ham.