Naan the wiser

greek was on the dinner menu tonight, and i have a great recipe for flatbread, but i also found an awesome recipe for naan on pinterest. i made it once a few weeks back, and have been dreaming about it ever since. i know naan isn't greek, but it *is* a flatbread, and technically, naan just means "bread," so we should be able to apply it to a variety of food cultures, right? 

i love how perfectly soft this naan is, but with a nice little chew at the same time. today's batch came out with a little crunchy crust, but i had several variables going on compared to my last attempt. number one: since i was working today, i made the dough last night, put it in the fridge overnight and took it out to rise while i was at work (just over 10 hrs), compared to the actual recipe's 3-4hr rise. number two: today i was multi-tasking, so i think my oven didn't stay hot enough (kept the oven door open too long while trying to get the naan in and out, so maybe it didn't stay at a piping 500 degrees) and thus i ended up needing to bake it longer. number three: i made a double recipe (don't think this actually affected the crust). number four: last time, i transported it to my parents' house for dinner, so it went into a bag soon after coming out of the oven, which may have steamed it a bit. regardless, it was still pretty darn yummy. i'm about 5 minutes away from eating some for dessert. so let's get this over with already. 

(i'm drooling just looking at this picture...)

Naan

2 cups bread flour 
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
pinch baking soda
2 tbsp oil
2 1/2 tbsp yogurt
3/4 cup lukewarm water

in a stand mixer, combine yeast with water and pinch of sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes until frothy. with the dough hook, mix in sugar, salt, baking soda, and flour. add oil and yogurt and mix until a soft dough comes together.

cover the dough for 3 to 4 hours to double in volume. (i put it in a large baggie in the fridge overnight, then took it out to rise at room temp for 10 hrs - warning, the double recipe overflowed out of the baggie by the time i got home). 

preheat the pizza stone at 500F, turn the broiler on. flour your work surface, and knead the dough and make six parts. roll into 8" oval shapes. i think i over-did the oblong shape...my naan could stand to be a little rounder.

before putting the naan in the oven, lightly wet hands and take the rolled naan and flip between the palms, so the naan is a little wet. place the naan on the pizza stone and bake for 2 to 3 minutes until they puff up. flip the naan over using tongs, and bake for another minute until golden on top. don't over bake as the naan will get too crispy and tops might get burnt.

the pizza stone must be very hot so before putting the next batch wait for about 2 minutes for it to become hot. 

rub butter or ghee, butter mixed with garlic, onions, sesame seeds or onion seeds for flavours before putting in the oven or after taking it out. serve hot.

sushi night at home

so i've been craving sushi for a while, but it seemed too cold to eat sushi. today started off as a humid day, and it stayed warm all day. i guess we could have gone to our nearby conveyor belt sushi joint, but we had some yummy kewpie (japanese mayo) that's been staring at me every time i open the fridge. aaaand, the mister made rice last night that we ended up not even touching. thus, sushi night at home commenced. i'll be honest, i was a little nervous. it was my first time and i don't have one of those bamboo sushi rolling mats, but it seemed to work out pretty well. i made california rolls and spicy ahi rolls. i added imitation crab to the spicy ahi, which isn't the norm, but i like a little more texture with my raw fish, and i also wanted a little something extra in there. 

first i started by making my sushi rice. i used alton brown's recipe, except my rice was made in a rice cooker...i'm guessing much easier than on the stovetop. 

sushi rice:

2 cups short grain rice (cooked)

2 tbs rice vinegar

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs kosher salt

microwave the vinegar, sugar, and salt for 30-45 seconds and mix until most of the salt and sugar dissolve. put the cooked / hot rice in a large bowl and gently mix in the vinegar mixture. let it cool at room temp. 

california rolls:

sushi rice

avocado (thinly sliced)

6 pieces imitation crab

cucumber (sliced into sticks - 6 needed)

kewpie (or other mayo)

3 sheets nori

spicy ahi rolls:

sushi rice

~1/4 lb spicy ahi poke (bought at the market, gently minced)

kewpie

4 pieces imitation crab

4 slices cucumber
2 sheets nori

place a sheet of nori on a cutting board. wet your hands and spread some rice onto the nori; spread it to the side edges, but about an inch away from the top and bottom so you can seal the rolls. spread the kewpie on the rice. closer to the bottom, place your ingredients lengthwise across the rice: california rolls - 2 slices of imitation crab, 2 slices of cucumber, ~3 slices of avocado. ahi rolls - spicy ahi, 2 slices of imitation crab, 2 slices of cucumber. roll the bottom end of the nori over the fillings and tightly roll away from you. wet the top end of nori with your finger to seal it. with the seam side down, use a sharp knife to slowly cut the roll in half; cut into a total of 8 pieces. i ended up with 2 rolls of spicy ahi (16 pieces) and 3 california rolls (24 pieces). enjoy!