Home Made Naan Bread

[FrenchTart]

Base is just simmering at the moment. Annoyingly I was a bit low on cumin seeds so half of the spice mix is just regular ground cumin that is about a billion years old. I'm sure it'll be fine though

 

[rexehuk]

Base is just simmering at the moment. Annoyingly I was a bit low on cumin seeds so half of the spice mix is just regular ground cumin that is about a billion years old. I'm sure it'll be fine though

No such issues here...

I can't actually fit everything in the photo, this is my guilty pleasure.

 

[FrenchTart]

Nice

I have quite a collection myself but to be honest I stopped making curries regularly a while ago so that side of things I've let slip a little.

 

[FrenchTart]

I made a slightly modified version of your curry today. Turned out pretty good though I managed to forget to purchase fresh chillies and also used up too much base without increasing the supporting spices, doh. Definitely a fan of the base and general approach however.

 

[krooton]

Here some we made last night

 

[rexehuk]

I made a slightly modified version of your curry today. Turned out pretty good though I managed to forget to purchase fresh chillies and also used up too much base without increasing the supporting spices, doh. Definitely a fan of the base and general approach however.

I'm on the prowl for frozen green chilli... I'm a convert to frozen garlic / ginger now, hugely convenient, more fresh and less mess.

Adding too much base isn't too much of an issue, only if you're not cooking it down. But hey it's not an exact science, go with the flow and chuck stuff in and see what you end up with.

With the dish I gave you, and the amount of garlic/ginger in it, you'd have to add something pretty bad to make it taste unpleasing!

 

[FrenchTart]

I'm on the prowl for frozen green chilli... I'm a convert to frozen garlic / ginger now, hugely convenient, more fresh and less mess.

Adding too much base isn't too much of an issue, only if you're not cooking it down. But hey it's not an exact science, go with the flow and chuck stuff in and see what you end up with.

With the dish I gave you, and the amount of garlic/ginger in it, you'd have to add something pretty bad to make it taste unpleasing!

I tried frozen spinach at your suggestion (I liked it) though I stuck to fresh garlic and ginger. That said, a nice thing for ginger you can do is to freeze it whole and then grate it whilst still frozen. No need to peel it either. It works very well.

I've been pretty ill recently so I'm not really with it - so it was a little frustrating to get to the end of cooking and realise I'd noobed up so many things Not something I tend to do that often in cooking, even for things I don't cook that often. As I say, the result was still good but it wasn't a fair rendition of your recipe so I'll have to give it another go sometime and stick to your version. Generally speaking I like to do my own thing in cooking but if I'm planning to compare your recipe to my own I probably should make it correctly at least once

Here some we made last night

Spoiler

Looks good. How did you find them?

 

[f00b4r]

Rexehuk you can just buy fresh chillies and freeze them and like the ginger FrenchTart mentioned you can just cut/grate them straight from the freezer (in fact it is preferable before they completely thaw).

Frenchtart frozen spinach is great as well but if you are making certain dishes e.g. saag aloo they defrost the cubes in the microwave and use a sieve to push out the water in it, it will save you loads of time trying to "dry out" dishes like that.

Don't know where i picked those tips up but they have made my life a lot easier and ensure I have a lot "fresher" ingredients available all the time (I do the same with fresh curry leaves as well as the dry ones are just not very good); I haven't tried it with ginger before but will definitely grab some for the freezer next shop.

 

[FrenchTart]

Rexehuk you can just buy fresh chillies and freeze them and like the ginger FrenchTart mentioned you can just cut/grate them straight from the freezer (in fact it is preferable before they completely thaw).

Frenchtart frozen spinach is great as well but if you are making certain dishes e.g. saag aloo they defrost the cubes in the microwave and use a sieve to push out the water in it, it will save you loads of time trying to "dry out" dishes like that.

Don't know where i picked those tips up but they have made my life a lot easier and ensure I have a lot "fresher" ingredients available all the time (I do the same with fresh curry leaves as well as the dry ones are just not very good); I haven't tried it with ginger before but will definitely grab some for the freezer next shop.

Ah, good idea /re freezing fresh curry leaves too. I'll have to pick some up (used to do the same with lime leaves).

I actually don't have a microwave but defrosting in advance and squeezing out the water makes sense so I'll definitely do that next time.

Do you find frozen chillies taste okay? When I've used them in the past they've taken on a slightly odd tang and the texture wasn't quite right. Could've just been a one-off though as I never re-tested.

 

[krooton]

Looks good. How did you find them?

Lovely! The nigella seeds really made for a great taste, and we smothered them in chicken tikka and saag aloo

 

[PlanetGong]

It's a home made curry following a BIR recipe, I'll happily trust you it if you setup your trust system .

Would you mind sending to me too mate?

 

[f00b4r]

Ah, good idea /re freezing fresh curry leaves too. I'll have to pick some up (used to do the same with lime leaves).

I actually don't have a microwave but defrosting in advance and squeezing out the water makes sense so I'll definitely do that next time.

Do you find frozen chillies taste okay? When I've used them in the past they've taken on a slightly odd tang and the texture wasn't quite right. Could've just been a one-off though as I never re-tested.

Yeah lime leaves is another great one to freeze or buy frozen.
It can change the texture of chillis slightly, I am assuming it is because the ice crystals from home freezing is rupturing the cell walls, but this isn't really noticeable in finished dishes when they are cooked down; often nowadays I actually take whole chillies and slit them 1-3 times down the sides and throw them in whole as i find this gives a nice fruitiness and heat throughout the dish as compared to just chopping them up and putting them in. I havn't really noticed any off flavours though but wouldn't use these in e.g. a Thai noodle salad.
I still tend to use fresh chillis a lot but I tend to meal plan a week or so ahead and any surplus ones from shopping go immediately in the freezer drawers that house ingredients and home made pastes.

 

[the-evaluator]

We always keen frozen lime leaves in the house - they freeze brilliantly. Plus I love just opening the box and having a smell as they really smell fantastic.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

i never use frozen anything and the jars of garlic and ginger you get are awful imo.

it takes literally 2 mins to throw some garlic and ginger into a electric chopper and it's done. i sometimes also put chillies into the chopper with some fresh tomatoes to add to the tharka when it's done.

 

[FrenchTart]

i never use frozen anything and the jars of garlic and ginger you get are awful imo.

it takes literally 2 mins to throw some garlic and ginger into a electric chopper and it's done. i sometimes also put chillies into the chopper with some fresh tomatoes to add to the tharka when it's done.

Nobody has suggested using jars of ginger or garlic.

 

[rexehuk]

Nobody has suggested using jars of ginger or garlic.

Indeed. The jars are quite horrible and have additives and stuff in them.

I do use frozen garlic, made by Taj which is 100% garlic with 0 additives / water / preservatives etc. This is as good as the real thing. The same also goes for ginger.

 

[rexehuk]

I promised some photos the next time I made this, and knocked up 1KG of dough yesterday to make naans!

Now this dough is only +8 hours, 3 out of fridge, 5 in the fridge, I couldn't resist cooking some last night when we came home from a night out! Stick a wok on the hob, full heat, wait for it to smoke (no oil or anything), stick the naan in, wait a good 30-40 seconds, turn over, cook until you're happy with the level of char. Job done.

I doubled the amount of onion seeds for this batch, and it tastes much better than his default recipe.

It'll now sit in the fridge until Sunday when we'll use more, and the rest will be rolled into balls and frozen. Freezing this naan means you can have fresh naan in under 6 minutes, defrost in the microwave and roll out, cook in same way you normally do!

 

[One More Solo]

Has anyone got a written recipe for the h4ppyleader naan? This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nypVcrfz6dk

Would save me a lot of skipping through youtube.

 

[Skidder]

that looks superb, have only made naan once but that is making me want to do it again