OK. Here It Is. And This Is Just The Beginning. More To Come.

I'm still on my Indian kick, so I decided to make Naan, a leavened Indian white flatbread.

First, I mixed my dry ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 TB sugar
1 TB baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

I made a well, then added in 2 eggs, stirring them into the flour mixture.

Next, I added in 1 cup of milk, in a slow, thin stream,
stirring constantly until ingredients were well combined.

Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes, until it's nice and smooth.

Gather the dough into a ball and place in a bowl.

Cover with a towel and let dough rest in a warm, draft-free place for about 3 hours.

Three hours later...
pretty, smooth dough.

Mr. Hawthorne always likes to help out in the kitchen, so he offered to slice the naan into 6 equal portions.

Place two large ungreased baking sheets into the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
Place the naan on the preheated sheets and POP back INto the oven.

(Gee, I'd forgotten SandySpeak.)

Here's my naan puffing up inside my oven.
Cook about 6-8 minutes, or until bread is firm to touch. Then place under broiler for a minute or two to brown the tops slightly.

Wallah! Naan.

I cooked the back set a bit more than the front.

Here's my mise en place for my Paneer Naanini.

At the top, I have my naan, turmeric, salt, home grown red peppers, frozen peas, chopped red onions, and chopped tomatoes.

Bottom right is my home-made paneer.
Bottom left is chopped spinach.

Chop the paneer into cubes.

Heat peanut oil in skillet and add onion, tomatoes, and peas.












Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft.

Isn't this pretty?

Next, add in the spinach.

Chop up the red peppers.

Add in the chili flakes, turmeric, and salt.

ACTION SHOT!

And here's the filling.

Slice the naan in half.

Looks like two little foot prints.

Spread the filling over the slices of naan and put the cubes of paneer on top.

Saute in butter.

Slice the naan into yummy little pieces.

My Indian Kick.

As I've mentioned previously, the last two times we've been to Raleigh to see our daughter, we've been to

India Mahal Restaurant

Now, last week, I made the wonderful
Chicken Curry .

So, I really want to explore this unique cuisine.

Today, I made my own paneer.

You can read about paneer
here in Wikipedia.
Yes, I know, it's the definitive site for any and all things.

I went to Google and came up with numerous sites.

I liked these two:

Mahanandi
and
this lovely site.

Well, you know me.
I can't follow a recipe exactly.

The recipe called for whole milk.

I only had 1 % milk.

So I took 2 cups of 1 % milk, added one cup of half and half,
and one cup of heavy cream.

Then I had a bunch of those little tiny limes (Key limes?) I bought for $1.00 yesterday at Harris Teeter.
I squeezed a bunch of them.
Maybe 2-3 tablespoons.

I brought my milk to a boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.



Once the milk came to a boil, I reduced the heat and added the lime juice.





In a few minutes, I saw small curds floating on top. I didn't think they got as big as I thought they were supposed to do, even after cooking the 5 minutes, and cutting off the heat and waiting 5 more minutes.

Soooooo, I consulted another recipe,
heated the milk up again to the boil,
added some buttermilk and plain yogurt in.
That did the trick.

Cooked it another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Then let set 5 minutes.

I poured the mixture into a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

ACTION PIC!
It looks like a miniature tornado.

Here's the mixture settling in the cheesecloth.


Lots of whey draining through.

After about 30 minutes of draining, I brought the cheesecloth up in a ball,
tied it up with rubber bands,
and squeezed it to get the water out.

At this point, I left the curds in cheese cloth, in a strainer, draining in a measuring cup in the refrigerator, while I went to Manteo for my cooking class.

I came back home and un-cheeseclothed this.

Here's my cheese.
I'm quite proud of myself.
I gots me a ball-o'-cheese.