Naan

Naan
Today I had a taste for naan, the flat Indian bread.
I found a recipe online at http://www.thenovicechefblog.com/2010/08/naan/
It's a fairly quick and easy recipe for 8 naan:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil (I used olive oil)
1/3 cup Chobani Greek fat free plain yogurt
1 large egg
olive oil for cooking (you can use butter if you prefer)

After the first rise, cut into 8 pieces and roll out.

I used a super-hot cast iron frypan lightly coated with olive oil.

When the first side is brown enough, flip to do the second side.

Eat!

I served it with pork tenderloin.
I used the rest of the yogurt to make a sauce:
three cloves of minced garlic
lemon juice
salt and pepper.

So I guess this was a cross between a Greek and an Indian meal.

First Crocus

The First Crocus of 2012


Yesterday was snowdrops.
Today the first crocuses.

Wow, it's an early spring!

Heavy Cream Biscuits

I decided it was time for biscuits.
This is the America's Test Kitchen recipe for Heavy Cream Biscuits.

That's right - no butter or shortening -

It calls for heavy cream.

Here's my adaptation.

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 teaspoons baking powder.

Have everything chilled before you start.
I put the stainless mixing bowl with the measured flour in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Lightly put ingredients together.

Fold over a couple of times.

Cut into 9 pieces.

This is a picture of a half-recipe.

They were very light, and very delicious.

I don't add salt - there's enough in the baking powder.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops
Think Spring!
March 13, 2012

The first snowdrops are blooming.
We may see crocus tomorrow.

This is an exceptionally warm winter,
and these are much earlier than usual.

Giant Egg

The chickens, ordinary mixed barnyard chickens, are enjoying spring.
Someone laid this egg today.

It weighs 100 grams!
(And yes, I did tare the glove - that's to keep the egg from rolling.)

Egg weight ranges from small - 43 grams
medium - 50 grams
large - 57 grams
and most of ours are in the 60 to 70 gram range
extra large - 64 grams
jumbo - 71 grams
giant - 78 grams
super giant - 85 grams
gigantic - 92 grams
ouch - 99 grams

This does not fit in any egg carton we have!

My guess is someone is walking bowlegged!

You can see some of the chickens at:
chickens and tractor

Tortellini - Won Ton

Lunch today was roast chicken
(with roasted carrots, onions, and potato wedges).

The bones are cooking for chicken soup.
But I couldn't wait - I decided to make a cross between
tortellini and won ton.

Using the food processor, I ground
chicken
onion tops
garlic
pepper
whole grain Rice Crispies
one egg yolk.

I used store-bought won-ton noodles.

Put a dollop in the center of each square.

Brush with egg white to help seal.

Shape like little hats.

Drop into stock seasoned with
onion tops
celery tops
black pepper
a hint of poultry seasoning.

Wait impatiently until they are done

and can be served.

Delicious!

Cider Taste Test

It's a cold, raw day.
Too unpleasant to play outdoors.
So D suggested it was time to test the cider.
There are eight batches using various yeasts, including one of wild yeast.

Isn't the variety of shades and clarity interesting!
Here they are lined up in letter order - G is missing, because it was not decanted earlier.

Chris gave us a sample sanitizer to use - worked well - you need to have killed all the wild yeasts before you add the wine or beer yeasts. He also gave us a siphon to get the liquid from the five-gallon pails to bottles. D siphoned these a month ago. At that time, they all tasted either beery or like regular cider - some yeasts work slower than others.


Some are quite fizzy!!! Others are still.
This one had to be opened and reclosed several times before we could safely pour it.


This was much more fun than playing outside today!

In case you are wondering, these are water bottles left over from the power outage during Irene .