MISSION NAAN: BREADS OF THE KEEMA & GARLIC VARIETY

There are certain ways that you can tell a good curry house from a bad one and top of the list, of course, is the quality of their breads.

To look at me, it is pretty easy to see that I have a fondness for Indian breads. I adore mopping up thin dahl with flaky paratha, scooping up lamb bhuna with a chapati made of wheat or just simply tearing into a hot roti with no other accompaniment than a spoonful of raita. Best of all is the pillowy naan bread, eaten piping hot from the tandoor and dripping in heart clogging amounts of ghee.

Naan breads come in many shapes and forms and with many fillings, but perhaps my two favourites are the keema naan, filled with a spicy combination of ground lamb and peas and the simple garlic naan, flecked out a mixture of minced garlic and torn coriander leaf.

Continuing the “Year of Baking Dangerously” I decided to have a shot at making them at home. Now, obviously, I am not in the possession of a tandoor, but I found that cooking them on a hot flat griddle pan or even under a hot grill worked rather well. They are not quite as fluffy as those you might find in the traditional way, but they were not bad at all and are definitely on the list to make again.

If you give the recipe below a try, do report back and let me know how you got on.


INGREDIENTS (Makes Around 10 Naan)

For The Naan
2 Cups Strong Bread Flour
1 Cup Plain (All Purpose)Flour
1 7gm Packet of Dried Active Yeast (mixed with ½ Cup warm water)
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Salt.
2 Cups Warm Water

METHOD
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl.

Mix the yeast and sugar with the ½ cup of warm water and allow to stand for 10 minutes until the yeast has begun to bubble.

Combine the yeast/water with the flour and begin to combine slowly with the other 2 cups of water. I used a stand mixer on a slow setting for around 8 minutes. Add more water if the dough becomes too stiff and a little more flour if it becomes too loose.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead gently on a floured surface for 4 minutes.

Place in an oiled bowl, cover in cling film and keep in a warm place until it has doubled in size (around 90 minutes)

After this time, knock the dough back, knead again gently for 3 minutes and separate the dough into 10 balls.

Place on a plate, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for another 30 Minutes.

If you want to make plain naan, you can simply roll these balls out to the desired size, brush with melted butter or ghee and cook under the grill or on a hit griddle until golden brown on both sides.

For The Keema
2 lbs Ground Lamb Shoulder
1 Onion (chopped)
2 Green Chillies (deseeded and minced)
2 Tbsp Ginger/Garlic Paste (made by blending garlic cloves with peeled fresh ginger and a little salt & water)
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Turmeric
2 Tsp Garam Masala (I made my own, but you can use a good store bought version)
1 Pint Chicken Stock
1 Cup Frozen Peas

METHOD
Brown the meat in a frying pan, remove and drain off the excess fat.

Add 2 Tbsp oil to the hot pan and add the chopped onion.

Cook the onion until golden brown and then add the ginger/garlic paste.

Cook for 3 minutes and add the minced green chilli.

Cook for 3 minutes and add the ground spices, the salt and the sugar.

Cook for 3 minutes and return the meat to the pan combining well.

Add the chicken stock and cook the meat on a gentle heat until the liquid has almost disappeared leaving a dry curry.

Add the peas, combine well and cook until the dish is totally dry.

Decant to a bowl and allow to cool thoroughly.

To Make The Keema Naan

Take a piece of dough and roll it out until it is to the desired size.

Take 2 Tbspn of the keema filling and spread it out over half the area of the naan bread.

Fold over the remaining dough and roll out again gently until it is the same size.

Brush each side with melted butter or ghee and cook on a hot griddle or under the grill for about two minutes each side.

For garlic naan, simply replace the keema filling with a filling of finely minced garlic and chopped coriander leaf.

Serve with your favourite Indian curry and ENJOY

MISSION KOFTA CURRY

Dos Hermanos may not be exactly dead yet, but it’s certainly been coughing up blood lately.

HP seems to be eating all his meals in Chiswick these days, which is great for him, but wouldn’t make for fantastic reading. I, on the other hand, am all over the place and rarely get time to sit down to do the writing I am paid for let alone keeping you saps, suckers and ne’er do wells entertained with my Shavian musings.

So, here’s the deal. I shall continue to post when I can and, if you remain even vaguely interested, you can tune in every now and again to see what we are up too.

There won’t be many restaurant reviews anymore. As I said, HP will probably soon own a debenture at Hedone, and I don’t care enough about the Los Angeles dining scene to post a series of consistently expensive and mediocre meals just to keep the blog current.

What I can do is post about my trips (when time allows) and about the increasing amount of time I am spending in our little kitchen trying to improve my skills and test recipes for some book and TV ideas.

I can’t promise the recipes will be life changing, but hopefully they will be worth trying and worth eating. That is about all I gotsta put on the table at the moment. I hope it sounds fair enough?

Starting as I mean to go on in 2012, here’s a terrific recipe for that Northern Indian favourite, Kofta Curry. It’s a stunning dish of lamb meatballs cooked in a sauce of pureed onions, yoghurt and fresh ground spices.

It has already become a “must cook again” for my Mrs, which is high praise indeed. Let me know if you try it and if you feel the same way as she does if you do.

LAMB KOFTA CURRY (Serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

For the Kofta

1 ½ lb Ground Lamb Shoulder (I mince my own)
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Coriander Powder
1 Tsp Turmeric
1 Whole Egg
1 Cup Fresh Breadcrumbs

To make the kofta, combine all the ingredients well. Cover the bowl with cling film and chill for at least an hour. After they have chilled, form the meat into the size and shape of meatballs you prefer, cover again in cling film and place back in the fridge.

For The Sauce

1/2 Cup Cashew Nut Paste (made from soaking raw cashews in milk for 30mins and then blending with a little of the liquid to a fine paste)
1 Large White Onion (Pureed to a Paste)
Ginger/Garlic Paste (made from blending 2in fresh ginger with 4 big garlic cloves + a little water and salt)
2 Green Chilies (de seeded and finely minced)
1 12oz Can Tomatoes
2 Tbs Thick Yoghurt (whipped)
2 Tsp Garam Masala (I made mine from freshly toasted spices including bayleaf, fennel seed, cinnamon bark, black cardamom and clove)
½ Tsp each of Ground Turmeric, Cinnamon, Coriander, Cumin, Chili Powder and Salt

To make the sauce, heat up two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a deep sided frying pan.

Add all the ground spices (except the garam masala) and cook for three minutes making sure it does not burn.

Add the ginger/garlic paste and cook for a further three minutes.

Add the minced green chili and cook for a further three minutes.

Add the cashew nut paste, combine well and cook for a further three minutes.

Add the pureed onion and cook for five minutes.

Add the whipped yoghurt and the garam masala spices and cook for a further five minutes.

At this point, I like to blend my sauce with a hand blender and pass it through a sieve. This is optional, but I think it gives a much better end result.

While the sauce is cooking, remove the Kofta from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature.

If you blend the sauce, return it to the pan and add the Kofta. Cover the pan and cook on a gentle heat for fifteen minutes.

Uncover the pan, turn over the kofta and cook for a further fifteen minutes.

Reduce the sauce over a gentle heat until it reaches the desired consistency. I like mine to be a thick, dark, rich gravy. Be sure to turn the kofta every few minutes so they do not dry out.

Serve with plain boiled rice (or Indian breads) and more whipped yoghurt.

Enjoy.

LAMB BIRYANI: A SEALED POT OF PURE PLEASURE

My quest to catalogue some of the most popular dishes in Indian restaurants around the world continued this week with an attempt to create the perfect Biryani.

It’s no easy matter as this glorious dish, another gift of the Moghuls to Indian cuisine, is the subject of fierce debate throughout India. The arguments rage not only about how it is made, but also about what ingredients it should contain.
The only thing that people can all seem to agree on is that it is a combination of rice, spices and meat or vegetables, but that’s about as far as the consensus goes.

There are dozens of different versions of Biryani, but perhaps the three most famous are those found in Hyderabad, Lucknow and Kolkata. The Hyderabadi version is made using raw meat (usually goat) marinated in yoghurt & spices and raw rice. These are cooked in a pot with a tight fitting lid, sealed with a wheat flour rim, until the juices from the meat cook the rice. It is, I believe, also known as a “Dum” or steamed Biryani. I wonder if the word “Dum” has the same root as the French word “Daube” a stew that is cooked in a similar fashion, with a sealed pot. Anyone?

The Lucknow Biryani is made using meat and rice that have been cooked already and are then combined to make the final dish, while the Kolkata version was traditionally a poor man’s dish that replaced the meat with chunks of potato.

They are all terrific, so I looked to all of them for the inspiration for my "perfect" recipe. Goat is not that easy to find in LA LA Land, so I used lamb instead. You could also use chicken. I chose cut up lamb shanks and also added some extra lamb bones, to add extra flavour and to give me some marrow sucking action in the final dish.

The key to a perfect Biryani is to have the meat cooked until tender without over cooking the rice. I have found that par boiling the rice (some with whole spices and some with the same spices and a little saffron) and partially pre-cooking the meat, is not only a fool proof way of achieving this this, but pre-cooking the lamb and its marinade also produces a lot of cooking liquid that you can also use for the sauce as you are layering rice, meat and fried onions in your Biryani pan.

Anyway, do give it a go. It is laborious rather than difficult, but the end result is 100% worth the effort involved.

Oh, and don't forget to suck on those lamb bones, or there will be Hell to pay.

LAMB SHANK BIRYANI
INGREDIENTS
2 Cups Basmati Rice
2 lbs Lamb (Lamb shanks cut into chunks and some extra lamb bones)
2 large White Onions (sliced thinly)
4 Green Chiles (Deseeded)
2 Inches Fresh Ginger (Peeled and chopped)
5 Cloves Fresh Garlic (Peeled)
½ Cup Yoghurt
1 Cinnamon Stick
6 Cloves
6 Green Cardamom Pods
2 Bay Leaves
1 Pinch Saffron
1Tsp Ground Coriander
1Tsp Ground Cumin
1Tsp Ground Turmeric
1Tsp Red Chili Powder
1Tsp Salt
1Tsp Sugar

METHOD
Blend the green chili, ginger and garlic to a paste with a little salt and water.

Place the lamb in a bowl and add the ground spices, the salt & sugar, the ginger/chili/garlic paste and the yoghurt.

Massage these well into the meat. Cover with cling film and allow to sit in the marinade for at least three hours.

Slice the onions as thinly as possible and fry in oil until golden and crisp.

Drain the onions on kitchen paper and allow to cool.

Take two thirds of the rice and place in a pan with 3 cloves, 1 bay leaf, ½ the cinnamon stick and 3 cardamom pods.

Add twice the volume of water and par boil for 15 minutes on a low heat. The rice should still have a crunch when you bite into a grain.

Do the same with the remaining rice, adding the remaining spices and also the pinch of saffron. This will give the rice a pink/orange colour.

Drain the two rices and allow to cool.

Combine them to give you two tone rice.

After three or more hours, place the lamb and its marinade in a large covered pan and cook on a gentle heat for 45mins.

Remove the lamb from the pan and reduce the cooking liquid it has produced by half.

Take a deep oven proof casserole dish or saucepan and place a layer or rice on the bottom.

Place a handful of onions on top of that and then a ladle full of the lamb cooking liquid.

Place a layer of meat on top of this and cover completely with rice.
Repeat this process until you reach within an inch or so of the top of the pan, finishing with a layer of rice and sauce.

Traditionally a “Dum” Biryani pot would have been sealed with a pastry rim to stop steam escaping. If you have a tight fitting lid, you will not need to do this. I did it anyway.

Preheat your oven to 350F/175C and bake the Biryani for 45mins to 1 hour.
Serve with your favourite Indian bread and a raita or plain yoghurt.