Asian Soups and Bread (Explorations in Dough)

Today started with kitchen work, as some doughs had to be set up to rise. There were a lot of interesting but simple recipes today, of which I got wrapped up in two....and naan. Naan is a flat bread similar to pizza, but after making the dough twice and baking it a handful of times, learned to appreciate how it's not pizza.

First the dough: like pizza, yeast, water, flour and salt. Unlike pizza, ghee, yogurt and black onion seeds. The dough is mixed, kneaded to smooth, and coated in ghee and left covered to rise. The recipe we were using was annoyingly imprecise -- "2 cups" of flour is a volume measure, and could be packed light or tight. 2 cups is also 16 ounces, which is weight and is the same every time regardless of volume. My first dough was dry, tough and slightly lumpy after kneeding, so I did a second one, which was looser and pliable.

I prepped and cooked a mango chutney. Cumin and mustard seeds sauteed in some ghee until they make popping noises, thrown in diced onion, green chile and ginger till soft. Then jaggery (an unrefined sugar-cane substance), salt, ground cardamom, diced mango and lime juice are thrown in wit a little water and cooked till thick.

Moved on to miso soup. First, you make dashi, basic Japanese stock. Put kombu (sea weed) in cold water, bring to simmer and remove kombu. Bring to boil, add bonito flakes (dried makerel) and remove from heat, sit 5 minutes, strain. For the miso soup, simply add some miso paste and whisk. Garnish with sliced scallion and cubed tofu. My soup actually tasted a lot less salty then many restaurant soups I've had.

Then back to the bread, both which rose nicely. The recipe called to make 6 breads out of each recipe, but really only made 2 restaurant-sized naans. Punch down, divide, roll into a teardrop shape, sprinkle with onion seeds and brush with ghee. As the school does not have a tandoori oven, pizza stones were placed in ovens going full blast. I treated the dough like pizza, and made them as thin as possible with a light coating -- it just wasn't very good. By my 4th and final naan, I allowed the dough to be thick, particularly around the edges and drenched it in ghee. When it came out, it just looked right, and tasted it too.

ADDENDA:
Spent the afternoon prepping mise for a pizza dinner for 5 of B's friends and relatives. Was a lot of fun, did a few pizzas I haven't done before. Rather than words, here's the pics!:
Salad pizza: romaine, shredded carrots, cuce, scallion and red onion dressed simply in balsamic and olive oil over a garlic and oil crust. Vegan!


Bufalla moz and raw tomato sauce with basil. The first two pies I undercooked a little.


Fresh school-made moz with spinach, onion and mushroom. Gave it an extra minute, wonderfully crisp but chewy.


Thin sliced wild caught scallops over a garlicy wine sauce, came out surprisingly good for a first try, though could of used a little less garlic and a squirt of lemon.


Tarte Flambe. Screwed this one up but saved it from disaster by spreading the over-salted, over-mixed cheese sauce (cottage cheese and creme fraiche) VERY thin. Bacon and onoiin on top, could of carmelized the onion more to make them sweeter.

Roasted pear and and honeyed mascapone, really good and not overly sweet.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic chex with good milk

AM TASTINGS: 10-11am, 1 naan, lentil daal, miso soup, paratha, poori, chapati, scallion pancake, tomato chutney, mango chutney, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, almond ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Straight out of the machine.

PM SNACK: 6pm, peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry while prepping dinner.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 6 different kinds of pizza, ice cream, 1 glass wine, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5