Waffle Iron Gets A New Life

I am not a big fan of Rachel Ray.  She is okay.  I will watch her show on occassion.  And once in a while I will find some really useful information.  Such was the case the other day.  She told her audience that she had been playing with her waffle iron trying to come up with some useful ways to use it besides just waffles.  Wouldn't that be awesome for your waffle iron to have a dual purpose?  She got me to stay tuned. 

So what did she do?  She put pizza dough in the waffle iron.  Genius, I must say.  It just so happened I had some little balls of naan dough in the fridge.  I oiled them with olive oil and then sprinkled some of my Tuscan seasoning mix and a little salt on them .  I popped them in the waffle maker and voila, some seriously good flat bread.  Four minutes was all it took.  These are what I call dangerously delicious.

Try it, You will like it!

I have made naan before but wanted to try this recipe.  I have to say I find this one to be superior to the other one.  Not that the other one is bad but I find this one to be more tender.

NAAN

1 package dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (I buy mine in bulk)
1 cup warm water (you can stick your finger in for 15 seconds and not feel like it is burning)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup melted butter

Proof your yeast by disolving the yeast in warm water.  Let stand ten minutes until frothy.  ( I read one time that with modern yeast this is pretty unnecessary,  I have to say its been over two years since I have proofed my yeast.)  Stir in sugar, milk, salt, egg and the flour.  Knead for six to eight minutes.  Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about an hour.

Make small dough balls, place on tray, cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough and either place on a buttered, hot griddle or use the method above, the waffle iron.  If using the griddle.  Turn after the first side becomes browned.  Heat on other side until lightly browned.  The second side will be much faster than the first. Place in a paper bag, folding the top of the bag down, until you have grilled all of them. Placing them in the paper bag helps to keep them warm and tender.

If you use the waffle iron.  Roll out the naan and lightly oil the surface.  Sprinkle seasoning on them if you like. Place in waffle iron for about four minutes.  I like mine a little more tender so I did about 3 minutes.  You will have to play with the time for your griddle and how you like your naan.

Gluten Free Naan Pizza

I make gluten free pizza when the rest of the family is enjoying my homemade pizza.  Normally this would be kind of sad but I have never really been a huge fan of pizza. The first time I made it I used a store bought one, it was okay.  The second time I made it, which I posted here it was good.  The thing I don't like is that instead of it having a certain chew that I miss about real bread, it is more like biting into a savory cake.

Enter this idea.  Its a recipe for gluten free naan.  Since I LOVE naan, I had to try it.  I will say the recipe is definitely a challenge technique wise but worth your patience to get it right.   The pile below is the fruits of my labor.  It needed a ton of potato starch to roll it out.  Yes, the recipe still needs perfection in my opinion but I can live with my results for sure. ( The original recipe says it should come out like mash potatoes consistency but  alas, its a bit like rolling out mashed potatoes.)

I put it in a 450 degree oven with my toppings on and left it in just long enough that the cheese melted.  The onions on top were sheer goodness.

Gluten Free Naan

3/4 cup brown rice flour
3/4 rice flour
3/8 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cooking oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons xanthan
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons yeast
potato starch as needed

Combine dry ingredients: brown rice flour, rice flour, cornstarch, all purpose gluten free flour, teaspoon salt, baking powder, xanthan.  In a small bowl mix warm water with the honey, stir to combine.  Sprinkle on yeast and set aside to become frothy. Mix wet ingredients- buttermilk, eggs, oil and then finally the yeast mixture.  Pour into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Beat for about 4 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle potato starch on surface place a handful of mixture onto potato starch.  Sprinkle potato starch over top and roll.  You have to use the potato starch pretty liberally.  You could try using parchment. Roll out a round, flat piece.  Transfer to hot skillet heat for about five minutes.  Flip to other side until just golden.  Remove from griddle and start again.

Gobi and Naan

You probably thought I totally forgot. Well, I did totally forget. Do you remember the Indian dinner I made and said I would post all the recipes. Now, I am posting the final ones. A little late but posted none the less.

First the naan:

3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 t instant yeast
1 1/2 C warm milk - about 100F (you want to be able to hold your finger in it comfortably for 15 seconds)
1 teaspoon sugar
Butter for brushing to taste

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk. Let rest approximately 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast/milk mixture. Mix in the salt. Knead until soft, smooth and elastic.
Cover with a damp towel and leave in a dark place to rise until doubled, about two hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl, fold dough over itself and press down. Divide into ten even balls.
Roll out into rounds (if you can- mine were a bit odd shaped), dusting lightly with flour as needed. The
thinner you roll it out the better.

Heat up a large skillet or frying pan. On a dry pan lay the naan down.  When it begins to bubble and get dry- flip.  If you brush with butter they will be more tender but it is still delicious without the butter. 

Finally the gobi:

This is a recipe in development.  I kinda went by taste and generalized many recipes I researched.  Your ultimate goal is to have a batter thick enough to coat the cauliflower but so thick that it is pasty. I went a little thin this time but next time I will try it a bit thicker.  Aim for pancake batter thickness.  I had the thickness of heavy cream this time.

1 head or cauliflower, cut into florets

1 cup of besan or chick pea flour

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cayenne (less or none if you do not like heat)

1- 1 1/2 cups water 

hot oil for deep frying

Stir together besan, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and cayenne.  Whisk in a 1/2 cup of the water to make a paste, whisking rapidly to dissolve any lumps.  Add in another 1/2 cup of the water, thoroughly mixing to incorporate.  Finally add the water in small increments to get to the right consistency.  Dip the florets in the batter and place in hot oil (350F).  Fry until golden.

RED FEATHER on INDIAN FOOD

This past Saturday I had some friends over for what we call our Four Corners Group. When we first started meeting back in 2000 we called ourselves the Intuition Group. We met to read and practice a book together called Practical Intuition. It's basically about how to really listen to what your inner voice is telling you. Like I am sure you had the experience of thinking to yourself after an event took place, "I knew that was going to happen." That knowing is what we were seeking to develop. The book eventually was completed and we just had this chemistry and wanted to keep meeting. A couple of years ago we decided to go an outing and my friend called me Red Feather. It just kind of popped out. So then we all named each other American Indian type names and called ourselves the Four Corners (representing East, West, North and South and Earth, Wind, Fire and Water). I am Red Feather Swimming (water), my friend who named me is called Sparkling Stone, Earth (yeah, she loves jewels and sparkles), another friend is named Eagle Soaring, Wind (she conquered cancer, is there anything more soaring than that?) and finally my other friend is Dancing Flame, fire (she is a trained dancer).

I had them all over on Sunday and we enjoyed an Indian lunch together. East Indian that is. We had Naan (click here for the recipe), Tandoori Chicken (click here for the recipe, I did add a teaspoon of turmeric to that recipe) and Raita (see below). And for dessert, well, I will tell you all about that tomorrow (I will give you a hint, it's French).


RAITA

2 cups yogurt (I used fat free)
1 cucumber shredded
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
2 T mint, chopped
1 tomato, coursely chopped and squeezed of excess juice
4 scallions, chopped
1- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (depending on taste)
1- 2 teaspoon cumin
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all and let set in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

You can add any kind of vegetables to Raita. It's so refreshing and so nice dipping Naan into it or cooling off your palate after eating some tandoori chicken.

Borekas

Borekas.  This is an Israeli recipe.  Delicious food. I kind of changed it up a little though.  The end results were pretty popular the kids and the husband- they ate them all.

Feeling a little sad that I could not have any, I decided to use the dough that I used to make gluten free naan.  I sprayed an oven safe bowl and then plopped the dough in (more like batter really). I then wet my fingers (because when I tell you it's sticky, that might be a bit of an understatement) and pressed the dough down in the bowl and up the sides.  I then spooned the filling in the center.

I have to say I was pretty pleased with the results.  Though next time I would go a little thinner. It was a good dinner.

Borekas refashioned and gluten free.

Borekas

puff pastry (if you make your own even better- here is a recipe that worked well for me- its not hard- just a little time consuming.)

3/4 cup cottage cheese
100 grams of mozzarella (about a cup)
1 egg
1/4 cup minced dried onion
1 teaspoon sumac
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line baking sheet with foil or parchment.  THis will save clean up time later if they ooze a little. 

Stir together all the ingredients in a bowl.  Roll out the puff pastry into a large square, approximately 15 by 15. Cut diagonally, then cut those triangles until you have 8 triangles. Spoon a little filling onto triangle and pinch sides, sealing the filling in.  Try not to get any filling in the pinched part because it will not seal well.  Place on baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. You can brush with egg to get a nice golden color if you like.  I was in a hurry to get dinner on so I skipped it.

Danish the normal way.

Danish refashioned and gluten free.

I did the same thing here as I did with the borekas.

Danish Cheese Filling

6 ounces cream cheese, room temp
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese then add in egg, vanilla and sugar.  Spoon on to rolled out squares of puff pastry. Bake at 400F for about 15 to 20 minutes.

*I left the gluten free one in a little longer because it had more filling. I left it in a bit too long as the top cracked.  You just want it golden.

Dal Makhani

I first saw this dal on Steamy Kitchen blog.  It was photographed so perfectly, pulling me in with its beautiful lentils.  The version I made had a bit more spice than Jadens' but I want to say thank you to her for bringing this amazing dish to my attention.  We loved it.  I served it on Sunday.  Almost every Sunday I have my parents over for Sunday dinner. This past Sunday I thought I would make a complete Indian dinner.  It was a lot of work but well worth the effort.  My parents first encounter with Indian food was a pleasant one.  This is a feat because she equates Indian food (as I once did) tot he curry powder found in jars in the spice aisle of our love markets.  The certainly is not Indian food summed up in that little spice jar.


"The following is posting from the Chile-Heads mailing list which, I think, neatly sums up what a curry is (or rather isn't). The author is Brent Thompson who is highly knowledgeable on the subject and has lived in India. He wrote : "the term curry itself isn't really used in India, except as a term appropriated by the British to generically categorize a large set of different soup/stew preparations ubiquitous in India and nearly always containing ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, chile, and oil (except in communities which eat neither onion or garlic, of course) and which must have seemed all the same to the British, being all yellow/red, oily, spicy/aromatic, and too pungent to taste anyway"" from The Curry House UK

So there you have it or maybe don't, a definition of curry.

I will post all the features of the feast in the next couple posts.  Chutneys, naan and gobi...  Here's a quick peak of the tables.  Ignore the coleslaw and raw cauliflower florets which the kids were eating.

Dal Makhani

1 cup de puy lentils (French green lentils)
1 large onion minced
1 1/2 cups tomato puree canned or fresh (I used canned)
2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
pinch of turmeric powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cilantro, minced

salt to taste

Cook lentils in 3 cups water until tender.  Add the remainder of ingredients, except cilantro and let simmer for about an hour.  Stir in cilantro just before serving.
* Note:  I added a bit more than 1 1/2 cups of tomato puree- next time I will only add 1 1/2 cups.