The best (yet) naan recipe

200g pizza ‘00’ flour (or plain flour, but something with a bit higher protein is better, this was 11%)

1/2 packet (2.5g) instant yeast (or 5g if you in a hurry or it is cold in the house)

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp baking powder 

75g kefir (or plain yoghurt, if it is v solid add a little water)

50ml lukewarm water

1 tblsp milk powder

15g soft butter

Make dough by putting everything together and kneading for 10 mins. It should be not too soft and sticky, fairly easy to handle and stretch well.

Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size (about an hour when in warm room)

Form in to 4 balls by tucking the sides under and gently rolling under your hand, and put in oiled tray covered to rise again (about another hour)

When doubled in size, shape by hand by stretching the dough until most of it is approx 1/2 cm thick. The thinest bits will be almost see through and there may be thicker bits.

Cook the first one you did first so they all get a bit of a chance to rise again a little

Cook (in oven, in frying pan, on bbq)

I cooked it on my cadac bbq on the pizza stone. 

You can do very similar in a dry iron frying pan, but I find this doesn’t work well on our induction hob as it keeps turning itself off when it thinks it is too hot. I guess the pizza stone is about 250°C, I wet the naan on one side before slapping it on, a bit like they do in the tandoor and put a lid over it for a few mins, once cooked it peels off fairly easily and I flip it over to cook the top side. You could try a pizza stone or iron pan in the oven too, maybe with a little splash of water at bottom of oven as steam helps the initial rise…

Next up I’m going to try it in the roccbox. The last time I tried that I had problems with it puffing up like pitta with just one large bubble (great if you want pitta!). But I’m hoping this has been solved with a dryer dough, the knocking back and the hand shaping… we will see!

Update : 

Tried same recipe cooked in the roccbox pizza oven.

I ended up stretching it thinner to stop it blowing up pitta like and it came out super great!

Chilli Oil Recipe

250ml olive oil

25g hot chilli flakes (or more or less to taste)

Put oil and flakes in a saucepan and heat gently until small bubbles are appearing. Don’t boil or overheat the oil.

Let cool and bottle.

I like using small 250 ml bottle of oil and bottling back in to the same bottle, it has a pouring spout…

Naan and pita

Lifelong attempt to get naan bread right. I managed it once, but never repeated the feat! I’ve searched the internet for hints, I’ve now decided it isn’t relly in the exact recipe, the cooking technique is just as important (or more so!).

I’ve had a lot come out more like pita bread in that they get one big bubble (so a pocket) rather than the multiple bubbles so distinctive of naan.

The conclusion I have come to is that you need a bit of a dryer dough for naan than pita, and a hot enough surface to cook before it gets a chance to blow right up and ideally this is helped by it sticking to the cooking surface.

These ones came out great…

200g bread flour (or plain flour)

4 tbsp yoghurt + cold water to make up to 125g

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt

2.5g quick yeast

Knead everything together for 10 mins in kitchenaid or by hand

Put in a covered bowl in fridge (overnight or just a few hours)

2 hours before you are ready to make the naans take out of fridge and rise for an hour, then divide in to 4 (or more if you want smaller naan) pieces and make into balls and cover. Leave at room temperature until doubled in size.

Roll out and cook

I cooked on a pizza stone on the cadac bbq with the dome lid over them. The stone was 270°C when i put them on, before slapping them on I ran the top side under the tap to wet and help it stick…

Fun with the solar thermal panels

 We’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with the solar thermal panels. Just replaced the propelene glycol

Out of the bottle it is 

In the system it is 

This is because we have washed the system through with water a few times and it is impossible to get all the fluid out the system!

Hopefully still has low enough freezing point

It’s a right fag pumping it all out and back in again!

Chocolate Fondue Recipe

150g dark chocolate

100g double cream

Splash of some spirit (Quattro, whisky, whatever)

Lots of chopped fruit.

Heat the cream in a pan, don’t boil. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Put in to the fondue pan

Butchering a deer’s hind leg

 I followed a youtube by Outdoor Allie, really helpful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=HP43Zm1-Jrg

Didn’t really fit on my chopping board, but had to make the best of it :)

The sirloin tip is in the sous vide bag. I’m making salted venison (like salted or corned beef)

Going from there left we have the bottom round - made in to 2 roasts for pot or slow roasting

Next let is the eye of round which looks like. tenderloin but isn’t. Planning on cutting in to medallions and slow frying one of them, the other I am salting to fry rounds of like ham.

Far left is the top round which I cut in to steaks to fry

At the back is the tri tip (triangular muscle off the sirloin tip). That went in to stewing chunks

Also at the back the sirloin butt which is a kind of raggedy cut which I cut up for stir fry.

The front legs I took out the flat irons and the rest was stewing chunks or mince.

Lamb ham

We were wondering the other day whether you could dry cure lamb, I looked it up on the internet and found several recipes!

Dry cured leg of mutton (or lamb)
Boned leg of mutton

The following are per kg of meat
30g salt
1tsp ground pepper
1tsp sugar
4 cloves
1tsp chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic finely chopped

Pinch of curing salt (optional depending whether you want the salt peter which will keep the meat pink or not)

Mix all the cure together
Smear all over both sides of the leg
Put the leg in to a plastic bag and seal the bag (or make sure the end is always above the rest of the bag)
Put the bag in the fridge for a week, turn every day and swish the cure around
After the week, remove leg from the bag and rince and wipe down with vinegar then dry it with paper towel or clean cloth
Roll in to a neat tube, as tightly as you can, and tie in place.
Hang somewhere well aired, humid and under 18°C until the leg loses 30 to 35% of its weight. This is probably about a month (but more or less depending on size of leg and conditions it is hanging in)