Charan of creativewithclay: "When I was a kid my mom ran a boutique store in India specializing in clothes for brides and bridesmaids. She dragged me along whenever she needed help. I never really enjoyed doing the billing or taking orders for dyeing fabric, etc., but she told me to just do it and there will be something I will gain from it. What fascinated me was the color in fabric and helping people choose matching or contrasting colors for their outfits. I enjoyed helping them decide what embroidery designs to pick and working with tailors to give them new ideas and patterns."
Secondly,... I am the winner of the teapot challenge on the Etsy Mud Team
It is such an honor to be part of such a great group of talented potters online. Lots of beautiful teapots, so do check them out. Also when shopping on Etsy for pottery, search for "emt etsymudteam" and you will see beautiful collection of pots by talented potters on Etsy.
Basic ingredients are wheat flour dough made from two parts flour and a little less than one part water. It shouldn't be on the very soft side and refrigerating for an hour helps. Also we need some ghee (clarified butter), but I use margarine instead. And some dry flour to assist in rolling.
Apply a little butter on hands and roll the dough in small 2 inch flat balls. I can fit four of these in the pressure cooker, but here Iam showing three.
After dusting with some flour, roll these into approximately 5 inch round with the rolling pin and smear a tablespoon of the clarified butter and sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour. Sprinkle some salt as well. You can put in minced garlic or herbs at this stage too if you want to add more flavor.
Then fold this in pleats till you get a long narrowstrip of folded dough and butter
Then roll this from one end and you will get the following ball of dough.
Again with some flour roll it into a 5 inch round. You can see the layers and these will crisp up similar to puff pastry.
Now for the tandoor, I use my big aluminum pressure cooker. The main thing about tandoors is that they need to get really hot and retain that heat. This has thick walls which help in retaining the heat and the aluminum helps in getting it real hot. So place it on the big burner on high and let it heat real good.
Now place the pressure cooker on the side and slap the bread on the side. To make it stick first apply a little water on the back side of the bread before slapping it on. Turn the pressure cooker and apply all the breads.
Now we invert the pressure cooker over the heat and keep the heat on medium now. If the bread close to flame is browning first then you need to reduce the flame.
This takes approximately 2 minutes for the bread to cook and there you have it. Remove it with tongs. It comes off very easily if the pressure cook was very hot to start with and if it is cooked all the way. Serve hot with butter. :)
I am so grateful to my Mom for teaching me this. Happy Mother's Day! Now I just need to watch my waist line. :)
After mentioning Pakoras, talking about samosas is the right thing to do. Check out these busy bees stuffing dough with a spicy potato mixture for samosas and see the picture following it. Do you blame me for overeating?
Not an uncommon site to see people cooking on the street in the early mornings. Here puris are being made. Puris are made from wheat flour and then deep fried. Check out the size of the wok!
Next week, I hope to share some techniques of how I make tandoori naan at home.
