naan

Short Cut Supper

Nibbles

We don’t keep a lot of packaged foods in the house–instant dinners, box mixes, frozen entrees. Partially because of my dietary restrictions and partially be cause we just like to cook from good, basic ingredients. If we don’t feel like cooking one night (it happens from time to time), it usually means going out or at least picking up take-out.

All of that to say, when we *do* have something pre-made it’s a rare occurrence and usually happens because of one of the following reasons:

  • I went to the store hungry. Though even then I’m more prone to pick up snacks or some really rich cheese instead of something pre-packaged or instant mix.
  • I saw something new and was curious enough to give it a try.
  • I went to World Market. Something about all of the imported foods they carry just makes me want to try anything and everything they carry—I’ve yet to be disappointed.

The most recent case was a combination of the last 2, when I stumbled upon the Punjabi Butter Chicken Simmer Sauce from Tiger Tiger.

There’s usually a few other criteria if I’m going to pick up something like this. Usually it’s as real-food as possible (no long list of chemicals or preservatives), comes from a reliable source and is something that I can’t easily make myself.

This fit the bill pretty well. After trying to find a recipe that matches the awesomeness that was in that jar I’ve come to the conclusion that I might have to try a few before I find the at-home version I’m looking for. There are no cryptic ingredients  and it looked like something we might find at our local Indian restaurant which we don’t make as much time to visit as we’d like.

All it took was cutting up some chicken (we also added a couple of large-diced potatoes), browning it and adding the sauce until it was warm and toasting some naan in the oven. Making the rice took the longest but it was totally worth it and we got our usual 4 servings out of a single jar with no problem (2 for dinner, 2 for lunches the next day).

It was a nice compromise between cooking from scratch and take-out. What’s your short cut of choice on those nights when you don’t want to do too much?

Naan Pizza & Tomato-less Sauce

Nibbles

naan_1It’s been 3 1/2 years since I’ve had any sort of tomato-based sauce*. Do you know how many foods contain tomato sauce, paste or both? It’s been a long 42 months.

The why of this has to do with an unfortunate hiccup in my health and there’s many other things I’ve had to eliminate (caffeine, for one) or cut way back on over the years but concentrated tomatoey goodness has been one of the things I’ve missed the most. Over time I’ve gotten to the point where I can tolerate a slice or two of fresh tomato on a salad or sandwich (once a week or so) without illness but it’s not the same.  I’ve wondered for a while if there was a way I could “fake” a red sauce for spaghetti, pizza, etc. but never tried it until a few weeks ago with a red bell pepper sauce that has improved my personal food landscape many times over.

Since that first foray over whole wheat spaghetti, we’ve used it on stuffed (green) bell peppers, a delicious lasagna and, now, pizza with wonderful results. It doesn’t taste exactly like tomato sauce, but with careful seasoning there’s usually only a taste or two per meal where the switch is readily apparent.

Red Pepper Sauce

5 red bell peppers, diced, or 2 jars roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
4 green onions, sliced
3 cloves (or more) garlic, minced
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1/2-3/4 c Chicken stock
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Saute the onions and garlic in oil until the whites of the onions are translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the peppers are tender: 20 minutes or more if using fresh peppers, 10 or so if using canned–gives it time to absorb the other flavors. Add salt and pepper to taste along with any other spices you want. Puree everything smooth (a stick blender makes this so much easier) and then re-season if necessary.

That’s the basic sauce recipe. The jarred peppers are a good substitute for when fresh are either unavailable or cost-prohibitive, plus they cut down your cooking time. What spices you add will depend on what you’re using the sauce on. For Italian, add the usual oregano, thyme, basil and whatever else you like.

You can stretch the sauce by using more stock–we like ours thick for most things, but if you like a thinner sauce  go up to a cup and a quarter of stock and this recipe will make about a quart of sauce (depends on how much water is in the peppers, too), thicker it might be closer to a pint. It freezes wonderfully, so you can definitely make up a big batch when peppers are plentiful (you can also use some yellows in there, too, it just makes the sauce a little more orange) and put it away for later.

We’d been planning to try it out as a pizza sauce but hadn’t gotten around to it when we had the following conversation, Thursday night:

Todd: I got some extra roasted red peppers if we wanted to make more of that sauce.

Jenn: Ooh, yeah, we haven’t tried it on pizza yet. Maybe we could do that this weekend?

Todd: (looking at his place which included grilled naan) I wonder if you could make naan-pizza.

Jenn: Why not? Mmm, Indian spices in the sauce–what toppings would we use?

Todd: Lamb?

So, Saturday we headed out for provisions: more naan, lamb, and some goat cheese. The end result was an amazing pizza that was way more filling that we thought it would be.

Naan Pizza
Serves 4

1 cup Red Pepper Sauce seasoned with cumin, coriander, garam masala, and a touch of mint and cinnamon
1 pkg Naan (2 pieces per package)
Olive oil
3/4 lb lamb, ground or cut into small chunks
Flour for dusting
1/2 lb sugar snap peas, chopped
1/2 c diced red onion
Minced garlic
Salt and pepper
4 oz cream cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 oz crumbed goat cheese

Preheat your over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a backing sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Lay out the naan and drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt and some granulated garlic, if you like. Divide the Red Pepper Sauce evenly between the two naan and top with some more minced garlic.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper and, if using whole meat instead of ground, dredge it lightly in flour. I happened to have some Pani Puri (semolina flour) left over from an Andalusian feast I did a while back so I used that, but any flour should do. Saute in olive oil until browned, then add peas and onion and cook until the lamb is done. Divide this mixture between the two naan. Divide the two cheeses evenly among the pizzas.

Bake the pizzas about 15 minutes or until the cheese has started to melt and brown on the tips. Goat and cream cheeses don’t really melt the way mozzarella does, so you have to trust the browning rather than the smoothing out that you usually get on a pizza.

naan_2We served it with a bit of prepared Tabbouleh on some mixed lettuces. You can, of course, try other meats or just a combination of veggies on this and it would be equally good. I think that adding a bit of yogurt to the pepper sauce would make a wonderful curry sauce, too, with just a bit more seasoning.

*That is to say, without becoming ill–unfortunately I’ve been reminded the hard way of just how many things contain enough tomato paste or sauce to cause a reaction.