Chili & Naan

Okay, so this post is a week past due. I've had the photos uploaded for several days now and just couldn't find a moment to put them together with the words in my head. I particularly enjoyed this meal both because it was tasty and because it was the first time I ever kneaded bread.

I found this box of naan bread in my pantry and am pretty certain it came from Big Lots for $0.70. How can I be so certain you might ask? Well, because there was a big orange sticker on the front of the box before I peeled it off to take this picture. Hee hee.

The first step to making a yeast bread is to proof the yeast. While I've never had any formal breadmaking experiences, my highly educated guess is you do that to make sure your yeast is good, so the yeast may prove itself. Fortunately for me, the yeast hadn't been hanging out in my pantry so long that it went bad. I found it nice and foamy when I checked on it after 10 minutes in its warm sugar bath.

Once the dough got going, I started in on the chili. Oops... it is expired. But that rarely stops me from using an ingredient... especially one like this in which the components are just dried vegetables and spices. I dumped this Bear Creek bag of chili mix into a pot of just boiling water and added 1-6 oz. can of tomato paste and some leftover ground, browned sausage. The directions said to cook for something like 10 minutes? However, my onions were extra hydrated from all the years in storage, so I added a wee bit more liquid and cooked it for closer to 30 minutes, basically until my nann was done.

Here you can see my lovely first attempt at hand-done bread making (I've used a bread machine before which did all of the kneading for me.). I never realized how much work it is to knead bread. My goodness! I only had to go for 3-5 minutes but my hands got worn out fast. I thought all the typing I did would have built up my finger muscles, but that wasn't so. I've had naan at Indian restaurants before and it was always larger and flatter than the naan I made. I think I left mine a bit too thick, but it still came out tasty. The denseness of the naan worked nicely with the heartiness of the chili. If the naan had been too light and fluffy it would not have held up its share of the meal.

Much to my delight, Bruce really enjoyed this meal. The extra naan stored well for lunches. I just added cheese to my chili, but Bruce was hungrier and put his over rice, and then added twice as much cheese as I did.

From my stash I used both the chili mix and the naan. The sausage was also from my stash and made an appearance in 3 different meals last week. It was pretty rubbery!