Idle Indian - Naan

• This makes 2-3 naan breads depending on how much filling you use
• 
  
• 80ml hand hot water
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried active yeast
• 125g plain flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon plain natural yoghurt
• coriander leaves, chopped for garnish

1. In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes or until frothy.
2. Add the flour, salt, half of the butter and yoghurt. With a blunt knife, stir the mixture into a shaggy mess, then knead by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic, 3-5 minutes.
3. Cover the bowl with cling film and sit in a warm spot for 45-60 minutes or until double its size. Alternatively, you can place the bowl into the refrigerator for an overnight cold prove. If allowing for an overnight prove, remember to allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 1 hour before proceeding onto the next step.
4. Punch the dough down and knead gently. Divide into 2-3 equal sized balls. Roll each ball into a naan shape (tear shaped), making them relatively thin.

Filling if making peshwari naan!

• 1 quantity naan dough
• 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
• 1 tablespoon (more or less) sugar
• 200g almond flakes
• 3 tablespoons single cream
• 20 sultanas
• 1 tablespoon melted ghee

Method

1. First make the peshwari paste by blending in a food processor or just mush with your hands
2. Kneed the peshwari paste into a pliable dough.
3. Now take a tennis ball sized ball of the naan dough and make a shallow hole in it with your thumb.
4. Place the peshwari paste dough into it and then fold the naan dough around the peshwari paste.
5. Roll out into a flat round or teardrop shaped 

1. Brush a large frying pan with oil and wipe with a kitchen towel. Heat to a medium heat and place the dough onto it, wait until the naan bread unevenly puffs up, about 3-4 minutes. Brush some melted butter on 5-6 random spots before turning it over to cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until the spots are browned
2. Transfer to a clean tea towel and keep it warmed. Serve hot, brushed with melted butter (if desired) and sprinkled with coriander leaves. Enjoy!

Idle Indian - Potato and Aubergine Curry

So I have found some great recipes online and played around with them or combined recipes so... Here is an attempt to consolidate/remember them...

I love curry, this is a great Potato and Aubergine curry from the Ocado website

Potato and Aubergine Curry

A beautifully spiced potato dish, good served with basmati rice, and shredded lettuce salad with poppy seed dressing.

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the spices, salt and tomato paste with 1 tbsp of the oil in a small bowl. Spread the spice mixture over the cut sides of the aubergine slices. Cut the slices into strips.
   
   

2. 2

   Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and fry the cumin seeds until they begin to pop. Add the aubergine strips and grated ginger and turn the heat down. Cover and cook for 8 minutes, stirring once or twice.
   
   

3. 3

   Add the chilli, tomatoes and potatoes with 3-4 tbsp water and simmer, covered tightly, for 15-20 minutes, stirring from time to time.
   
   

4. 4

   Serve garnished with the coriander leaves.
   
   

Ingredients

• 1½ tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 60g vegetable oil
• 450g aubergines, sliced
• 1½ tsp cumin seeds
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 1 fresh hot green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 450g canned crushed tomatoes, with juice, or peeled and chopped fresh tomatoes
• 4 medium potatoes, cut in cubes and steamed til tender
• 1 handful fresh coriander (for garnish)

Serves 3

Total time required 35 mins

• Preparation time: 5 mins
• Cooking time: 30 mins

Recipe published with permission from Meat Free Monday.

Image: copyright 1995 MPL Ltd. Photographer: Debbie Patterson.

www.supportMFM.org

Where is this idleness I heard so much about....

This has been one of the crazy busiest years of my life!  Got engaged and then married twice in different countries (to the same guy).  Quit my job to do PhD and worked two part time jobs while studying and then moved house!

Thankfully that covers most major life events in the short space of a year and I am now able to focus on things I enjoy - such as being idle (and reading).  So thought I would start blogging about what I'm reading in the hopes of inspiring others to pick up what I've read or even something a little different.

I've only read three books in the last few months Game of Thrones, The Avery Shaw Experiment and Like Water in Wild Places.  This will give you a taste of the eclectic materials that make up my literary palette.  Some of the books may also provide some insight into why my grammar and punctuation is so terrible.

So, when I said three books, I kind of lied because Game of Thrones was actually all five books so far in the series of a Song of Fire and Ice.  The first book was Game of Thrones which was absolutely awesome!








The next was a Clash of Kings - slightly less interesting if you're not so much into the whole war writing thing








Then it becomes a bit difficult to say because I was reading these books on a compendium in Kindle so they all started to blur a bit.  There are three remaining books A feast for Crows, A Storm of Swords and A Dance with Dragons. It didn't help that he split one book into two books which were further split into 5 more books by the UK publishers.    Ultimately a great and very complex story that can take a while to warm up to, has the odd boring bit here and there, but winds a very twisted web for all characters involved.  I am really excited to see how the story concludes in the next two books.  Although George RR Martin is known for taking his time over them (it shows in the quality) so I won't be holding my breath...







After all the seriousness of the Song of Fire and Ice books I decided to read something a bit more light weight called The Avery Shaw experiment.  This book is awesome and provides a great opportunity for those who love predictable teen romance to relive their youth.  It was set in the context of a social science experiment, and as a social scientist I loved it.  I should caveat that statement by saying that my feelings have less to do with the science and everything to do with the fact that it made me smile and I could read it cover to cover in about 2 hrs.

p.s. it is important to not that the purchase was made via Kindle and I couldn't see the horrific cover image.  I always believed you could in fact judge a book by its cover and have just been proven wrong.

The last and probably best book I read was Like Water in Wild Places.  This book is amazing!  However, I am unsure about the international appeal as it is very context specific to South Africa and additionally to South Africans who were liberally minded but also experienced apartheid.  Therefore I would highly recommend this to any South African (or someone familiar with it's landscape, history and wildlife) aged between 27 and 60.

Really looking forward to hearing any good book suggestions so please post if there is something worth reading.

Jxxx

Cooking Chinese

After a third successful crispy duck I decided to expand the repertoire...

Practice makes perfect and now that I'm idle there is plenty of time to practice!

Mobile post blogspiration

To beloved Suz, my blogspiration! xxx

A truly dreary and pointless piece of writing

Well since my first and only blog the update is this.  The final weeks of work passed slowly with the space in my brain that used to be taken up by stress, thoughts of presentations and firing people now being filled with 80s and 90s classic pop songs - good times!


Work wrapped up in September but still managed to haunt me for the two weeks following leaving as I had nightmares about my psychotic ex-boss and having to fire people.  I managed to fire 40 people over 6 months in 2011 - needless to say as soon as that situation was over the stress of the emotions I'd managed to suppress came to the surface. 


The nightmares eventually subsided and I now have the wonderful perspective on workload and stress - whenever I feel down it serves to remember that I would be working 9am - 10pm every day from October until February (life is good)!


Things I have discovered bring joy:

• Taking long walks through London
• Drinking hot cocoa under a blanket when it's cold outside
• Mince pies
• Cooking experimentally
• Writing
• Spending time catching up with old friends
• Meeting new and incredibly interesting people
• Travelling

No shockers there - you could probably find all of the above in some cheesy self help book in any less-than-quality-bookstore.

So other than these exciting flights of fancy that, let's face it, equate to a completely idle life - what is trending right now in your life?

• Thoughts of presentations are back!  Like a bad fashion that just won't die, presentations seem to have permeated every aspect of modern living - even in the first two months of my Masters I have need to present no less than 3 times, the final one of which is due on Wednesday.
• Cooking! with the winter months upon us in the northern hemisphere it's time to channel our talents towards homely pursuits.  I have made some pretty mean choc-chip cookies, banana bread, discovered a talent for making lasagne, I have such overestimation of my mediocre talents that I've contemplated changing this to a cooking blog
• Walking! The fabulous pursuit of the poor, it is life and adventure for those of us that can no longer fulfill our dreams of trekking in Nepal for 3 weeks (hang on, that's also walking)
• Driving! Probably the most beautiful part of not working is not catching the tube on a daily basis.  Whilst I appreciate the pungent aroma of 40 of the closest strangers collective armpits, the odour of damp coats that are drying in a congested underground tunnel or the one person that triggers a coordinated coughing fit - it is fabulous being able to hurtle along the highway with a constant sense of danger in the morning.
• The radio! They really should allow these in more office blocks - they have a profound ability to distract you from the mundanity of even the least thrilling tasks (preparing a presentation anyone?!)
• Overuse of exclamation marks!!! Everyone enjoys a little excitement! However when it reaches the point that you appear to have written some sort of speech disorder!!!!  It's crazy!!!!!  But I love it!!!!!!!!  What was the point of this again?!?!?!?!

The bucket list

After being inspired by Suz’s Bucket List, below is a list of things that I have yet to do but may use as inspiration to fill some time while I am Idle...it's September 2011 let's see what date it will be when the first 51 are done...

1.     Travel overland from Cairo to Cape Town.

2.     Participate in a wildlife photography expedition

3.     Go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

4.     Knit a jumper that can be worn.

5.     Join a wildlife conservation project in South America

6.     Have a wall in my house consisting entirely of pictures I’ve painted.

7.     Tell my family how much I appreciate and love them.

8.     Send people unexpected and anonymous gifts

9.     Sign up for a wall climbing class.

10.            Train a guide dog.

11.            Be present as someone is born.

12.            Support someone who is dying.

13.            Perform as a fire dancer.

14.            Volunteer at a hospice.

15.            See the northern lights.

16.            Trek the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalayas

17.            Learn to breakdance.

18.            Visit Disneyland

19.            Make my own wine

20.            Participate in a major art installation project.

21.            Spend a week sailing the Whitsunday Islands.

22.            Have a garden that feeds me.

23.            Experience weightlessness.

24.            Become a doctor.

25.            Help a stranger in a meaningful way.

26.            Complete a 5k run every day for a month.

27.            Go Whitewater Rafting

28.            Walk along the Camino de Santiago, Spain's 1,000-year-old pilgrimage route.

29.            Spend time listening to the elderly.

30.            Go snowboarding.

31.            Join an art group and go to life drawing once a week.

32.            Join a hiking club.

33.            Live near the ocean again.

34.            Travel overland from Russia to China.

35.            Take a picture that looks like I’m swimming backstroke across the Great Wall of China

36.            Take a cycling holiday in Vietnam.

37.            Take the tube for a week making eye contact and smiling a people.

38.            Complete an advanced yoga teachers training course.

39.            Host an exchange student.

40.            Teach a regular yoga class.

41.            Write a book.

42.            Create a spectacular fireworks display.

43.            Declare my love to someone at Yosemite National Park

44.            Build a tree house

45.            Let someone else take all the credit

46.            Learn to surf.

47.            Learn to speak Chinese

48.            Sew myself a garment that I would wear out in public.

49.            Be kind and compassionate.

50.            Skydive over turquoise water.

51.     Lie under the stars in the desert.