Stove-top Naan

Tim and I went to our favorite Indian restaurant last weekend for lunch.  We love the food there, but it's not somewhere we could feasibly go on a weekday, as we could be stuck in Jakarta traffic for 2 hours there and 2 hours back, possibly.  As such, I decided to also order some of my favorite dishes (chana masala and saag paneer) to go (dibungkus, which means wrapped up, a useful phrase to know) to eat later in the week.  

I was planning to make rice to accompany the leftovers, but honestly, we're a little sick of rice.  Naan it is, then!  I made this recipe from Aarti Sequeira, which is a simple stove-top version made in a cast iron pan and then brushed with butter at the end.  Pretty good! The dough is ridiculously sticky and I knew trying to use my rolling pin would be a disaster, so I shaped the loaves with my hands.  They're probably not as thin as they could be, but still quite awesome.

Skillet Cornbread!

Made this skillet cornbread to a) go alongside my butternut squash chili and b) utilize my pimpin' new cast iron skillet that Mike and Jamie gave me for my birthday.

(note: chiles added for artistic effect only)

It's kind of a semi-homemade trick, but amped up a little bit (plus, if the Washington Post approves of using the boxed mix, then I feel justified). I used 2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix, mixed in the requisite amount of milk and eggs, and then threw in some fresh CSA corn that I cut off the cobs and sauteed quickly in some butter (2 ears). I used the 10.5 inch skillet.

I used this method of skillet-baked cornbread: while you're preheating the oven, throw the skillet in there to heat up, too. When you're ready to put the batter in, take the skillet out, throw a tablespoon or two of butter in there so it melts and coats the bottom/sides of the pan, then top it off with the batter and shove it back in the oven. Makes the crust super crispy and delicious!