I fear I’m setting a poor precedent for this blog – I really want to tell you how much I love naan. I want to tell you how it’s one of my favorite breads and how the idea of going out for Indian food is always exciting because it means I’ll get naan.
But I’m also remembering that I’ve (very) recently proclaimed my love for bacon and lamb, and I worry that you’ll think I’m overly prone to hyperbole. I’m really not. I just love food. And part of the fun of the start of this blog is leaping into recipes that involve foods I love. I’m sure eventually I’ll be trying recipes more for curiosity’s sake than because I’m terribly thrilled about the ingredients. But for now we’re still fresh and new. And I have a slew of foods that bring me joy that are waiting for my undivided attention. This meal happened to focus on naan.
I got off of work Wednesday night and on the way to my car I got a text from Marisa:
“Hey, what’s up? Doing anything tonight?”
“Making naan and writing a blog post. What’s up?”
“I just took down my naan mix too! Nothing – just home kinda early and in the mood to hang out with people.”
Well hey, we’re apparently of a similar mindset and it’d been a couple of months since we last saw each other. I gave her a call and we agreed that she’d come over and bring the pumpkin curry she’d been making.
The pumpkin curry was amazing and I’ll have to weasel a recipe out of her to test out for myself. We ended up eating most of it without the naan. The downside of not getting home from work until 6:30: by the time you get your dough to rise properly, it’s close to 9 pm. But that really didn’t faze us. Mainly because of a convergence of deliciousness, some wine, and a whole evening of girl talk.
When I got home, I laid out my ingredients.
I love making bread. I’ve made various breads since I was 13. There’s an element of science with getting the water to the right temperature to activate the yeast. There’s an element of art getting all of the ingredients in balance with each other. There’s an element of patience as you wait for the tiny gaseous reactions to proceed and give your dough the lightness it needs.
There’s also the wonderful element of mixing and kneading with your hands and getting “dirty.”
The yeast and water, freshly added and not quite mixed, but already bubbling.
In some ways, making breads reminds me of ceramics. Both require use of hands, patience, vision, and a heat source to finish. In the bready rendition, however, you also get to devour your creation.
There is also an upside to the amount of time required for risings; cleaning the kitchen seems almost instantaneous. Looking around and noticing everything’s clean, I found I still had an hour left of rising. Wine time!
Sitting and chatting, catching up with friends (Tiff joined us as well), I was reminded of my favorite part of cooking: the sharing. Part of it is the act of feeding people you care about. Another aspect is simply providing an impetus for people to gather. My favorite observation from past parties is the congregation of everyone in the kitchen. Even with ample seating and activities elsewhere in our condo, we tend to gather around the food. I’d look around and see friends recounting stories of travels, kids, work, and life in general. Old friends were reminiscing. New friends were bonding. And the food draws us all together.
The combination of the wine and conversation on naan night meant fewer photos of this project. But it was a wonderful experience.
We were devouring each garlicky round as it slid out of the skillet. Burning out tongues and laughing as we tried to get the naan to cool faster so we could eat it, we caught up with the newest events in our lives. I love food. I love a multitude of ingredients. But the best part of all of this is the camaraderie and the experience with friends.
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