It’s the festive season when I miss India the most. There is something special about each festival there. The smell of the air, the crowd in the market, the decorations, the social gatherings, and above all food. It is absolutely unbeatable. But, I am so so far from there. Can’t smell anything in the air, there is no festivity around. All I can do to get the feel is to make some traditional food and connect with the roots. And, so I did.
To my dear readers, don’t be scared of the word Filmjölk. It is nothing but the Swedish version of yogurt. This yogurt is made with sour milk, more information here.
Now that you are friends Filmjölk, let me take you to the journey of the easiest bread I’ve ever made. The credit goes to the most awesome stand up comedian and my colleague, Lord James McKie who gave me the recipe. I just made some changes as per the ingredients available and to adapt the bread to my cuisine of the day, that is, Greek.
Do you believe in angels? I never did, until I met Barbro, my extra mother. I met her in 2010, a few months after my dad passed away. May be it was God’s way of balancing things in my life.
Back then, she met me in the capacity of my onsite trainer. Little did we know then that we would have such a strong connection that would last forever. I think it is her love that brings me to Stockholm every now and then. Since, I am in Stockholm right now, we get to meet as many times as we can. We chat a lot about different things including food. We exchange our ideas and try them.
Naan is one thing that goes well with every Indian curry or dry vegetable dish. From makhhni daal, to Jeera aloo, it works like it is made for the dish. I have had a variety of naans. I like them a lot, but avoid them in the restaurants/dhabas for they make it with all purpose flour, which is not that healthy.
So, whenever I make them at home I try to use whole wheat flour. But, on special days when I have guests, I do the mercy of adding some all-purpose flour. Just to give that restaurant touch! Ding!
It was one of these days when a friend couple was coming for dinner and I was planning the menu. I couldn’t decide upon what bread to serve with dum aloo and punjabi chhole. At first, I thought of making pooris, but the health conscious girl in me and also my guest friend won’t let me do that. So, I decided on naan. The next question in my head was – what? The usual naan! Usual is just so not me. I did some more thinking and came up with the idea of making tomato naan. It came out so well that everyone loved it.
I repeated the naans for another guest couple some days later and they ended up eating more naans they would normally have in a meal. I secretly danced when they asked for more 😉
