Topic: KD Sundries

[Ian J]

Has anyone tried the side dishes from the KD book?

I?ve only tried the Nan but was very impressed with it.

I just wondered before I go all out and make starters, I'm very tempted to try the sheek kebab.

[Ashes]

The nans were great, i only modified with fresh yeast but amazing, got them in the oven at 250+ degrees (basically) as hot as your oven can handle and they popped up quicker than a pair of Britneys jugs on a pop vid.

The mint raita was less pleasing, and there are only a few raitas ive tasted that are any good, maybe im too fussy!

[Ian J]

I used my Pizza stone and agree they popped up no problem, what mint raitas would you recommend?

[Ashes]

Actually somone recommended me buying some fireproof stone to put in the oven as it will keep the heat when you open the door., but pizza stone sounds great, guess you can just put the nans directly onto the stone.

I have no really good raita recipes, maybe im doing something wrong, but the concerntrated mint i use from the bottle
is mint sauce,  it has vinegar in and leaves a kind of vinagary after-taste. Seems some restaurants haven?t a clue either,
because Ive tasted some pretty aweful raitas in my time. The best ive tasted came from an indian sweetshop in Birmingham.
I was on my way home and stopped off to buy some pakora, usually its cheap munchies food you can eat out the bag,
never been to this shop before, they charged me almost twice as much as the usual place i buy from, and the indian woman
took what seemed like ages to bring it out, but when I tasted it I realised this wasnt the premade warmed in your microwave stuff,
she?d gone out the back and cooked them fresh and a little mint sauce carton came to boot. And it tasted like the best food
youve ever eaten, any time, any where. Thats what I love about Indian food, its unbeatable when its good.

[steve e]

Hi All,
Pretty sure the mint they use is in fact mint jelly which is sweet tasting, I have tried it and its ok.
Steve e

[George]

Actually somone recommended me buying some fireproof stone to put in the oven as it will keep the heat when you open the door., but pizza stone sounds great, guess you can just put the nans directly onto the stone.

I'm sure that firebrick or some other special brick would be optimal, but I don't think it's essential, based on my luck with an old paving slab out of the garden. This was a standard paving slab about 1.5" thick x 2.5ft x 1.5ft. I'm guessing the size, approx. I dropped it to break it in two and it's one-half I use in the oven. To my surprise, several years ago, and to date, it has never cracked. The thickness is much greater than any pizza stone I've seen and it holds/radiates a lot of heat. It works very well.

Regards
George

[Ashes]

Mint jelly? I haven?t heard about that, but sounds interesting, I doubt id be able to find it in Stockholm though .

The paving slab sounds like pure genius George, there definately needs to be something to retain the heat when you
open the oven door, most pizza places in Sweden use an oven that gets upto around 300-320 degrees (can get higher)
which is slightly hotter than the average person can get with a standard home oven,
especially once the door has been opened.

[steve e]

Ashes,
If you like I will send a jar to you for christmas.
Steve e

[George]

The paving slab sounds like pure genius George, there definately needs to be something to retain the heat when you
open the oven door, most pizza places in Sweden use an oven that gets upto around 300-320 degrees (can get higher)
which is slightly hotter than the average person can get with a standard home oven,
especially once the door has been opened.

More than being an idea which works, it actually costs nothing, as long as you can find an old paving slab and scrub it reasonably clean. I use it primarily for cooking conventional bread. The bread gains from the great heat hitting the base from the slab, rather than sliding the bread into the oven on a cold tin/tray or placing it on the metal rungs of a mid-point shelf.

I know it holds heat because it takes hours to cool down. I'll post a photo later. Try it!

I'm taliking a standard UK paving slab here, as used for domestic patios / walkways; not the paving slabs used by Councils, or anything.

I used a different type of slab at a friend's house for a bread baking demo and that didn't crack, either.

Regards
George

[Ashes]

I must admit that my curiousity is awaken by the thought of mint jelly steve.e. and  I have to thank you for the offer.
that`s very generous of you! But I think i could persuade my folks to send me some.

England, has so much more choice than Sweden when it comes to supermarket products although they might get some different
stuff than your average english are used to. There is actually something called the  "English Shop" (http://www.englishshop.se/), where I buy some stuff that i just can?t buy in Sweden.
The main thing that i really miss (since moving here 15 yrs ago), is english white sliced, i know that sounds  crazy but all the bread in Sweden is oven baked, no steamed baked bread, and it aweful to toast, so even the stuff they sell in the English Shop isnt completely fresh (its frozen), it still owns when you`re doing toasties. Notice they sell curry paste? (its typically english isnt )

Thanks for your help, regards Ashes