Chicken Curry with Homemade Naan

I watched an episode of Bake with Anna Olson the other day, where she made naan bread.  She is one of my most favourite pastry chefs and every recipe I've ever tried of hers always turns out amazing.  The recipe looked easy enough and I really wanted to make it, so I went on a search for an easy curry recipe.  I've never made a curry before, so that part was a little daunting.  Everything turned out great.
I made the dough earlier in the afternoon so it had time to rise.  As it got closer to dinnertime, I set the rice to cook in our rice cooker and started on the prep for the curry.  As the curry was left to cook for the last 15-20 minutes, I cooked the naan and everything came together perfectly.

Naan 

Ingredients:
3/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup yogurt
2-1/4 tsp yeast
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Add the first three ingredients to a large bowl in order.  Next add the flour, reserving 1/4 to 1/2 cup to use when you knead the dough.  Add the salt on top of the flour so it does not come in contact with the yeast.  Lastly add the vegetable oil.
2. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon until blended.
3. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface to knead, using the reserved flour, until the dough no longer sticks to your hands.  This should take 3-5 minutes in total.
4. Place dough in bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it rise for 1 hour.
5. Roll out the naan on a floured work surface.  It will deflate as you start handling it.
6. Cut it into 6-8 pieces; no pre-shaping necessary.  Flatten each piece with a rolling pin to about 8-9" across and 1/4" thick.
7. Put in pan, one at a time, on high heat with no butter or oil.  It will take about 90 seconds on each side; the dough will start to bubble and blister.
8.  Baste with melted butter and sprinkle with sea salt to serve.
9.  Roll out the next piece while it cooks, and repeat until all the pieces are done.

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:
6 scallions
3-4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp vegetable oil
200g tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp ground ginger
400g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1" pieces
100ml Greek yogurt
salt and pepper

cooked rice to serve over

Directions:

1. Thinly slice the scallions, leaving a handful of the green parts for garnish.  Peel and chop the garlic.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook the onions and garlic for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes, curry powder, ginger, and cook for 3-4  minutes.  If the pan gets dry, add some water to ensure the spices don't burn.
3. Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes.  Make sure all the chicken is coated and is starting to brown.
4. Add 1 cup (250 ml) of water and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through with no sign of pink juices in the middle of the pieces. 5. At this point you can prepare the rice (my rice cooker takes a while so I actually start it before I star the curry) and/or cook the naan.
5. When the everything is ready and the chicken is cooked, take the curry off the heat.  Stir in the yogurt and season with salt and pepper. Serve the curry over rice with a drizzle of yogurt and the naan bread.

Coconut Curry Chicken Stiry-Fry

There's nothing like planning to make a stir-fry and then realizing that your husband finished the soy sauce and didn't add it to the "need to buy" list!

I had already prepped everything and was really stumped.  So I took to my good friend Google and found some stir-fries that use coconut milk (which surprisingly I did have in my cupboard).  Working with ingredients I did have on hand, I was able to tweak a recipe and come up with this.  It turned out pretty good, but I wouldn't put it up there as one of my favourites.  Good thing is that it is gluten free (if you need that sort of thing).  I don't know much about paleo, but I think the stir-fry itself could be paleo, if you changed some of the veggies and didn't use the noodles I did.

Ingredients:
Coconut oil for frying (or some other cooking fat)
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into stir-fry size
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 handfuls of frozen, shelled edamame
1 carrot, thinly sliced
1 can (398mL) coconut milk
1-1/2 tsp curry powder
3/4 tsp ground ginger
salt to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the sauce by whisking together the coconut milk, curry powder and grated ginger over medium heat.  Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally.  Lower the heat and continue to stir on occasion.

2. Stir-fry the chicken in a hot wok with about 1 tbsp coconut oil.  Cook until meat is no longer pink and cooked through.  Remove the chicken and set aside.

3. Reheat the wok and add the onion with some more coconut oil.  Cook the onion for a few minutes until it is translucent and tender.  Add the garlic, frozen edamame and carrot.  Stir-fry until the veggies are tender.  Return the chicken to the wok and add the sauce.  Cook until everything is hot once again.

At this point you can eat the curry on its own, or you can serve it over rice or noodles.  I chose to use bean thread noodles.  To prepare them, simply boil water.  Place 4 sets (50g each) in a bowl and cover with the boiling water.  Let them soak for 15 minutes to soften up.  Drain the water and toss them in with your curry.  Mix everything together to coat.

Serves 6.