Naan-which

My dad is awesome, he is one of my favorite people. I love that even though he can be a little narrow minded he has been a really good sport about supporting my culinary addictions and exploration lately. My dad is a great man who is honest about foods he loves, and foods he hates. I have recently tried my hand at Indian food. This is that story: The Menu: Masala-Spiced Roast Chicken, Naan, Pulao (rice), Indian Curry Perogies and Winter Chutney

I made Masala-Spiced Roast Chicken using the rotisserie on my dad’s grill. He had to go to a meeting so it was Ms. D verses the grill in a no holds bar battle. I wish that a camera had been taping the ordeal. It was downright funny. I could not get the chicken to sit on the spit correctly, we battled back and forth. At one point the spit stabbed me in my stomach after a very unfortunate slip of the screws.. I was not about to let a grilling tool get the best of me. I have opposable thumbs, I am clearly superior. Just then, genius hit me, I needed to fill the cavity of the chicken with something to keep it from spinning on the spit and to give the body some bulk. I stuck an apple up its butt (and called it macaroni?) and called it a brilliant idea! This idea was great on two fronts, it served its original purposes and it offered a very tasty apple flavor!! Winner winner, roast chicken dinner! Once the chicken was rolling.

I got back to my Naan. I LOVE naan. It is SO good and I have always wanted to make it. I used this recipe. But I added a little bit of ginger and garlic to the mix and kneaded in some baking powder with the last kneed of the dough. They turned out SO good. If you have never made homemade naan I highly recommend it. It was better than awesome. I was little apprehensive about serving this very different meal to my parents, it was a fair curry and Masala heavy. We are Italian and although my parents are open to new foods; they do not always enjoy the tastes of new foods… we all have our favorites, and some peoples taste buds like certain foods more than other peoples taste buds… As we carved the chicken we both took a few bites and announced “pretty good”. Soon after we finished grace he took the naan, put mayo on it (yes, mayo) some lettuce, tomato, and made it a sandwich. I just laughed. At first I thought, Oh god, here goes my dad. Take an honored cuisine and make it into a sandwich with mayo. But as I looked at him eating it I noticed that he had invented an awesome sandwich - a naan-wich that combined all of the flavors of the meal. He put some of the chutney right on the Naan-which. Awesome idea! I have always thought of Indian food as “user friendly” I have often seen people eating with their hands, when appropriate. Food is about welcoming everyone to the table, my dad’s naan-wich was a combination of American tradition and my sad attempt at Indian food.