Mint and Cilantro Chutney

What sauce does one use with roti naan?  How about a chutney?

The word chutney comes from the Indian word chatni and is basically a condiment (sauce, salsa) which one uses with roti, naan, and meats.  One of my favorites is a mint and cilantro chutney (Pudina Ki Chatni) that I came across in one of my favorite Indian cookbooks.

Pudina Ki Chatni
1 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
2 green chillies, chopped
1 cm ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TBS plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tsp chaat masala (I substitute garam masala)
lemon juice to taste

Put all ingredients into a blender and process until a fine sauce.  Serve with naan, roti, or any tandoori dishes (meats).

Roti Naan...in the Oven

Teak is newly arrived back in Malaysia from a short trip "outside" the country.  While visiting friends, I discovered that there is an interest in both preparing and eating Indian-style food.  Despite not having access to a tandoori oven, I was successful in preparing roti naan and a variety of chutneys that went over well with American taste buds.

Of course, there are a variety of recipes out there, but I use one that comes from my favorite Indian cooking book: The Food of India.

The recipe is:
500 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 TBS sugar
1 egg
4 TBS oil

For variety, I try to substitute up to 25% of the plain flour with something flavoured, like almond flour.  Above 25%, and the dough will not hold together as well.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and make a "well" in the middle.  Mix the milk, sugar, egg and half of the oil (2 TBS) and pour into the well.  Knead the bread, adding the remaining oil (and perhaps, water) to get a soft and springy dough.  (I like to think of it as getting to the point of "spanking a baby's bottom".  That's how the dough should feel when done.)

Cover with a damp cloth and allow the dough to rest for 15-20 minutes.  Knead the dough again, and then cover for 2-3 hours with damp cloth.  Pre-heat oven to a high temperature, best if over 500 F.

Divide the dough into several sections, 8-12, depending on how large you want the finished naan.  I like to make dough balls a little larger than a golf ball (handball size?).  Roll the dough balls out flat using a rolling pin on a flat, smooth surface.  The thinner you can make the naan, the better.  After another 2-3 minute "rest", put the naan into the oven and bake until you can see brown splotches, and the edges look done.

Since I use a regular oven -rather than a tandoor- I found that there are two keys towards making a good roti naan.  First, the dough should be rolled out as thinly as possible.  I use a rolling pin on a hard surface, such as the crushed glass (faux granite) countertop at my friend's house (see photo).  Second, the bread needs to be baked at a very high temperature.  I was successful using two different home ovens at temperatures in the 520-550 F range.  At that temperature, a flat stone baking plate comes in handy.  The dough will not stick at these temperatures, and will produce a flat bread with a crispy exterior and a soft interior.  Eat with a variety of chutneys (to be covered next).

Hung Yoghurt

I have been cooking several Indian recipes of late, and many of them call for hung yoghurt, which is apparently also called labneh.

Hung yoghurt is created by taking regular whole-milk yoghurt and removing the whey by "hanging" the yoghurt over a cheesecloth or coffee filter for several hours.  The whey will drip through, leaving a thicker yoghurt with a more consistent texture for cooking.

The website Nourished Kitchen also encourages us cooks not to throw out the whey, but to use it to soak grains for bread baking, as a starter for fermented foods, and in smoothie drinks for added protein.  The whey can be refrigerated for several months.

I first came across recipes requiring hung yoghurt in the book The Food of India, by the chefs of The Oberoi Group.  The two recipes I was most interested in was for chicken tikka and chicken tandoori.

Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak is a coffee made from beans which have passed through the digestive tract of the civet cat (Musang in Malay; Paradoxus hermaphroditus).  It is a combination of the Malay words for coffee (kopi) and civet cat (luwak in Indonesian Malay).  Since civet cats are nocturnal, they are rarely seen by humans.  They also spend much of their time in trees (in the jungle), or in attics in towns and villages.


Civet cats that live in coffee plantations subsist upon a diet of coffee beans.  Their scat (feces) are collected, dried, and sold, or else processed into coffee.  The companies Animalcoffee and Paradise Coffee have excellent descriptions of the process used to turn this animal waste into a high-priced product.


Apparently, a 2006 article in Forbes magazine listed kopi luwak as one of the most expensive coffee in the world.  Not being a coffee drinker, I don't care!  It probably rates up there with Moose-Poop earrings for novelty value only.