Naan Pizza with Goats Cheese, Prosciutto and Sun-dried Tomatoes and Spinach

I have a confession to make: I’m in love and it’s not JT. It’s really not as bad as it sounds, my love affair is with a certain Indian. OK. I’ll ‘fess up, it’s Naan. There. I’m in love with Naan. The bread, silly! I’m embarrassed to admit how many times I’ve made this recipe but suffice it to say it’s double digits! About the same time that Maria over at a-boleyn live journal made our delicious naan recipe into a gorgeous pizza, I had the same idea (yes, I blog well in advance!). So on the day the world should have ended (again) I made a naan pizza for dinner. What a way to go!

It’s basically whatever you have in the fridge, our ingredients were goats cheese infused with garlic and EVOO, torn prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes in EVOO and chopped spinach topped with shaved parmesan cheese. What more can you want?

Why Naan? I usually like my pizza crust super thin and crispy, what the naan brought to the table (pardon the pun) is a bit more bite and a lot of chewiness. Delicious chewy goodness. Need. I. Say. More. ?.

A slightly chewy crust made delicious by garlic infused goats cheese

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Halibut wrapped in Proscuitto with Kalamato Olives in a Brown Jus Reduction

This is the dish that we prepared with Chef Villard in Lyon during our short visit in September. We made the dish again for friends and fellow blogger Barb and Kevin (Profiteroles and Ponytails) I had to make modifications (shown in brackets) as I wasn’t able to source ingredients or these are our personal preferences. And I didn’t get a chance to snap a pic of our finished dish because the light was poor and I didn’t want to be ‘the blogger‘ (I get enough of the rolling eyes from JT). But I know I shall make this again and update this post with the new photo. Thanks for understanding.

Our main course: Monkfish wrapped in bacon with a green olive veal stock sauce, fingerling potatoes sautéed in EVOO and snap peas with arugula (rocket) pesto. It was DELICIOUS!

Halibut wrapped in Proscuitto with Kalamata Olives in a Brown Jus Reduction

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 600 g Monkfish (we used Halibut because that is all my fish monger had the day I needed it. Go figure, they had a run on monkfish!)
• 6 slices of prosciutto (Chef used smoked bacon, but we prefer the less fatty prosciutto)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 250 mL beef or veal stock (we used beef as I couldn’t get veal stock)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 60 g Kalamata olives, rough dice (Chef used green olives, but we preferred the flavour of the black Kalamato)
• 15 g butter (Chef used 60 g which is about 4 tbsp)
• sea salt
• white pepper (we omitted the pepper)

Directions:

1. Have your fish monger filet and skin your fish, wrap with prosciutto and secure with butcher string. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
2. Sweat the shallot in 2 tbsp olive oil, then deglaze with the balsamic vinegar. Add the stock and allow to reduce about one third. Add the butter, and olives and stir well. Set aside.
3. Pre heat the oven to 175° C or 350°F
4. Brown the fish in an oven safe pan in olive oil and minced garlic for about 5 minutes (or until the prosciutto is crispy).
5. Add the warm beef and olive jus to the fish and bake for 5-7 minutes in the pre heated oven.
6. Serve the fish sliced into about 100-120 g per person with the brown jus and cooked olives with snap peas and arugula pesto and roast potatoes.

Notes:
Chef Villard suggested that if your fish has a thin tail, you should fold it back on itself so that the thickness is even and it cooks at the same rate.

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Maple Prosciutto Scones from Sawsan, Chef in Disguise

To accompany the navy bean ‘risotto’ on our ski day, I was inspired by Sawsan’s Scone post and decided a scone would be the perfect foil for the beans. I was also inspired by Kristy’s Maple Bacon Biscuits to change up Sawsan’s recipe and add some good old fashioned maple syrup! I am happy to report they were AMAZING. The maple really complimented the saltiness of the crispy fried prosciutto very nicely, the only thing I would change is not add the cheese, it had no impact on the flavour what-so -ever. What’s really interesting about this recipe is that has so little fat in it…most biscuit or scones have at least a half a cup of butter or shortening! I followed Sawsan’s recommendations with some exceptions as indicated in blue below. My one regret is that I didn’t double the recipe! Thanks for a winner, Sawsan, I shall certainly make these again and again!

Basic Scones (from Sawsan at Chef in Disguise)

Servings: about 6 7½ cm scones that are 2.5 cm high

Recipe can be doubled

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm/5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) (10 gm) (⅓ oz) fresh baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon (1¼ ml) (1½ gm) salt
• 1 tablespoons (15 gm/0.5 oz) frozen grated butter
• 1 tablespoons (15 gm/0.5 oz) frozen grated shortening
• approximately ¼ cup (120 ml) cold milk
• approximately ¼ cup (120 ml) cold maple syrup
• 2 pieces of crispy prosciutto (I baked mine on hi broil for 3-4 minutes and then blotted the rendered fat out of them. Break them into smaller pieces).
• ½ cup grated frozen cheddar
• 1 tablespoon milk, for glazing the tops of the scones

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to very hot 475°F/240°C
2. Triple sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. (If your room temperature is very hot refrigerate the sifted ingredients until cold.)
3. Rub the frozen grated fats including the cheese into the dry ingredients until it resembles very coarse bread crumbs with some pea-sized pieces if you want flaky scones or until it resembles coarse beach sand if you want tender scones. I used my pastry cutter to do this. Add the crispy prosciutto bits.
4. Add nearly all of the liquid at once into the rubbed-in flour/fat mixture and mix until it just forms a sticky dough (add the remaining liquid if needed). The wetter the dough the lighter the scones (biscuits) will be!
5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board, lightly flour the top of the dough. To achieve an even homogeneous crumb to your scones knead very gently about 4 or 5 times (do not press too firmly) the dough until it is smooth (make sure your hands are not warm as it will melt the fat). To achieve a layered effect in your scones knead very gently once (do not press too firmly) then fold and turn the kneaded dough about 3 or 4 times until the dough has formed a smooth texture. (Use a floured plastic scraper to help you knead and/or fold and turn the dough if you wish.) I also used the folding technique that Sawsan recommended
6. • pat the dough into a rectangle and fold 1/3 of the dough over itself (similar to croissant making)
   • fold the other third over the first
   • turn 90 degrees and repeat patting and folding
7. Roll out the dough into a 6 inch by 4 inch rectangle by about 1 inch thick (15¼ cm by 10 cm by 2.5 cm thick). Using a well-floured 2-inch (5 cm) scone cutter (biscuit cutter), stamp out without twisting six 2-inch (5 cm) rounds, gently reform the scraps into another ¾ inch (2 cm) layer and cut two more scones (these two scones will not raise as well as the others since the extra handling will slightly toughen the dough). Or use a well-floured sharp knife to form squares or wedges as you desire.
8. Place the rounds not touching on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Glaze the tops with milk.
9. Bake in the preheated very hot oven for about 10 minutes (check at 8 minutes since home ovens at these high temperatures are very unreliable) until the scones are well risen and are lightly coloured on the tops. The scones are ready when the sides are set.
10. Immediately place onto cooling rack to stop the cooking process, serve while still warm with sweet butter.

I made them large on purpose, you don't have a problem with that, do you?

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