Naan

Gyros, Taziki sauce and pitas- these are a few of of favorite things. Sadly, Augusta is very much lacking in the Greek Restaurant Realm. I did just find out about one restaurant- Dino's Chicago Express with two locations in Evans and Martinez, and there is a Greek Festival in October, but for now, I'm filling our gyro needs on my own.

I wanted to make the soft pita bread often found at Greek Restaurants, not the pockety kind. The closest thing I could tell to make was Naan, a yeasted and grilled flatbread bread usually found at Indian restaurants. The flavor was wonderful, but the Naan ended up about twice as thick as I wanted it to be. Maybe I should have rolled it even thinner to account for the rising on the griddle. If anyone knows a solution, or has a recipe for gyro pitas, I'd love to hear from you.

In any case, the Naan was delicious and would make a great accompaniment to many, many meals. I ate one and a half straight up plain even before we sat down to our meal.

Naan Recipe, found on Allrecipes.com

Allow about 3 hours for the finished product, but only about 30 minutes hands on time.

1 (.25 oz) packet of active dry yeast (i used instant yeast)

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup white sugar

3 T milk

1 egg, beaten

2 t salt

4 1/2 cups bread flour

2 t minced garlic (optional)

1/4 cup butter, melted

If using active dry yeast, soak the yeast in the water for 10 minutes, until bubbly. If using instant yeast, don't wait the 10 minutes after adding the water, just plow ahead. Combine the yeast-water with the sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6-8 minutes on a floured surface, until smooth, adding flour as needed.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and allow to rise for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch down the dough and knead in the garlic, if using. Pull off pieces about the size of golf balls, roll into balls, and place on a tray to rise, covered, for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the grill to high. I used our pancake griddle.

Roll out a piece of dough into a thin circle. Lightly oil the grill. Grill 2-3 minutes, and brush the uncooked side before turning over and cooking an additional few minutes. Brush the cooked side with butter too because it is tasty stuff.

Continue the process with all your dough balls!

Our meal consisted of chicken cooked with oregano, thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes, bag cabbage mix and taziki sauce. And it was awesome.