Q. The Royal India Restaurant on Griffin Road is the restaurant I go to for any special occasion. The Indian food they prepare is the comparison I use to evaluate every other Indian restaurant, and I continue to find no others close. My favorite food there is the Kashmiri Naan. I would be forever grateful for the recipe and baking instructions. – Susan Kaufman, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
A. Kaufman can be grateful to owner Robert Soloman of the Royal India Restaurant, 3801 Griffin Road, Fort Lauderdale, 954-964-0071, for sharing the written recipe for their outstanding Kashmiri Naan. At the restaurant, they showed us how they bake the bread directly on the inside surface of a tandoor clay oven.
Although tandoors are available for homes, we know most of our readers would appreciate a guide to making the Kashmiri Naan in a home oven.
The tandoor oven does provide a flavor from the wood or charcoal fire that cannot be completely duplicated, but we can guarantee the home-oven results are close.
The dough for this sweet bread is soft and pliable, thanks in part to the addition of some yogurt. We use our food processor to expedite the mixing and kneading, but a vigorous by-hand mixing and kneading will do just fine. The filling is a delicious “paste” made with equal parts raisins, cashews and almonds ground together with some sugar and a bit of milk to reach the desired consistency.
One of the most important requirements for the success of the bread is a very hot oven. We use our electric oven preheated to a temperature of 450 degrees.
It is thanks in part to our previous experience baking Indian breads with noted Indian cook, writer and teacher Julie Sahni and our good friend Lucy Patel of Fort Lauderdale, an experienced Indian cook, that we can all enjoy Kashmiri Naan at home.
Cheesecake famous for its delicious taste
Q. Back in 1980 I found a recipe in a woman’s magazine for strawberry cheesecake. This was a favorite of my family because the strawberry was only a topping and I could make any flavor that I wanted. With all of our moves (my husband was in the military), it got lost, and I hope you can help me find it. It had a regular flour crust and was made with about 40 ounces cream cheese, heavy cream, lemon rind and eggs. – Yvette Myers, Delray Beach
A. Myers is describing the recipe for the oh-so-well-known Lindy’s Famous Cheesecake with its pastry shell crust and optional strawberry glaze. The filling has those 40 ounces cream cheese and all the other ingredients mentioned.
We first made this elegant and super delicious cheesecake in 1979 when the late Helen McCully wrote a piece on cheesecakes for one of the very first issues of Cooking Magazine. Lindy’s was the featured recipe gotten, Helen said, from “Lindy” himself.
The crust in Helen’s recipe was always a bit crumbly so we have adjusted it for easier handling. You need to set aside extra time for the crust to be made, baked and cooled before adding and baking the filling. The results are worth every minute.
Cheesecake with twist stars cottage cheese
Q. In the ’60s, my mother used to make the most delicious cheesecake (or cheese pie) using Bisquick for the crust and cottage cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla for the filling. She baked it in a glass dish similar to a loaf pan but wider. There was no top crust.
She did not have the recipe written, and we tried to duplicate it not too long ago and failed miserably. Would you have a similar recipe? – Christine White,
Parkland
A. Another cheesecake, but this one featuring a crust made with Bisquick and a filling made with cottage cheese, is a completely different dessert from the more complicated and rich Lindy’s requested above. But both are delicious. The larger-than-a-loaf pan glass dish is translated here as an 8-inch-square baking dish.
Suzanne S. Jones is a free-lance writer living in Pompano Beach. Send your questions (be sure to include phone number) to You Asked for It, Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301-2293. Or send an e-mail with your full name, address and telephone number to with “You Asked for It” in the subject line. Not all requests are published, nor can we personally respond. Local requests only, please. Recipes that already appeared in the paper are available in the archive at
DESSERT
Cottage Cheese Cheese Cake With Bisquick Crust
A lighter version of a popular dessert. We like this served with whipped cream or frozen whipped topping.
Biscuit-Mix Crust:
1 cup buttermilk biscuit mix (Bisquick recommended)
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons very hot water
Cheese Filling:
3 cups creamed cottage cheese
1/2 cup half-and-half
3 large eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup sugar
Dash salt
To make crust: In a small bowl, mix together biscuit mix and butter. Add the hot water and stir rapidly until a soft dough forms. Press the dough firmly over the bottom and about 1/2 inch up sides of an 8-inch-square glass baking dish. Freeze 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake the crust 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.
To make filling: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a food
processor fitted with the metal blade or a good blender, combine all the ingredients and process or puree until smooth. Pour into the cooled crust and bake in the center of the oven about 1 hour or until firm. Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving. Makes 9 servings.
Per serving: 284 calories, 42 percent calories from fat, 13 grams total fat, 7 grams saturated fat, 99 milligrams cholesterol, 28 grams carbohydrates, .3 gram total fiber, 16 grams total sugars, 28 grams net carbs, 13 grams protein, 503 milligrams sodium.
DESSERT
Lindy’s Famous Cheesecake
Allow plenty of time to make, bake and cool the bottom of the crust before filling it. Serve plain or cover with your choice of fresh fruit or glaze.
Pastry Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
Dash salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 large egg yolk
Cheese Filling:
5 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
To make crust: In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, process all the ingredients, stopping just before the dough forms a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to combine. Divide into 2 rounds and wrap each well in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.
When ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the side ring of a 9-inch springform pan and grease the bottom. Press one of the dough rounds onto the bottom, covering it completely. Bake in the center of the oven 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool 10 minutes, then refrigerate until completely cooled.
Grease the inside of the side ring and attach to the crust-covered bottom of the pan. Using floured hands, pull off pieces from the remaining ball of dough and press around the inside of the ring to cover. Press inside edge of the dough against the bottom crust to seal.
To make filling: Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat the cheese, sugar, flour, zests and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time, then beat in the cream.
Pour the filling into the prepared shell and bake in the center of the oven 10 minutes. Reduce the oven heat to 200 degrees and continue baking 1 hour or until firm. Let cool in the pan on a rack.
Cover and refrigerate overnight before serving. If necessary run a sharp knife round the inside edge of the cake; remove side. Makes 16 servings.
Per serving: 451 calories, 65 percent calories from fat, 33 grams total fat, 20 grams saturated fat, 199 milligrams cholesterol, 32 grams carbohydrates, .20 gram total fiber, 24 grams total sugars, 32 grams net carbs, 9 grams protein, 247 milligrams sodium.
BREAD
Royal India Kashmiri Naan
If you don’t have a tandoor oven, you’ll get the best results by preheating your oven to 450 degrees. We used a food processor to make both the dough and the filling.
Nut Filling:
1 cup unsalted cashews
1 cup blanched almonds
1 cup seedless raisins (golden preferred for the light color but can use dark)
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons milk, approximately
Naan Dough:
1 (1/4-ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
4 teaspoons sugar, divided
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup cold water
To make the filling: Place all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process until smooth and pastelike, adding additional milk if necessary so it is neither too thick nor thin.
To make the dough: In a 2-cup measure, dissolve the yeast in the warm water with 1 teaspoon sugar. Let sit about 5 minutes until mixture begins to foam.
In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, process the flour, salt, butter and the remaining 3 teaspoons sugar until the butter has been well incorporated.
To the foaming yeast, whisk in the egg, yogurt and the cold water. With the food processor motor running, pour the liquid through the feed tube. When the dough begins to clean the side of the bowl, continue processing an additional 40 seconds to knead the dough well. The dough should be very soft but not sticky. If necessary, adjust with additional flour or cold water, just a small amount at a time.
Remove the dough from the bowl, form into a ball and place in a floured 1-gallon plastic bag. Press out the air and close it at the top with a wire twist. Let rise in a warm place 1 hour until doubled in bulk. Punch down well.
Place one oven rack as close to the top heating element as possible. Place the other in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place a large baking sheet on the center rack.
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, each about the size of a small baseball. (If you have a scale, the dough weighs about 32 ounces total so each of the balls will weigh about 4 ounces.) Working with one ball at a time (keep the others covered with a towel) dust each ball with flour and use a rolling pin to roll it into a circle about 5 1/2- to 6-inches in diameter.
Place 1/4 cup filling in the center. Gather opposite edges of the circle together, then fold the remaining edges toward the center, pinching as you go along to close tightly. Dust with flour, turn folded side down, dust the top with flour and roll gently but firmly into a round that is 6 inches in diameter and about 1/4-inch thick.
Fit as many as you can comfortably on the hot baking sheet, leaving at least 3 inches between. Bake on the center rack about 5 minutes or until each one puffs. Carefully turn with a spatula and place the baking sheet on the top rack an additional 3 minutes, or until well browned. Remove to wire racks to cool, covering with a kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Best served slightly warm each cut into 4 sections. Makes 8 rounds; 32 sections.
Per section: 138 calories, 39 percent calories from fat, 6 grams total fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 18 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram total fiber, 7 grams total sugars, 17 grams net carbs, 3 grams protein, 79 milligrams sodium.
