Naan

[mothwing]

During our year in Glasgow we used to eat naan all the time, and I've missed it after coming back here. You can buy it in some supermarkets over here now, luckily, and you should definitely try it if you haven't yet - it goes great with all the dishes that bread usually goes with, and I love dipping it in spicy sauce. Seeing as It's not a very difficult recipe, I've been wanting to try it for some time.

I used the following recipe I got from this site:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of All Purpose flour (Plain flour or maida)
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Pinch of baking soda
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons yogurt (curd or dahi)
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
  

Also needed:

• 1 teaspoon of clear butter or ghee to butter the Naan
• 1/4 cup All Purpose flour for rolling

Method:

1. Dissolve active dry yeast in lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes frothy.
2. Add sugar, salt and baking soda to the flour and mix well.
3. Add the oil and yogurt mix, this will become crumbly dough.
4. Add the water/yeast mixture and make into soft dough.Note: after dough rise will become little softer.
5. Knead until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough and keep in a warm place for 3-4 hours. The dough should almost be double in volume.
6. Using a pizza stone will help to give naan close to same kind of heat as clay tandoor.
7. Next turn the oven to high broil.
8. Knead the dough for about two to three minutes and divide the dough into six equal parts.
9. Take each piece of dough, one at a time, and roll into 8-inch oval shape. Dust lightly with dry flour to help with the rolling.
10. Before putting the Naan in oven, lightly wet your hands and take the rolled Naan, and flipp them between your palms and place onto your baking/pizza stone into the oven.
11. You can place about 2 Naan on the baking/pizza stone at a time. The Naan will take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook, depending upon your oven. After the Naan is baked(Naan should be golden brown color on top).
12. Take naan out of the oven and brush lightly with clear butter or ghee.
13. wait 2 to 3 minutes before baking the next batch of naan. It gives oven the chance to get heated again to max.
14. Serve Naan with Daal, Chola, Palak Paneer or any vegetable. Enjoy!

My main problem was to get my yeast to behave. It said "active dried yeast" on the box, but it was not inclined to show some of that activity. Instead, it just sat there, and eventually stubbornly sank to the bottom of the bowl. There was a teensy bit of froth, but not enough to make me believe that this is what they had in mind. It also looks a lot different in the video.

Another problem was our oven. It took ages to pre-heat it, and I may have been a little too impatient - the outcome was that in spite of the pre-heated oven, I had to leave the bread in the oven for much longer than the recipe says they should, which left them tasting like hard, yoghurty rolls rather than naan. I think I'll give it another shot tomorrow, as it takes maybe half an hour and the outcome was not untasty, just not as I had imagined it would be.

Now I only need to learn how to make something to go with it. I've been thinking about trying Moong Dal with Spinach, but I'll need to find a shop that sells some of the ingredients that our local supermarkets don't provide.

Comments

[bronnyelsp.livejournal.com]

Easy chana masala recipe:

Approx one tablespoon cooking oil
One onion, chopped
Garlic to taste, minched
Curry powder and/or chana masala powder (just curry powder alone will work!)
One tin tomatoes
One tin chickpeas
salt to taste
juice of one half lemon, or to taste

Heat oil, add garlic and onion, fry till soft, add spices, tomatoes and chickpeas, heat through and leave to simmer for awhile if you like. Add salt and lemon juice to taste just before serving.

Serve with plain yoghurt if you like or chop up cucumbers into the yoghurt and splash over some salt and more lemon juice to make a make-shift raita.

(This, an easy vegetable curry and an easy moong dahl are my triumverate of Indian recipes. I suppose I should find out how to do something with aubergine or okra at some point...)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Ooh, awesome! That sounds very tasty, thanks. A lot of the pictures of okra dishes on easy Indian recipe sites had me drooling, it all looked very tasty, but I've never even eaten anything with Okra and I think I ought to go and eat at an Indian restaurant to get an idea of what it's supposed to taste like before I try anything all by myself.