Making Naan

 

Last week I decided to make an Indian dinner. On the menu was dal, curried veges of some sort and naan. But of course, as per my usual, I decided to make naan myself. After a bit of a web search, I came across a very simple recipe. Essentially, if you can sorta make bread and pancakes, you can make naan.

 1 ½ tsp dry yeast

½ cups water

1 egg

2 ½ cups flour

3 tbp ghee (or butter – but it won’t taste the same)

 

Proof the yeast (1 tsp sugar with water – try to get it to 38 C, or just above body temperature) and let froth for 5-10 minutes. Add all ingredients to flour and mix. Knead about 10 minutes, put the dough in a bowl, cover outside in oil and cover. Let the dough rise 1 hr or until it doubles in size.

 

Divide into golf ball sized balls – you should get about eight. Cover and let size another 30 minutes.

 

Once the second rise is complete, roll out each ball until it’s extremely thin. I mean real thin. Heat your pan with oil (cast iron if its primed or the lazy non-stick pan which is what I use) to medium low. Gently put your flattened dough onto the pan and cover. It will smoke a bit. After 2 minutes it should be bubbled so its time to flip the dough over. Recover and let cook another 2 minutes.

 

To make this go smoothly, as one naan cooks I suggest rolling out the next. You can get a little production line happening and it works really well.

 

Once you have one of these you won’t want to have store-bought naan again.

 

A word on ghee – it gives you a very nice Indian taste and isn’t difficult to make. Take ½ lb of butter, melt in a pan, add, onion, garlic, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin, turmeric, cassia bark, pepper, fenugreek and other spices and bring to a boil then reduce. Use whole spices (not ground versions) because you’ll have to filter them out after. There is no set amount or exact type of spice as every recipe I found had different quantities of each. Let simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. At one point the fat will separate from the rest of the liquid. Once this occurs, let cool and then strain through cheesecloth. You’ll wind up with a translucent buttery liquid and will last about 2 months in the fridge.

~ by barbagallo on February 26, 2009.