Naan bread recipe

[Graye]

I miss being able to nip out and pick up a couple of naan breads from our local Indian restaurant. I can make a pretty good veggie balti but it just isn't quite right without a lovely fluffy naan to go with it.

Does anyone have a tried and tested recipe? I´ve followed some in recipe books but they always veer far too much towards flattened pieces of ordinary bread. I can buy Sharwood naans in the "Foreign" section of the local supermarket but at €4 for two it seems a bit extravagant - more than the balti cost in the first place!

[John Headstrong]

I have searched the forum and the main site, I was conviced there was one somewhere on Ish.

then I remembered it was at stoneys blog

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2008/06/ ... or-cheats/

not tryed it myself, but I have eaten similar

[contadina]

I've never made naan but always make my own chapatis - if you're interested I'll post the recipe as it's really simple and tastes great. I think the dough's the same as you'd use for naan

[John Headstrong]

do post the recipe!!, I will list it on the main site http://www.selfsufficientish.com/index.php/recipes

[contadina]

Cheers John - heres a really easy chapati recipe for around 6- 8 chapatis

1 cup of flour (preferably wholemeal but any will do)
65 ml of warm water
splash of olive oil or ghee

Your supposed to use a tawa, I don't have one so use an ordinary frying pan but I guess a griddle pan would work well as you want it to be hot.

Make a well/hole in the middle of the dough and pour in water. Mix and make into a dough. Add oil or ghee and knead for 5 - 8 mins until nice an elastic. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for an hour. Plenty of time to get your other dishes cooking.

When ready to cook, roll into 8 balls. Put pan on to heat up. Sprinkle flour onto a board and then roll a ball out to make a thin pancake. Put on the hot pan over a high heat and when brown spots appear turn over. Press down to ensure cooks well, especially at the sides. Turn over briefly. Then put on plate and cover with foil or a cloth to keep warm, and build a stack with the remaining chapatis - they take a few minutes each (so cook them when the rest of the curry is already cooked) and keep them warm until ready to serve.

[ina]

I think for real Naan you need the proper oven...

[contadina]

You could puff a chapati up by holding it over a naked flame. Not quite a naan, but probably the best you'll get without a tandori oven. Also you could use oil and a vegetable stuffing to make parathas.

[jim]

With chappatis I turn them when the dough starts to bubble on the side away from the heat. Na'an I make the dough with a little yeast and mix the flour with natural yoghurt. Then fry them as per chappati,

Love and Peace
Jim

[MINESAPINT]

I do attempt to make Naan bread:

3 cups strong bread flour
1 cup tepid water
hand full Kalongi
1 packet dried yeast

Just make a dough as if you were making pizza base or bread. Allow to rise. Divide into suitable portions. Roll out.

If my range is lit I cook them on the bottom of the oven or in a heavy cast iron frying pan.

They are pretty good but maybe not just the same as in the Indian restaurants.

Would be interested to try your veggie balti if you would post it.

Thanks.

[Shirley]

Mmm I love naan bread. We've used a recipe very similar to Stoney's and it's worked out very nicely - ok it's not quite as authentic as the real deal but it's much better (and cheaper and healthier) than the stuff you buy in plastic bags in the supermarket, and you don't have a wrapper to dispose of either! I also add kalonji (black onion seed) to my naan, I like the taste.

That's it... it's curry for dinner tonight now

[MINESAPINT]

Chappatis: Mix flour & water in proportions by volume 3 flour:1 water. (experiment with different types of flour) Knead. Divide. Roll out to fit into frying pan about 2mm thick. Heat heavy bottom pan, you will have to experiment to get the heat right. Have clean tea towel screwed up & ready and when chappatis start to brown push them hard down into the pan for a few seconds then release. This should make them puff up. Turn then repeat the process. Serve with plenty butter or marg.

[Rod in Japan]

Aaagh, my missus is on a quest to make authentic naan. Even when she makes something delicious but not actually real naan, she pesters me so much about what's wrong with it that I barely have time to stuff it in my mouth before I have to say, "I dunno, it tastes pretty good to me" again. The last one she made was sort of fluffy and aromatic like good pizza base, but she was in ridiculous despair over it as usual.

You need the oven.

Looking back, I can't believe how much good Indian food I ate at ridiculously low prices when I was a student. Lots of naan.

Does anybody else find that curry presents a bit of a dilemma in terms of what to quaff with it? Nothing seems quite right...

[Big Al]

http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/index.html This is where I get my authentic take away style recipies. The base is a lot of trouble to make but well worth it and oh how good it tastes... it just takes hours to do,lol.

http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/ ... &scope=all

This link above is from the bbc food and it has come back with 5 pages of naan bread recipies. Having had a look at some of them I can't see the use of yogurt in the making which I thought was a main ingredient. I do have another recipe somewhere so I'll try to dig it out asap.... well after the dog takes me for a walk in the wild rain we have now...

Before i go this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/datab ... 7147.shtml
is the one I use a lot and gets direct to the database of bbc cooking recipies.