Naan for the soul

Ingredients: note – 1 cup = the same cup as the yogurt, i.e. everything is relative to the volume of used yogurt.

1.       Plain yogurt – 1 cup; e.g. 1 from this pack of 4:

2.       Full cream milk – 1 cup, i.e. an equal amount to the yogurt:

3.       Dry yeast / hefe – 1 pack:

4.       Flour – 4 cups:

5.       Oil – 0.5 cups + 0.5 cups for frying:

6.       Sugar – 2 tea-spoons:

7.       Salt – 0.25 tea-spoons:

8.       Optional – dry garlic powder, or rosemary, or thyme, or, dry chili flakes, any other herbs or spices you might want to flavor the naans with. I used 0.5 tea-spoons of garlic powder.

Equipment required:

·         Large bowl.

·         Small towel.

·         Plastic box or tin with lid.

·         Board.

·         Rolling pin.

·         Frying pan, preferably cast iron.

·         Spatula.

·         Cling film.

·         Parchment paper.

·         Optional: knife, big spoon, paper-kitchen-towel, etc.

Algorithm:

Part 1: making the dough:

1)      In the large bowl add all the ingredients, minus 1 cup of flour.

·         Use a big spoon to mix everything thoroughly.

·         Add the flour from the extra cup, bit by bit.

·         Knead until you have a non-sticky dough; takes 5 to 10 minutes of kneading.

·         Note: there may be left-over flour, or you might need some more: accuracy = ±10%.

2)      Make a large dough ball and leave it at the center of the bowl.

·         Cover with the small towel.

·         Put away in a warm place for 2 hours.

·         Note: the dough ball should double in size.

Part 2: fortifying the dough:

3)      Knead again for a few minutes.

·         Until the dough is back to its original size.

·         Roll into a cylindrical shape; e.g. ====

·         Cut into 4 equal parts:

1^st cut at the middle of the cylinder; bisect into 2 pieces; e.g. ==|==

2^nd and 3^rd cuts to bisect the resultant 2 pieces; e.g. =|=|=|=

3 cuts total ;-D

4)      Hand-roll each of the 4 dough pieces into balls.

·         Individually wrap them in cling-film:

·         Put them in the box, in such a way that none of the wrapped dough balls are on top of each other.

·         Put the box in the freezer for 30 minutes to kill the yeast, and stop the dough from rising again.

·         Take it out of the freezer.

If the dough has risen to the point of bursting the cling film, then carefully unwrap the cling film from the individual balls, and just press them down, and wrap back.

Put them back in the box.

·         Put the box in the fridge and leave it there overnight.

Part 3: making the naans:

5)      Use the board and rolling pin to make thick flat-breads.

·         Stack them on top of each other with layers of parchment paper in between:

·         Note: some extra flour will be necessary to prevent the dough from sticking to the board and rolling pin.

Part 4: frying the naans:

6)      Coat the whole surface of the pan with oil.

·         Do not create a lake of oil.

Put in a table spoon of oil.

Spread across the entire surface using a spatula, or

Smear with a paper-kitchen-towel to coat the entire surface.

7)      Heat the pan until the oil starts to smoke slightly; +250° C.

8)      Reduce heat to ~75% power to maintain temperature.

9)      Fry 1^st side of a naan for ~2 minutes.

10)   Flip!

11)   Fry 2^nd side of the naan for another ~2 minutes:

·         Press down with the spatula to assist in heat distribution and naan-puffy-fication.

12)   Flip back to 1^st side for ~15 seconds.

·         Press down with the spatula to assist in heat distribution and naan- puffy-fication.

13)   Set aside and stack on a plate for near-future consumption 🙂

14)   Repeat steps 6 to 13 until all naans are done.

Naan goes well with any savory or spicy sauces and curries.

Enjoy!