Making Naan, Demystified

Naan was one of those items that I never thought I would make at home. I was always discouraged by the equipments (aka tandoor) that was thought to be necessary to make this dish. I gave a pat on my back to have not bought those expensive cast iron skillets (which else where was suggested as a good alternative). All you will need from equipment perspective is a non non-stick tava. Note the double negative there !


Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Yeast - 1/2 tsp
sugar - 1 tsp
milk - 1 cup
curd - 1/2 cup
salt - 1 tsp

Recipe

1. Mix the sugar, yeast and lukewarm milk. Set aside for 10 mins.
2. Mix the curd and leave until it ferments (roughly 1 hour)
3. Mix the flour and wet mixture. Make it into a soft dough. Knead so that no dough sticks and it forms into a smooth ball.
4. Cover and leave until it doubles in size ( about 4-5 hours)
5. Just before preparing naan, knead the dough again slightly.
6. Take a small potato size ball and roll it with a rolling pin. Apply a little flour to both sides to make rolling smoother.
7. Apply water on one side of the naan and stick it to the tava.
8. When it starts getting cooked (bubbles appear) invert the tava upside down so that the naan is now exposed to the flames.
9. Show in the flame until the naan puffs up nicely like a puri.
10. Remove it and apply butter if preferred.

Enjoy the naan with daal or paneer side dish. Half measure all purpose flour works well with half measure whole wheat flour. Increasing the proportion of whole wheat flour may not make it softer. If you tried different proportions, share your comments here.