This month’s taste and create actually took me out of the country, to India!…Okay, so I didn’t actually go anywhere, but my partner this month has a blog called Cooking 4 All Seasons, and she makes lovely traditional Indian dishes.
It’s kinda exciting. I actually found a few recipes that I am tempted to try, but decided to go with Naan, a traditional Indian bread, and apparently one of my partner’s favorites. I only hope I’ve done it justice.
The recipe actually calls for cooking it in a tawa, which, from what I can figure out is much like a wok, only cast iron. Unfortunately I do not own a wok, or a tawa, so I just used a frying pan. So very American of me, right? It isn’t nearly as pretty as hers turned out, but it tastes damn good and it was actually lots of fun to try something like this.
She didn’t have exact amounts on some things, but thankfully all the bread I have been making recently gave me enough experience to make it work out.
Naan
Source: Cooking for All Seasons
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 cup warm milk (not above 100F)
1 tsp sugar
Sesame Seeds
Butter
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk. Let rest approximately 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix well the flour with the yeast/milk mixture then mix in the salt. Knead until soft and elastic. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a dark place to rise until doubled, about two hours.
Remove the dough from the bowl, degas gently then divide into ten even balls.
Roll out into triangles, dusting lightly with flour as needed. I discovered that the thinner you roll out out the better.
Heat up a frying pan, generously brush one side of the dough with water, and begin to cook on medium heat, then brush the other side. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and as a triangle by dusting it with the flour. The dough should bubble a bit as it cooks, just leave it on the heat for a few minutes, then flip it to cook the other side for a shorter amount of time.
Move to a plate a generously butter. Enjoy.
My partner recommends having this with her Chicken Tikka Masala. If you try either of them, let me know how it turned out.
This recipe, especially the cooking part took a bit of trial and error since a frying pan is so not a tawa, but it was still a lot of fun. Can’t wait to see who I am paired with next month!
Oh, so glad you found atleast one that was interesting! ..:)..nice to know that it came out well…that picture looks great!
i’ve recently discovered naan too, and i’m pretty smitten with it.
also, degas is a fun word. am i really so silly that i laughed when i read it? the sad truth is that, yes, yes i am.
This looks lovely! I just had naan for breakfast this morning, with a bit of chicken curry. Now I’m wishing I had chicken tikka insteead. I’m fickle that way.
Srivalli: I really enjoyed going through your blog, and will definitely be making this one again
Grace: You’re silly. I like that. degas just seems to work better than punching dough
Ovenhaven: You should definitely try it with the chicken tikka. The naan is easy enough to make again
[...] from Heaven is Chocolate, Cheese and Carbs blogged about Cooking 4 All Seasons’ Naan. Laurie says “It was so much fun to try something traditional like this, and very [...]
Your naan looks delicious!
A tawa is basically a frying pan without sides. You should be able to get a tawa in India town (I’m not all that familiar with NYC but I’m guessing there must be at least one small area that sells saris, Indian spices, etc.) They aren’t very expensive and they’re the best thing for making any flatbreads – also great for making crepes.
Mmm, yes. Naan with chicken tikka masala (that is the same as butter chicken, isn’t it?) AND palak paneer. Naan and palak paneer are a match made in heaven.
(We usually make our naan in the oven or on the barbecue but have made them on the stovetop as well – starting them on the tava and puffing them on a rack directly over a burner.)
Oh.so Good
Love your blog. There were many recipes I wanted to try. In fact, I tried two. Loved the naan. It was so tasty!
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/05/naan-recipe-if-you-can-make-pancakes.html
Glad to have been your partner this month!
Yay! I am glad you like everything so much! Can’t wait to work on one of yours
naan turns out best in a tandoor and the next best option at home is the oven turned on to max/ broiler. it really does taste great!
[...] was Heaven is Chocolate, Cheese, and Carbs (is that not the coolest blog name ever?). She had a naan recipe on her blog and I was all over it. What made picking the naan recipe extra fun was that it came [...]