Naan recipe/method ideas?

FrenchTart

FrenchTart

FrenchTart

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I've been reading up on naan recipes and fancied experimenting with them a bit. Anyone already an expert on them?

Method of cooking-wise I was considering using something similar to the neapolitan pizza method cooking - i.e. flatten the dough into a heavy pan and stick it under the grill. I'll probably grill it both sides rather than cook it over the hob at all though. I'll also brush both sides with melted butter/ghee as this apparently works nicely.

The recipes I've read are basically a fairly standard bread recipe with the addition of milk, yoghurt and/or egg. In the past I've used yoghurt and milk..and whilst it was okay, it wasn't really 'elasticy' enough so I'm tempted to try egg this time.

For flavour I'll be adding finely chopped garlic and maybe some allspice or nigella seeds.
 
Don't forget black onion seeds :)

I used to cook mine on a very hot Tava upon the hob but have found equal success in bunging them in a hot oven - a different more 'pitta' esque texture to them though.

I always cook them fully then bung toppings upon afterwards - grating chili and garlic upon a brush of melted butter is lovely :)
 
I've not had much success making naan. Mine always end up more like pitta or if I use self raising flour a bit too brittle and cakey in texture. I've tried a number of online recipes and one in Pat Chapman's Curry Bible. I also saw them do it on Saturday Kitchen a few weeks ago. The dough was quite wet and they cooked it hot and fast. I've still not been able to replicate it though.
 
I think a part of the secret is the method - I think a rather 'wet' dough has to make contact with something very hot, and it be cooked in this manner very quickly; this is why I don't think breadmakers, grills or ovens work particularly well and end up so 'pitta' ish :)
 
Hmm... So perhaps I should try a very wet dough that I knead with garlic butter (I love garlic so there is literally no such thing as too much imo)...create an oval of it and then throw it onto a pre-heated heavy pan to sear it. I guess it would have to be quite a thin naan to work like this.
 
I've had two failed attempts at naans recently. Starting to give up hope!

Thinking maybe cooking on a pizza stone might improve my chances as it would more accurately emulate the side of a tandoor over.
 
FrenchTart said:
create an oval of it and then throw it onto a pre-heated heavy pan to sear it. I guess it would have to be quite a thin naan to work like this.
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I think you have to play with the thickness according to your method - I always found the best naans started to 'bubble up' quite quickly :)

Jolteh said:
Thinking maybe cooking on a pizza stone might improve my chances as it would more accurately emulate the side of a tandoor over.
Click to expand...

From my experience I think you're next best bet is this - in an indian restaurant the naan will be literally stuck to the clay inside of a tandoor.

Keep at it - tasty naan is a treat worth trying for :)
 
Jingo... said:
I think a part of the secret is the method - I think a rather 'wet' dough has to make contact with something very hot, and it be cooked in this manner very quickly; this is why I don't think breadmakers, grills or ovens work particularly well and end up so 'pitta' ish :)
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Yea, I think this is key.

Naans seem to rise in a similar fashion to yorkshire puddings, so I'd guess a wet dough cooking on a hot surface would be the best bet.
 
My Naan was a good cook, she was Dopiaza brush though. I remember, she used to take me shopping on Saturday's to buy ingredients for what ever she was cooking for Sunday lunch. She thought that just because she walked with a stick that she could Bhajee her way to the front of the line at the tills. One time, she really p***ed this one guy of by pushing in front of him. When we were putting the shopping into the car, he drove past us, through a puddle, soaking us from head to toe. I guess it's true what they say, Korma's a bitch.


*hangs head in shame.
 
Jolteh said:
Yea, I think this is key.

Naans seem to rise in a similar fashion to yorkshire puddings, so I'd guess a wet dough cooking on a hot surface would be the best bet.
Click to expand...

I remember Heston Blumenthal recommending using a pizza stone in an oven turned up to the maximum. He propped the stone at a 45 degree angle so he didn't have to remove it from the oven and he could, for lack of a better word, slap the dough onto the stone as you would with a Tandoor.
 
My grandmother used to fashion a tandoor out of a pressure cooker by cooking it on the lid or something. Worked out brilliantly for naan/tandoori roti. Never tried it myself, but remember her doing this when I was 10 or so.

Just tried googling it and this came up which sounds vaguely like how she used to make it (no idea if this recipie etc. works, but the woman herself is fairly well known so presumably the recipies are good) -

http://www.tarladalal.com/Pressure-Cooker-Naan-226r
 
Jonny69 said:
I've not had much success making naan. Mine always end up more like pitta or if I use self raising flour a bit too brittle and cakey in texture. I've tried a number of online recipes and one in Pat Chapman's Curry Bible. I also saw them do it on Saturday Kitchen a few weeks ago. The dough was quite wet and they cooked it hot and fast. I've still not been able to replicate it though.
Click to expand...

the main i problem i think is naan is made in a tandoor oven not the oven you have in a house, i can replicate it without making it in a tandoor but you need a hot thava (indian thing made to cook chapati's) and a flame thrower, the flame thrower attachment is usually found on tandoor ovens, but im sure i saw it in someone's house when i was visiting, it may have been in india though, so dont know if you can get them over here.

i dont think you could replicate an authentic naan in a normal oven.

also if you guys like naan's you need to try a tandoori chapati, its like a nromal chapati, but instead of being made on a thava, it is made inside the tandoor like a naan.
 
Sudden said:
My grandmother used to fashion a tandoor out of a pressure cooker by cooking it on the lid or something. Worked out brilliantly for naan/tandoori roti. Never tried it myself, but remember her doing this when I was 10 or so.

Just tried googling it and this came up which sounds vaguely like how she used to make it (no idea if this recipie etc. works, but the woman herself is fairly well known so presumably the recipies are good) -

http://www.tarladalal.com/Pressure-Cooker-Naan-226r
Click to expand...

good chance of you burning yourself using that, also unless your pressure cooker is see through (which it wont be) you would need to keep checking it, a thava and a flame thrower would be a lot safer
 
Psycho Sonny said:
good chance of you burning yourself using that, also unless your pressure cooker is see through (which it wont be) you would need to keep checking it, a thava and a flame thrower would be a lot safer
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I think I may have been wrong. Googling shows that she cooked on the lid of something which for some reason I thought was a pressure cooker. Was actually a stainless steel tandoor made for the stove top. Looked something like this (2nd in list) -

http://www.indiamart.com/saihomeappliance/other-products.html

but was bigger and had a more 'tinny' colour.


That being said, if the pressure cooker method was that unsafe, surely it wouldn't be in a Tarla Dalal recipie book?
 
Sudden said:
I think I may have been wrong. Googling shows that she cooked on the lid of something which for some reason I thought was a pressure cooker. Was actually a stainless steel tandoor made for the stove top. Looked something like this (2nd in list) -

http://www.indiamart.com/saihomeappliance/other-products.html

but was bigger and had a more 'tinny' colour.


That being said, if the pressure cooker method was that unsafe, surely it wouldn't be in a Tarla Dalal recipie book?
Click to expand...

pressure cookers are heavy, combined with 2/3 naans inside, and the heat and constant checking, you would need to be careful. also if it fell off (does happen) you have a fire on your hands.
 
Well..egg doesn't work :p Or it would if it was in a much lower ratio to the other ingredients than I used.

I also don't think using a hot pan works too well. I have high hopes for a grill/oven mix though (as mentioned above).
 
FrenchTart said:
Well..egg doesn't work :p Or it would if it was in a much lower ratio to the other ingredients than I used.

I also don't think using a hot pan works too well. I have high hopes for a grill/oven mix though (as mentioned above).
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my family owns an indian restaurant. a hot thava and a flame thrower does work, ive done it many times myself, because i dont wanna risk burning myself by putting my arm inside a extremely large tandoor oven which is sitting at 300 - 400 degrees Celsius and hot enough to singe all the hairs off your arm for the 2 seconds you put it in their for. and if you hit the side where there is a hot spot, goodbye sweet skin.

the only thing is, i wouldnt know where to get the flame thrower attachment for a home gas cooker, i swear i have seen it at someone's house, i just cant remember if it was in india or over here it was so long ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p0zliwolK8&feature=related

you cannot replicate that in a normal grill or oven, its supposed to be fully cooked within a minute. thats why a hot thava to cook 1 side whilst you blast with a flame from the other side works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u20PlTpBjfY

that is too big, but its the exact same thing, with a smaller nozzle at the end, this one is huge. theres no way that would be safe inside a home. but i suppose you could try a kitchen torch or maybe even 2 of them, one in each hand.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/kitchen/2008_12_04-Brulee.jpg

the thava would need to be large, the dough rolled out really thinly and you lightly oil and/or water the side that is going to be thrown on top of the extremely hot thava. as soon as you have thrown it on the thava you would need to grab the kitchen torch and blast the other side. this would replicate a tandoor oven.

also my restaurant uses zero egg in their nan breads, in fact a lot of places dont, they are supposed to be vegetarian.
 
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