Jan 23, 2010

Homemade Garlic Naan

Of late, my little one at home has become a huge fan of Garlic Naan. Anytime we eat out now, she says we can eat Thai or Chinese as long as I pick up Garlic Naan for her!

I thought this would be a good one to try at home. I've never tried this at home before. So, there's a challenge.

The base is quite similar to making pizza base at home. Flour, yeast, milk mixture - the couple of unique things that go in here are yogurt and ghee. I did google for the recipe and found this very nice link with a video of making the naan - http://video.about.com/indianfood/Naan-Recipe.htm by Natasha Levitan. But, this recipe includes eggs but I did skip the eggs as I did not have any and wasn't going to run to the store for 1 egg!

To begin with, get all your ducks in a row. You'll need All purpose flour, milk, ghee, yeast, salt, yogurt, and sugar.




To about 4 tbsp of warm milk, add 2 tbsp of sugar and 1 packet ( 2 tbsp ) of rapid active yeast. Make sure the milk is just luke warm and not hot - that will kill the yeast.

 

After mixing the yeast well with the warm milk, set it aside for about 30 mins. The yeast mixture will become all frothy and that is just wonderful for the dough to rise.

 

Now, take about 4 cups of all purpose flour in a mixing bowl. Add 11/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Add the frothy yeast to this.

 

Next, add about 2/3 cups of milk to this.

 

Add about 1 cup of yogurt to this.

 

Add 3 tbsp of ghee on top.

 

Mix everything well and knead the dough for about 10 mins. This dough is very sticky - but do not add more flour to make it smooth. If you don't want to knead with your hands, use the spatula and mix well.

 

Move to another well oiled bowl and make a ball and let it sit in the center. Make sure the dough is coated well with oil from the sides.

 

Cover with a breathable cloth and let sit in a warm place for about 2-3 hours. I kept it inside my oven just as a resting place - if you live in Alaska and its super cold, you can pre heat the oven and then keep this in there.

 

After 3 hrs, you can see how much the dough has raised. It becomes almost double the quantity.

 

Take out the dough and knead well again for about 5 mins and then divide the dough into equal parts and make balls out of it and set aside.

 

Roll out each ball into an oval gently. Remember that the dough is really soft and might tear if you roll it out too much or too thin.

 

Use the oval shaped dough and place it over your hands and move your hands up and down to stretch the dough and to get a naan shape. 

 

Place the naans in a baking sheet and brush some ghee or butter on top.

 

Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and slightly roasted garlic pieces.You could just add chopped garlic but I like to roast it for about a min just to get some of that raw smell out. And then they get double roasted in the oven and becomes crispy and flavorful.

 

Here's the important part. Pre heat the oven at the highest possible setting and set the oven to broil too. The original tandoors have a high temperature that can go up to 800 or 900 F degress and the naans cook in a min. But, the best we can do at home is upto 500F with a conventional oven. Which is still good. And being on broil cooks the naan from the top too.

Just bake these in the oven for about 3-4 mins or until the tops are a golden brown.

 

Tada...see, that took only about 3-4 mins. And they remain soft inside just as they should be.

 

Enjoy the homemade Garlic Naan's hot with some Paneer Butter Masala or any other great side dish. I served this with PBM which will be my next post. Until then, here are the naans!

 


 

Enjoy. Peace Out!


21 comments:

  1. Lovely post liked the step by step photos.

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  2. Next on my todo list. :)

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  3. Looks fantastic, i should applaude you for those really lovely step by step photos. I am really bad in multitasking between cooking & taking photos, got to learn from you.

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  4. this has been in my head for a while too! but i am planning to try on the tawa. will post soon :)

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  5. Garlic Nann looks very good. I will try them

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  6. Garlic naan looks perfect, thanks for step by step method, would try it soon.

    htp://treatntrick.blogspot.com

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  7. Aha! lovely and perfect home made garlic Naan with a detailed step by step demo.Its wonderful.Thanks for sharing.

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  8. Wonderful and perfect Naan!!!!
    Love ur clicks...
    Going to try out soon

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  9. Oh waav! I do it on stove top with the pressure cooker as the tandoor (Tarla Dalal tip). The oven on the highest temp. is a cool idea. Good naans and I am sure your daughter is happy :)

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  10. Tempting garlic naans, looks fantastic..

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  11. Nice step by step photos. Looks very tempting.

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  12. Mirganayani,

    I have an award for you. Please come and get it from my blog

    thanks

    Swathi

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  13. Now I know what would be on my menu next weekend! Naan and your PBM. BTW your baking sheet looks so clean. Is that a new one? Or can you give me some tips to clean? I have a tough time cleaning mine :(

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  14. very nicely explained naan recipe..

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  15. Absolutely perfect. I do with pressure pan and will sure to try this method also.

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  16. they look sinful!!! so nice and crispy brown.... golden rather.. yummmmmmm

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  17. Thank you everyone for the kind comments!

    @ Kay-Oak - let me know how it turns out. Enjoy making it!

    @A2Z - thanks for that. I'm so used to multitasking now that when I'm cooking something that I'm not blogging about - I feel I have an extra hand for things! LOL!

    @Nags - heard that on the tawa too tastes great and in fact a little more softer than in the oven. Blog about it so we can all see!

    @Lata Raja - that's a great tip - i did not know that you could do this in the pressure cooker.

    @Swathi - thank you so much for the award. Appreciate it. you have a nice site, Will visit from now!

    @ Divya - thanks. These are my old pans - not new. But soak your pans in really hot soapy water and that will take a lot of grime off. If you have steel baking pans, try comet bleach. Do not use them on non sticks though. This set is from Crate & barrel - it was a housewarming gift - I'm using it to the maximum though!

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  18. Thats yummy naans..looks too tempting... I always make in the pan and invert it to the flame to get the smoke effect.

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  19. Lovely! Though I have browsed recipe for garlic bread, this is the first time I am seeing home made garlic naan.

    Do you want the link for garlic bread? It was lovely. Go through if you haven't - http://showmethecurry.com/breads/garlic-bread.html

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