Mysterious Vanishing Naan
It’s actually not a mystery where the naan vanishes to. I live with men. Mystery solved. I don’t even bother making a single batch. A double batch makes it a day or two longer as a leftover item. This particular batch made it exactly three days on the table after having it with dinner. Le sigh.
By now you know what a terrible baker I am. Baking bread, for me, is almost insurmountable. I hear all you bakers out there tsk tsk’ing me. I’m telling you! I’m lacking the talent! Hubs, however, is a genius with bread like things. I make him knead all doughs now. Everything. I made him knead the naan, too.
But what I like about making naan, is that I don’t have to bake it. I can just slap it into a cast iron skillet like I know exactly what I’m doing. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling…lookit me! I’m making bread! Of sorts. Ha! I like mopping them with some clarified garlic butter and away we go. It was the perfect accompaniment to vindaloo. More on that later. Right after this post even!
Naan
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour plus more for dusting
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 packets yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 half stick butter
- 2-3 cloves minced garlic
Instructions
- Combine yeast, water, and sugar in a bowl and let the yeast bloom for about 10 minutes or so. Make a well with the flour and combine the yeast mixture, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and the yogurt into it, adding some more flour while kneading until the dough is no longer tacky.
- Form the dough into a ball and lightly coat it with olive oil. Place it in a bowl, covered, in a warm place and let it rise until doubled for about an hour. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the half stick of butter and minced garlic and set it on very low heat on a back burner.
- Punch the dough down and cut into tennis ball sized pieces. Dust a work surface with flour and roll the pieces out into rounds (it doesn't need to be perfect) until they're thicker than a tortilla, but thinner than a fluffy cooked pancake. I'm able to do 2 at a time.
- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a cast iron skillet on medium and working in batches, fry the dough, flipping over when bubble form on one side, about 2 minutes or so each side. Remove to a plate. I'm able to fry one at a time. Replenish the olive oil a tablespoon at a time as you need it.
- When all the naan is cooked, brush them with the butter garlic mixture on one side of each and serve.