Naan Plussed

Sorry for that title. It was that or 'Naan-naan naan-naan-naan naan naan-naan-naan-naan-naan naan...' — a bad Journey reference and I didn't think it would play.



I made me some Naan bread this evening. Along with yet another curry, though this time minus the coriander since I'm out and forgot about that last time I was shopping.



I found a bunch of recipes online, but didn't quite follow any of them to the letter. Here's a good video on how to make it.





However, like so many recipes on the 'net, it's metric. 200 grams of flour? I don't do metric: it's a part of the international conspiracy to pretend soccer is football. Socialism doesn't look good on paper, and '200 grams' is not a real measurement.



Fortunately, you don't have to be that precise. It's just a flat bread.




Naan
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon yeast rehydrated in 2 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or demerara or honey or whatever: I bet you could get away with plain white sugar if you want)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
4 or 5 tablespoons plain yogurt
4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons oil

I added part of the brown sugar to the yeast while it was rehydrating to act as a fluffer for the yeast. Okay, maybe that's an unwholesome image.



Knead the crap out of the stuff. There's very little liquid, and in fact I ended up adding that fifth tablespoon of yogurt to get everything to incorporate at all.



Heat your oven to 475º F (yes F, I also do not believe in Celsius) while the dough rises for 45 minutes or so.

Now this was roughly a double batch of the version in the video I linked above, but cutting it into eight equal pieces lead to some pitifully small naan. I doubled a few of the portions back together and still had smaller naan than what I've bought.



Cooking time wise, I thought it was supposed to take 10 to 15 minutes but the smallish ones were done in six and the larger ones in barely ten. The second ones also finished under the broiler so both sides got a browned a bit. Basically, I just cancelled and turned the broiler on high in the last two and a half minutes. Looking back at the video, she actually uses a much lower temperature, 275ºF. Others I saw online said 475 and even 500. The 275º was so low I assumed it was that damn metric system again.



I also made Purple Sticky rice to go with the curry. I don't present a recipe as such because it's a variety, not a recipe. It's an extremely dark, extremely fragrant and delicious whole rice. It really is this color, all I did was boil five cups of water, put two cups of purple sticky in and cover, 50 minutes later you're ready to dish it up. Which times out pretty easily with the Naan, start it rising and then cook your rice. While the Naan is in the oven, you can start heating the oil for the curry, the ingredients of which were prepped in the meantime so you're ready to rock & roll.