Monday, January 18, 2010

Bread Baking Babes: Naan


In the course of time we Babes found that we share more than "just" the love for bread, the love for spices and savoury dishes is another one. Take that and pair it with bread?

You'll have the Cookiebaker thinking out of her -cookie- box and come up with a great challenge: Bake Naan. And then Lynn warns us: every recipe starts with "naan really can't be made at home because traditional naan is made in a special super hot brick oven".
Is that so? We're the Bread Baking Babes...so we try!

The recipe comes from Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads (someone I encountered before and still don't own his book ...aaah! poor me!). Ingredients down below, I send you to Lynn for the directions and how to become a Bread Baking Buddy!

Curried Naan Bread
- makes 6 naan

scant 4 cups white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus extra for frying
2 Tbsp mild curry powder
1/2 oz / 15 g. package compressed fresh yeast*
1-1/4 cups water
generous 1/2 cup golden raisins
3 Tbsp mango chutney
* If you are using instant or dry yeast, reduce the quantities a little

Plain Naan
- makes 3 naan (which made Lynn wonder -same amount of flour as above, so why half the yield?)

scant 4 cups white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 oz / 15 g. package compressed fresh yeast*
water to mix
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
olive oil for frying
~~~~~~~~~~
Stupid me didn't use a skillet (it was right there in the directions...) but thought of a clever way by finding a shortcut. Use my plug-in table grill/skillet/thingy and bake 5 at a time. Not clever. It doesn't get hot enough and it took quite a while to get the lovely blisters. Still it made us a lovely dinner. I combined the curried and the plain Naan recipe; using curry in the dough plus caraway seeds and cumin. Not using mango chutney and raisins because I was afraid that our pickiest eater would refrain from them. I know the DH and me would have loved some raisins and chutney in them. Next time!

I paired our Naan's with a cucumber raita, a spinach paneer, Balti chicken and Tandoori chicken, and a vegetable curry, oh and the Indian version of onion rings! Leave it to me to complicate what could have been a relatively effortless dinner....
Pictures aren't the best quality; dinner was very late, we were hungry and the lighting was great for atmosphere not so for picture taking. No left overs to do a photo shoot the other day, which obviously is a good thing. Dinner was enjoyed by all in a lively manner. Eating with your hands does that. Recipes for the rest of the dinner will follow shortly! Great challenge Lynn, thanks for making me try this type of bread again!

23 comments:

  1. Totally lovely my dear! Your grill/skillet looks to have done a wonderful job (much better than my panni press).
    Do try the curry and raisins, they are wonderful.
    Can't wait for the recipes - especially the onion rings.

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  2. A feast to go with this lovely bread...can't wait to read the recipes. The griddle looks like it worked well, although it must have been hard to wait while smelling it cooking.

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  3. The naan look perfect and the meal sounds incredible!! Great job on the challenge!
    I used a cast iron pan, it heats up well.
    So glad your family love it all.

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  4. What fantastic naan! I love this recipe! Wow, excellent job and the dinner sounds scrumptious!

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  5. No wonder dinner was late with so many dishes, wow you're a trooper making such an indian feast out of it. I didn't get much blistering either, I think that's why the tandoori baked ones are the real stuff. I tried a pan hotter ... you get black spots and not cooked through. I love the look of yours (more oval).

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  6. indian bread is always a treat, and yours looks delicious!

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  7. Do you think this would work OK with a baking stone? I mean, would it get as hot as it's needed, or would it still lack the blisters of a tandoor?

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  8. Thanks everyone! Recipes will follow asap, bit busy right now.

    That's an interesting thought to use the baking stone and it crossed my mind as well but as we were late already I didn't want to wait until the stone was heated up enough. I have read somewhere that you can make a semi-tandoori by using the inside of a wok.. I wonder if that would work differently.

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  9. Great job! I think sometimes the best food has the worst pictures because no one can wait to eat it. The feast sounds wonderful!

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  10. These look like they would make a great base for a pizza! I'll try it- thanks for the recipe.

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  11. These look like they would make a great base for a pizza! I'll try it- thanks for the recipe.

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  12. your naan looks wonderful and the dinner sounds delicious!

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  14. The naan in the photo looks perfect! I never tried home made of this. Thanks for this recipe.

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  15. I think it's just our nature - to over-complicate a simple dinner. I should have bought the house with a brad oven.... Lovely, fluffy Naan!

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  16. Haven't you noticed? the end product is shaped like a feet..

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  17. :-) Well done for trying. And the Naans look fab too..... I am also a Naan fan, big time!

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  18. Naan!! My favorite, seriously. I love these with Indian curry. Ahh, I'm craving it now. :)

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  19. Thought of using a plug-in table grill/ skillet thingy, too, but I was too lazy to take a chair and take it out off the highest cupboard I have in my kitchen. But now that I read your post I'm glad I refrained from it and just used my on-stove skillet. Enjoyed reading your post!

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  20. Well done.
    Using the table grill was worth a try. It might have worked.;)
    Great bread should always be eaten by hand.

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  21. Your naan look beautiful. That's the thing I love about making naan; it can be made on the stovetop, in the oven, on the barbecue. It's wonderful!!

    -Elizabeth

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  22. This is good food! The naan looks nice. You did a great job in it.

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  23. It looks great. I hope i know to prepare that.

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