Naan

We were feeding the yeast water on the 3th of July and didn’t want to throw any YW away.  With the 4th of July the next day and knowing it would only be my apprentice and I for dinner that night, we decided to have some rib eye steak kabobs, veggie kabobs and garam masala rice and beans.

 What was missing was some Naan to put the dinner in to eat it properly.  We decided not to bake the Naan or cook it on the stove top but dry fry it in the cast iron skillet on the grill while grilling the kabobs.  After making pizza the other day on the grill we thought it would be fun.

 We were inspired by Sonia101’s unusual Roti here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/29275/roti-bread

and by Delta_v’s stove top Naan here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/27350/quick-stovetop-naan-recipe

You can see my Naan were larger than 12" and got squished at the edges to fit the pan - no worries !

 We built a 2 stage yeast water levain, 4 hours each using durum atta and AP flour.  After 8n hours it had doubled and was ready to go.  At the 6 hour mark we autolysed the bread flour with the liquids and the spices.  We held out the Greek yogurt, fresh herbs, green onion, baking soda and salt.

 The YW levain and the autolysed flours were mixed with the salt and Greek yogurt for 4 minutes on KA 2 and then 4 minutes on KA 3.  The baking soda was then added and mixed in for 1 minute on KA 3.

 The dough was then rested for 20 minutes.  Then it was turned out on a lightly floured surface and hand kneaded for 5 minutes and allowed to rest covered for 10 minutes.  The fresh herbs and green onions were then worked into the dough using S & F’s.

 The dough was allowed to develop and ferment for 1 hour.  (2)150 gpieces were separated out for the Naan and shaped into a ball and allowed to rest for 10 minutes.  The remainder of the dough was shaped into a loaf and placed into an oil sprayed Pyrex loaf pan and allowed to double over 4 hours.

Kabobs and..............................................................................Naan with Mexican Chipotle Pink Sauce

 The Naan balls were rolled and pressed out to 12”circles and covered with plastic for 30 minutes.  Then they were transferred to a floured peel like a pizza for chucking into the skillet on the grill – closing the lid. The gauge read 450 F.   After cooking for about 2-3 minutes the Naan was flipped and the cooked side, now facing up was brushed with Mojo de Ajo.  After another couple of minutes the bread was flipped again onto the Mojo de Ajo side allowed to fry for about a minute.  The bread was then folded to fit into a tortilla warmer while the 2nd Naan was fried. 

 The un-slashed loaf of bread, using the same dough, was baked in the mini oven at450 Fafter preheating with 'Sylvia’s Steam' at 500 F.  It was steamed for 12 minutes then the steam was removed, the loaf rotated 180 degrees and the mini oven was turned down to 425 F convection this time.  The loaf was rotated every 5 minutes until it was done and205 Fon the inside – about another 20 minutes – 32 minutes baking time total.  It was left in the oven with the door ajar and heat off for 10 minutes to further crisp the skin.

 The loaf and the Naan were both terrific.  The loaf was nicely browned, blistered and crunchy when it came out of the oven but it softened as it cooled.  The crumb was open, soft and moist.  It tasted like Japanese white bread met Indian curry.  When toasted with butter and corn jam it was just great.

Peach and mango Crisp for desert

 The Naan ended up with some soft and crunchy parts that made it unique.  It went well with the kabobs and tasted like a plate of Indian veggies and spices.  Yummy. 

Toasted with butter and carrot jam - delish!!

The formula follows;

For the most part, I have had a lot of luck with bread recipes.  If it does not work out the way I want on the first try I begin the tweaking process.  It is not always fast but I get there in the end.  I say for the most part because I have had one bread nemesis.  One bread that, no matter how I tried, would never work out the way I wanted.  

That bread was the delicious Indian flat bread called naan.

Naan is my nemesis no longer.  Now I have a recipe for naan that is tender, chewy, crispy, and soft all at once, and is terrific stuffed with curry.  The recipe is adapted from one found here.  

Along with a good recipe I have a good cooking method.  Naan is made, traditionally, in a tandoor oven which produces an insane amount of heat.  If you want naan that has the right texture, the soft inside with the chewy exterior, you have to find a way to replicate a tandoor at home.  I tried the grill with average results.  I tried the stove, in a similar way that I cooked my tortillas, but it was not hot enough.  

I make pizza at home from time to time and have two very well seasoned pizza stones.  On the internet I had read that some bakers use their pizza stones, in a smoking hot oven, to achieve a tender interior with a crisp exterior.   It sounded promising, so I tried it.  I heated the oven to 500 F with my pizza stone on the lowest rack of the oven.  I let it heat for thirty minutes and then added one rolled out piece of naan.  It was as close as I will ever get to perfect, and it is pretty darn close!

Another thing I discovered is that you need to have patience.  Don't rush the naan.  Give the dough a two hour ferment, then after they dough is divided give it the full half hour proof on the bench before rolling.  Letting the dough develop will give you the taste and texture you want.

Naan   Yield 12 naan

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry active yeast
1 1/2 cup milk, heated to 110F
1 tsp sugar
ghee to taste

Activate the yeast in the warm milk with the sugar added.

Combine the flour and salt.  Once the yeast is active, combine the yeast mixture with the flour mixture.  Mix in a stand mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes, or knead by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Allow to rest for two hours, covered with a towel or plastic.

After the dough has rested turn it out onto a floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces and round them into balls.  Cover with a towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

While the dough rests heat your oven to 500 F and place a pizza stone, or cast iron skillet, on the bottom rack of the oven.

Once fully rested roll out the dough until it is about 6″ to 7″ wide.  It should be fairly thin.

Moisten your hands with water, gently pass the dough between your hands to moisten gently, then lay on the hot pizza stone.  Close the oven and bake for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, or until puffed and beginning to get brown spots.

Remove from the oven, brush lightly with ghee (or melted butter) and cover with a cloth.  You may need to press the naan to release the air inside.

Serve warm.

Posted at www.evilshenanigans.com - 2/27/2009

Lest anyone who reads my posts think I know what I'm doing, I've decided to post my latest adventure as an illustration to the contrary.

The story of how the tandoor got into my back yard is one for which the world is not prepared, but it is there, the weather is too hot to turn on the oven, and I thought to myself “Well, this is a good time to learn to make naan.”

The first step is getting the right tools.  After watching and watching the YouTube video of a chef making naan, I decided that the little tool seemed pretty handy.

Although it just looks like a wad of towels, it is actually a convex pad of compressed straw covered with a cloth.  It is firm enough so that (if you know what you are doing) you can get the naan dough to make good contact with the side of the tandoor.  It is pictured below:

Armed with the tool – the next step is to heat up the tandoor.  It took about two hours for my model (pictured below) to heat to the point where the walls were nearly 700F.

So it was time to cook the naan. 

I took about 4oz of dough and shaped it into thin disks and then draped them over the dough pad (sort of as per the video), gave them a quick spray of water (so they would stick better – hahahahahaha) and steeled myself to put my hand near a 700F tandoor entrance to stick the dough to the side.My first disk (of six)dropped promptly to the bottom to become a flaming dough ball.

Oh well.  I learned that you really need to apply some firm pressure on that tool.  Never mind the smell of burning feather as the hair was singed off my hand.

Finally disk three stuck.  But it also stuck to the side of the tandoor when it was done and came off in shreds.  Four was the turning point (or so I thought) and I moved on to five feeling like I had figured this thing out.  Four and five are featured in the pictures below.

Number six showed me to be overconfident and slid off the dough pad without ever making contact with the tandoor wall.

Well, two out of six isn’t bad – and what bread I did get was eaten with relish.  Of course, failure never deters me – it just makes me more determined.  I’ll be back with a report when the whole thing has been perfected. In about a year or so...

Meanwhile my consolation prize is pictured below.  It has been a long while since I had real Tandoori food…