Homemade naan: A sticky decision
06 Mar, 2008. 11 Comments. Leave a comment
Kneading dough for homemade naan can be hard work
I overslept on Sunday. Dashed to the shops to buy some kitchen cupboard essentials. Offloaded the whole lot in my kitchen. Grabbed my laptop and legged it to Geeks R US (with a small detour to research my Spring wardrobe).Back at home, I changed into pyjamas, lined the kitchen surface and took the plunge.I made naan.Yes. The stores sell perfectly, half decent ones. They do take longer to make that my one hour cap on Indian cooking. And kneading dough is my one of my least favourite activities, narrowly trailing behind eating Indian takeaways.But I could just never get the thought of those soft, fluffy flatbreads rising gently in the oven out of my head.(This Indian cooking thing is getting seriously out of hand.)Rammed full of all possible shortcuts, I got the time needed to get these babies finished down to three hours. Of course, two and half of those you don’t actually have to do anything. Except take loving looks at the dough. And gloat about your own genius.The dough really is the sticky part. First it clung to my powder pink painted finger nails like Elasto Girl. I got it off with a butter knife and plain white (all purpose) flour.Then the whole lot doubled into this enormous, heaving pile of naan dough that no amount of finger nail action could rescue. So I rolled them in some more plain white flour. The whole lot contracted. Making the early addition of yeast fairly pointless. At which point I stormed out of my kitchen swearing like a Bengali fishwife.If I am perfectly honest, this recipe was not bad for a first try. However, it is in no way ready to be sprung upon you greasy-elbowed lovelies.Thankfully, I am not ready to accept defeat yet. A blow by blow account of try 2 will follow. Hopefully, with a recipe in tow.In the meantime, cherish your nearest readymade naan. And remember: naan means bread. So saying “naan bread” is inexcusable. However sticky the situation…
[...] charihar wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt_b2m4449.jpg I overslept on Sunday. Dashed to the shops to buy some kitchen cupboard essentials. Offloaded the whole lot in my kitchen. Grabbed my laptop and legged it to Geeks R US (with a small detour to research my Spring wardrobe). … [...]
I’m very impressed! yeap, it seems all this indian cooking is getting out of hand!
lovely pic, btw!
i am impressed with the naan u have there mallika… now waiting for part-2 episode of making naan
I know how you feel, i’ve tried to make them and like you i was also cursing like a fish wife
))
Looking forward to your second part
Till then i will stick to mt shop bought ones
Oh God. I always say “naan bread”. I feel like an idiot!
Provide me with a recipe to make perfect homemade naan and my partner will be eternally in your gratitude.
I never use my hands to knead at all. I use flat beater of my KitchenAid stand mixer to mix dry and wet stuff first and then change to dough hook and beat the heck out of it for 4 mins! You will get a dough as soft as baby’s bottom and non-sticky!:D
In US, they have a bad habit of saying “Taxi cab”, ” Chai-tea” “De Ja Vu-all over again!” Hahaha. Naan bread is just one of them!
Doesn’t look that bad, but could be better!:)
I am jealous. To date I have had nothing but failures in making naan at home!
Acha, so how exactly does a Bangali fishwife swear, please?
I’m looking for additions to my vocabulary. Strictly scientific interest, of course.
hahaha i second to that!
i love naan. Yours looks so pretty. Aaaahh, the best part is its softness, when dunk into a spicy curry.
Hiya! just saw a show with a great looking Naan recipe… (she did call it naan bread!) but looked great in the end and pretty simple, go to: http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/recipe.asp?id=2879
And you should find it! I’m about to make it now and will let you all know how it is!