NAAN BREAD

I tried making naan before. Not with great success, as I had no taste or texture reference. Kamloops has several Indian restaurants and recently Leilah and I started to frequent Spice during her lunch hour, the pristine, white table clothed restaurant on the North Shore. Sadly, the last few times we found their butter chicken a bit too hot. As it turns out I can make a nice, mild butter chicken so all we needed was to replicate the naan. The good news is naan is easier to make than chapati and you don’t have to make quite as many. Spice bakes their naan in a clay oven, but as you can see it is possible to make good naan at home in a non-stick skillet.

NAAN BREAD

1-1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 cups white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

5 Tbsp 11% Greek yoghurt

2 Tbsp melted ghee or butter, plus extra to brush

vegetable oil to grease

• Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature.
• Place the yeast, sugar and two tablespoons of lukewarm water in the mixing bowl and give it a stir. Leave it for 5 minutes.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and the salt.
• Add the yoghurt, flour, water and the melted butter [in this order] to make soft dough.
• Knead for five minutes with the dough hook. If kneading by hand, make sure the dough is very smooth and shiny.
• Place in an oiled bowl and turn to coat.
• Cover with plastic wrap and leave it to double.
• Knock the air out of the risen dough and divide into eight parts.
• Flatten out the balls and roll them into elongated disks.
• Heat the oven to 200F.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan on high heat.
• Place in one bread and turn down the heat to medium high.
• When the top begins to bubble, turn the bread over.
• Cook for a short time until the other side browns in patches.
• Place in the warm oven while you make the other breads.
• Serve with Butter Chicken.