Saturday, November 23, 2013

Garlic Butter Naan

I made a lot of food yesterday. Chicken thighs have been in the freezer for a long time now and were ready to be used. I could hear the chicken calling to me during my sleeps ;). I marinated the thighs to make tandoori chicken and thus the tandoori obsession began. I marinated potatoes, cauliflower, aubergine, capsicum and okhra. Food was worth the effort. It was an amazing tandoori platter (recipe shall follow, till then posting a few pictures) and everyone loved it.






One of the initial thought was, what shall I serve with all this food? Nothing could be better than garlic naan and cilantro chutney.

Hence I made those two as well.

Making garlic naan is easy and the results are delicious. Naan was really amazing, completely flavorful and light. I ate my whole naan with an electric speed. Visuals of the naan puffing up in the oven and the aroma in the kitchen were also a delight to the eyes and nose.

Let me take you through this amazing and simple recipe for garlic naan.

Garlic Butter Naan
Makes 4
Adapted from Rias Collection

Ingredients:
1. 2 1/2 cup (275 g) all purpose flour
2. 1 1/4 cup (300 ml)  luke warm water
3. 1 tbsp active dry yeast
4. 1 tbsp granulated sugar
5. 1 tsp salt
6. 3-4 garlic clove
7. butter

First and the foremost step is to activate the yeast. Instant yeast is ready to use but active dry yeast needs to be proofed first.

Proofing the yeast: Add the sugar to the lukewarm water and mix well until dissolve. Make sure that the water is lukewarm and not too hot else it will kill the yeast. Now add the yeast and mix until the yeast starts dissolving and fewer granules of yeast are visible. Keep this jar of water and yeast covered with a cloth in a warm place. I usually keep the jar covered with towel inside the oven. Let it rest for 7-8 minutes.

Meanwhile sieve the flour and salt together. Check the yeast, if it has foam or bubbles on the top, it is active. If not, then let it rest for some more time. When the yeast is ready add the yeast to the flour mixture. I added the water yeast mixture slowly to the flour till it formed a smooth and slightly sticky dough. I stopped a little before putting in the whole water and used about 275 ml water.

Knead the dough for a minute and then keep it aside in a bowl covered with moist towel. Let it sit for half an hour (30 minutes) or till the dough is doubled in size.

When the dough is ready, divide it into four (4) equal parts and turn each of them into balls. Dust the kitchen surface with flour and roll out the dough balls one by one. While rolling out sprinkle chopped garlic over the naan and roll over with pin so that garlic gets stuck in the naan. I made slightly thick naans (about 1/4-1/2 inches thick ) so that they remain soft. Pre heat your oven on broil mode for 10 minutes. Broiling is basically exposing the food to high heat and getting it cooked in a short amount of time. I do not have a broil mode in my oven so I heated the oven at the highest temperature (250 degree Celsius) and then kept the baking tray on the topmost shelf (right under the heating element ).

Take a baking tray, line it with aluminum foil and dust with flour. Keep the baking tray on the topmost level.  Cook one side of the naan for 4-5 minutes or till the point the naan puffs up and starts getting brown spots. This was a very happy moment. I don't have any pictures of it but the naan had puffed up, was getting brown spots all over and was beautiful :). Flip over the naan and broil the second side for 1-2 minutes.




Brush with butter and serve hot. I served it along with the tandoori platter and cilantro chutney. It was a big hit. Beautiful flavors, soft and light.

Go ahead, give it a try. I am sure you won't regret. 

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