FizzySix
Drunken Philosopher
Well, how about a naan recipe then?
After a couple trips to India, I tried to reproduce some of the foods here from cookbooks, and found that they called for spices I don't have (or in some cases, even recognize), cooking techniques I was unfamiliar with, and equipment I didn't own.
After perusing my local Indian market I discovered boxed spice mixes, usually called masalas. These have all the exotic spices pre-ground with the recipe on the back, making it easy to recreate your favorite dishes. It's like hamburger helper - just add the contents of the little box to meat, and other basic foods you can find in an American grocery store like tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger, and plain yogurt. The cooking techniques and equipment is commonly available and relatively easy to follow. I like the Shan brand spice mixes the best. My favorite of these is Rogan Josh, which is meat (beef, chicken, or traditionally lamb) in a spicy gravy. Even my 8yo son likes it. I've got some goat meat in my freezer, I'm going to try it with that next (meat market was out of lamb).
Now, you'll need the naans to dip in the gravy. Since you probably don't have a tandori (clay oven), we will use a conventional oven and a pizza stone to get a similar effect.
2c. flour
3/4c. water
2t oil
2.5 T plain yogurt
1t sugar
1t salt
1/8t baking powder
1 pkg or t. of yeast
Proof yeast in water with sugar. Mix dry ingredients, then add oil, yogurt, and yeast. I find that I generally need to add more flour to get the dough a little stiffer and not be a sticky mess.
Now, knead for a few minutes until you get a smooth, elastic dough. Wipe the inside of a bowl with oil, place dough inside, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 3-4 hours until doubled in size.
Place your pizza stone in the oven, and preheat to 500. When it hits 500, switch to broiler. While it's heating up, punch down the dough and separate into 6 pieces. Roll each in flour, then roll out into an oblong shape.
Bake in batches of however many fit on your pizza stone, for just 3 minutes. The combination of the broiler and hot stone will brown both sides, and you'll see them puff right up. Brush with melted butter as they come out. Try a little garlic in the butter, too.
Yum.
I got this from Manjula's video on YouTube, so if you want to see this in action, just do a quick search there.
Enjoy!
