Skip to main content

Basics of cooking Indian bread - Naan

Basics of cooking Indian bread


The classic Indian Naan is all you need to kick off the ‘New Year’. It’s even better when you try it at Royal Kitchen near Oakland airport which has experience in making a lot of different naans over the years. 


Sometimes, the yearn for good food drives us for trying to cook them ourselves, especially when we don’t get it anywhere. In this post, we’re going to talk about ‘Indian Naan’ (a sort of flatbread) that is soft, delicious, and chewy in texture so you can cook it at home. Let’s keep digging.


Two ways of preparing Naan  


Originated in the royal kitchens of the Mughal emperors in India, Naan is prepared in two varieties.


Stuffed - Some naans are prepared and cooked with stuffing inside them. Using paneer (cheese), minced meat and vegetables like onions, potatoes, herbs and garlic, naans are prepared in several versions. In some restaurants, mixed vegetable naan is also served that tastes really well.  


Topped - Some of the naans use toppings like garlic, herbs, cheese and butter instead of stuffing. These kinds of naans are often light but hold the same tough texture.


Ingredients & dough preparation  


  • 2 cups all-purpose flour 

  • 2 tbsp of oil

  • a tsp of salt

  • ½ cup warm water (use as required)

  • A tsp of baking powder and ½ tsp baking soda

  • ½ tsp sugar


Note: This is a plain naan recipe that doesn’t need stuffing and topping. If you wish to stuff or top your naan with something, you may prepare the ingredients accordingly.


Take a bowl, combine all dry ingredients and fold them well. Add oil and combine them with the flour properly. Now add water little by little and bind the dough with soft hands. Your dough should neither be too dry nor too sticky. 


Alter the texture of the dough by adding water and flour to make it fine and stretchy. Cover it with a wet and clean kitchen cloth and let it rest for a minimum of 1 hour. Divide dough into equal size balls and start rolling out each ball using the rolling pin.


Method


Originally the naan is cooked using a cylindrical oven called ‘Tandoor’ that fuels on charcoal, and has an opening on the top. You can order takeout food near Oakland airport to try your favorite naans. But if you’re cooking it at home, you may cook it in two ways without the traditional tandoor.


Using the oven -


Use the conventional oven and cook your naan by placing it on a pre-heated oven stone. It will work as a tandoor as one side will be cooked on the stone wall and the other on oven fire.


Using the skillet -


You can place your naan on the skillet and let it cook on the skillet on medium-high heat from one side. Then turn the skillet upside down and let the other side of the naan cook on the flame evenly from all the sides. This process helps you get the oven-like char on your naan.
Labels:
Location: Oakland, CA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Ways to have lip-smacking Indian meals without curry.

People around the world have several preconceived notions about Indian food. One of the prevalent ideas they have in mind is that Indian food is all curry, which is of course not true. Indian cuisine is expansive cuisine with a broad variety of what we eat and it absolutely contains much more than just curry.  It’s true that Indians can make a delicious curry out of anything you offer them, that’s the gift we’d say, but you’ll find the numerous dry versions of vegetables and meats as well. So we’re giving you some delicious dishes other than curry, to try the next time you try Indian food. Tandoori Chicken  This tandoori roasted chicken dish is best had with chutneys, onions rings and roasted vegetables. The tender, smoky and juicy chicken inside melts in the mouth and the outer crispy layer gives you the zest. Do we have a reason to not like this dish? No, we bet!  Baingan Bharta  Fire-roasted eggplant, peeled and mashed with its juices and fried with an onion-tomat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Delicious Indian food that can be on your next house party menu.

Indian restaurants oversea are doing lots of experiments with traditional food these days. Some of them come up with fusion dishes that give locals the flavors of Indian with a twist of American ingredients. And people like this fusion as much as they like authentic Indian food. With an expansive menu, Royal Kitchen in Oakland is serving both delicious Indo-fusion as well as real Indian dishes to its guests.  Let’s give you some suggestions to serve your guests some of our best dishes at your next house party. Indo-American fusion dishes  Indian food includes the deliciously baked tandoori naans, aloo Tikki, chicken tandoori and paneer. While American food incorporates cheese, pizzas, wraps (Burritos) and some other ingredients like garlic, jalapenos, and spices. When the ingredients from these two cultures combine, they produce some of the best fusion dishes like: Garlic Jalapeno Naan - Naan is an Indian tandoor-baked bread and stuffed with garlic and jalapeno. The sharp fla...
Post a Comment
Read more

3 Mouth-watering Indian desserts that melt in your mouth.

Just like Indian food Indian desserts come in diversity with different textures, flavors, colors and sizes. But no matter what color or size they contain, we love our desserts so full of our hearts. Most Indian sweets and desserts are cooked with some common ingredients like milk or milk products, nuts, all-purpose flour or ghee and they are super easy to prepare at home. At least, that is what Indians do!  The sweets are usually made at home when there are some special or big occasions to make the occasions more cheerful and meaningful. Today, we’re going to talk about some of the most relished and easy-to-cook desserts here.  Gulab Jamun   Gulab Jamun is one of the favorite sweet dishes in India that you’ll find in every other celebration. Or rather say the celebrations are incomplete without these little sweet treats. But this delicacy was first introduced to Indians during the late 16th century when the Mughal empire started in India. It has been inspired by a Persian...
Post a Comment
Read more