As you continue to hunker down during the Covid-19 quarantine, why not get creative in the kitchen by making your own favourite staples since dining-in at your regular Indian restaurants is out of the question for now.
This recipe renders soft, puffy and airy garlic naan that is super easy to make, hassle-free and delicious.
To make the bread, you must allow the dough to rest first before portioning it out into individual pieces. Once ready to cook, use a cast iron skillet on the stove top. There’s no need for a special oven.
Ingredients
- teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 cup water
- 7 g active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
- oil for greasing the skillet
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted
Method
- In a small bowl, add the sugar, warm water, and yeast together. Stir to combine well. The yeast should be activated when it becomes foamy, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the all-purpose flour to a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Add the yeast mixture, yogurt, oil and knead the dough until the surface becomes smooth and shiny, about 10 minutes.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place (for example: beside the stove top or warm oven). The dough should double in size, after about one hour.
- Divide the dough into eight equal portions. Roll the dough into a 20 cm circle using a rolling spin. Sprinkle and press some minced garlic and chopped cilantro leaves on the top surface of the dough.
- Heat up a cast-iron skillet over high heat and lightly grease the surface with some oil.
- Place the dough (with the garlic and cilantro side up) on the skillet. When the naan dough puffs up, bubbles and burnt spots appear, flip it over and cook the other side. Repeat the same until all the dough is cooked.
- Brush the naan with some melted butter and serve warm.
Tips
- To make restaurant-worthy garlic naan bread, it is strongly recommended that you use a well-seasoned cast iron skillet.
- A cast iron skillet retains a higher heat and spreads heat evenly, making it perfect to cook the naan with airy pockets inside the bread, plus gorgeous-looking brown blisters on the surface of the naan.
- While resting the naan dough, cover it with a damp cloth.
This recipe first appeared in Rasa Malaysia.
Low Bee Yinn is a food blogger and cookbook author.