Garlicky homemade Naan

First of all let me start by saying, it's raining! I can see our rain barrels filling up right now. OK, they aren't really, since it's just a drizzle. But it is raining, and if our rain dances worked and it rains enough - we'll have more water in our barrels by morning, which means this day just got even better than I imagined possible. It was a pretty basic day until our friend Pam stopped by to tell us that they caught so many shrimp after we left them in Valdez, we could feel free to come by and take some to cook up here at home.

Music to our ears. Almost as musical as the sound of the rain dinging as it hits the bottom of those barrels.

OK back to the Naan. I woke up today wanting to bake bread. Naan just sounded good, and I also have more than one recipe in mind for using it (which is good cause I've got a ton of it now). It's not a difficult flat bread to make and these tasty little breads are so good with so many things... perfect for soaking up gravies and sauces, or wrapping around meats and cheeses, or salads. There really is no end to the uses of Naan. (alright, I'm sure there really is an end to the uses of Naan, but that's not the point.)

Garlicky Naan 

What you need:


2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
4 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp garlic power
1/4 cup melted butter

What to do:

Place 1 Tbs of sugar into 1 cup of warm water. Add the yeast and stir to dissolve. Let sit a few minutes until the mixture becomes frothy and the yeast is working. Place the remaining sugar, salt, baking soda, 1 tsp of the garlic powder, milk , and egg into a large bowl, mix well and add the flour. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and mix until it comes together. Start kneading away. It will take about 8 minutes or so of kneading to get a nice smooth and elastic dough - if you need to, add a little more water, or a little more flour.

Pour the Tbs of oil into a large bowl and place the dough ball in the oil. Roll it around to coat it, and then cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and set aside to rise. When doubled in size (after an hour or two) punch the dough down, and pinch off small pieces of dough, about the size of golf balls. Roll into balls and place them on a cookie sheet. Cover again with the towel and let them double in size.

Preheat a cast iron skillet or grill pan. Grease the pan. Roll each ball into a thin circle and place it on the grill. While the first side cooks, brush the tops with the melted butter mixed with your other tsp of garlic powder.

You want to cook them until they are just starting to bubble and are nicely browned on either side.

See those bubbles? Bubbles equals delicious Naan, which equals a happy and well fed baker.



That's it. Roll, bubble, brown, and repeat, until you are all done.

This makes quite a bit of Naan, so if you'd like less of it, feel free to cut the recipe in half. We ate our Naan tonight with some red lentil Dal (one of the most delicious things in the whole wide world) and some Jasmine rice. Basmati rice is typically eaten with Dal, but we love Jasmine. It's the main type of rice we eat. And we eat a lot of it.

I've spent the past little while enthralled in the world that is Ebay (read, spending money) and hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a couple pairs of pants coming from Thailand, and one from Korea. Maybe in four days I'll win an auction.

Who knows what could happen...

The boys couldn't care less. They are too busy sleeping on me and dreaming about voles. Douglas saw one today and by his shocked reaction (possibly horror) at seeing it, I know it's going to be making at least one appearance in his dreams.

In the meantime I'm going to head to bed myself even though It's midnight and the birds are still singing outside.