Guest Post #2 by Master Baker Andy!

Apologies first for the terrible title. But as I am currently back at my parents living on Merseyside temporarily. I’ve had to get used to seeing references to the Beatles everywhere… but you may have realised that I cunningly concealed the subject of today’s bread making post in that title? Have you guessed what it is yet?

Yup, the humble naan bread. Like fish comes with chips (er, not if you’re a vegetarian…), ok then, like sosmix bangers and mash, for me the naan is as much of a part of a curry as the actual curry dish itself. When I was in India a few years ago, myself and my travelling companion John would have a naan bread with every meal. The only difference was that he ate “butter naans” with each meal whereas I would have a plain one. There was a bit of an increase in his weight during those 3 weeks in India. (For those who don’t know I was John’s best man at his wedding last week so I feel I am still in speech mode… and crucifying his personality… I’ll stop now!)..

Anyway naan bread. I’d never really thought too much about what they consisted of, or how they were made. But that all changed last week when I made some of these fabulous breads for the first time. It’s actually quite simple but you’ve got to plan ahead which isn’t easy for everyone.

The basic recipe is as follows:

• 500g plain flour
• 2tsp dried yeast
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp sugar
• 3 tbsp natural yoghurt
• 30g melted butter (or ghee but I didn’t have any of that)
• 250ml of milk

You will see that it is a bread that rises but uses milk instead of water. You need to dissolve the yeast into the milk (which is at room temperature or thereabouts). With flour and salt mixed in a mixing bowl, add the yeast/milk mix, sugar, yoghurt, butter and the remainder of the milk.

You then need to knead this. If you’re not sure how to do this it’s worth having a look on youtube for videos. It will seem very sticky at first but resist adding more flour and keep kneading. After about 10 minutes you should have a soft dough.

You should then place the dough into a bowl and cover with the lid or clingfilm and allow to rise for 3-4 hours (so unless you are a student or idler it’s something to do at the weekend!)

After this knock it back (just knock the air out of it) and leave for a few minutes.

You should then divide into 4 pieces and shape it into a teardrop shape on a lightly greased baking tray. I used a rolling pin. I reckon keep it about 3/4cm-1cm thin as it will rise during the proving stage. Put the whole tray into a plastic bag and leave for another 45mins-1hour.

When you cook them you will need a griddle pan (as most people don’t have a tandoor). This pan needs to be really hot. Get the grill hot too. Griddle the bread for a few minutes (not sure about time you’ll be able to check and see if cooked). Then transfer to the grill (I put a bit of butter on it before this step and it worked quite well). Don’t put it right next to the heat or it will burn too quick. You want it to cook in a few minutes.

Serve it with your curry, rice and some yoghurt and chutney. Mmm I’m hungry now.

So that’s it! Having written this post a while after the event it seems a bit like hard work. But believe me the taste beats anything you will buy in the supermarkets even if it possibly won’t match proper indian restaurants! (well not until you’ve done it a few times)…