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Indian Naan
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Mar 31, 2025
An Indian barbecue without naan (Indian-style flatbread) would be like a Carolina pig pickin’ without hamburger buns! Here’s a naan from New Delhi that’s grilled. Traditionally grilled in a tandoor oven, the naan can be cooked over direct heat on the bars of a grill grate.
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0:00
Naan was the first food cooked in a tandoor, and to this day, this charcoaled flatbread
0:06
turns up at Indian restaurants everywhere. The flavorings are limited only by your imagination
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Step number one, proof the yeast. Place one tablespoon yeast and one tablespoon sugar
0:18
in a small bowl. Then add about one tablespoon of warm water
0:25
Stir this mixture together and let it stand until foamy, about five minutes
0:36
Step number two. Add all-purpose flour to your food processor. Next, add plain yogurt
0:48
vegetable oil, and salt. By now, the yeast should be proofed
0:57
You can see it foams up like a head of beer. This lets you know the yeast is active
1:02
So add the yeast to the processor bowl, followed by approximately 1 1⁄2 cups of water
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Run the processor until the ingredients come together into a soft, pliable dough
1:23
So here's your non-dough. Nice and smooth. So place the dough in an oiled glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk approximately one hour And here what the dough looks like when it doubled in bulk
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So what you want to do is flour your hands, take the dough, and punch it down. And you do that simply by slapping it and kneading it. Roll the dough
2:02
into a tube about 16 inches long. Create 12 portions of dough
2:14
Then roll each lump of dough into a smooth ball and place it on a baking sheet
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Cover the naan with plastic wrap and then with a clean cotton cloth
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and here is a batch of the naan that has risen until doubled in bulk
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With half of these dough balls, I'm going to show you how to make traditional naan
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the other half naan with a twist. Take a ball, sprinkle a little flour on top
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and roll it out into the traditional teardrop shape. In India, there are literally hundreds of different varieties of naan
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non-crusted with pumpkin seeds, non-crusted with sesame seeds, some crusted with poppy seeds or onion seeds
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others stuffed with almonds or ground lamb You want to try and use as little flour as possible because adding too much flour will make the naan doughy
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Now for the naan with the twist. They're called lakna paratha. You could think of them as Indian puff pastry
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Start by rolling out one of the dough balls about eight inches across
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Now, brush off the excess flour and lightly brush the top of the lakna padatha with melted butter or vegetable oil
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Then pleat the dough accordion style and roll it up almost like you would to make Danish pastry
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Take the resulting roll, pat it down, and roll it out again
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And here's your finished lakna paratha. So here's our tandoor
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The coals are still hot. To apply the naan to the walls of the tandoor
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you use a pillow-like device called a gadi. An Indian grill master would do this with his bare hands
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Westerners, you might want to put a protective glove on first. So watch quickly
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This happens fast. Take the naan and put it on the gadi and then slam it against the walls of the tandoor Almost instantly the bread will start to blister and puff
5:00
Use the flat blade to dislodge the naan and the hook to catch it
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Finally, brush each naan with melted butter and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds
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Now the lakna padatha. And here's your Indian puff pastry
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So we'll just butter the lakna padatha. Now the taste. Mmm
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Wow. It is sweet. It is smoky. Mmm. And check out the puff pastry
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How multi-layered it is. Mmm. Same dough. Completely different flavor. Indian naan, Laknaparatha
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from the world's oldest barbecue pit, two of the world's greatest breads
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