Sesame Onion Nan Food

HOW TO MAKE NAAN (LIKE THEY DO IN INDIA!)

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk flours, sugar, yeast and salt together. If adding whole spices, add them now.
• In a medium bowl, stir ¾ cup warm ( 100F) water with olive oil and yogurt.
• Pour the yogurt mixture into the flour mixture and combine with a fork, and with a floured hand, knead the dough for 1-2 minutes. The dough should feel soft, but not sticky. If sticky add a little more flour. Form a ball. Drizzle with a little olive oil to coat all sides of the ball and place it back in the same bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm spot in the kitchen (the warmer the spot, the faster it will rise) and let rise until it almost doubles in size 45-60 minutes. (TIP: I'll often place rising dough on the top of my stove with my oven set to the lowest setting.)
• When dough has risen, place it on a well-floured surface, and roll into a 10 inch log, then divide the log into 10 pieces.
• Roll each piece out into a ⅛-¼ inch thick oval, about 4 by 7 inches long. They don't have to be perfect and can be any shape, just make sure thickness is uniform and it is not more than ¼ inch thick. If adding garlic or onion, press some of the finely minced garlic into the dough on one side, just using your fingers and you can actually do this in the pan if you want. You can also roll the garlic into the dough, when it rolling out.
• Heat a DRY cast iron skillet over medium to med-high heat. Cooking one naan at a time, place it in the hot skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface, and bottoms are golden ( check after a couple minutes) then flip. Cook for a few more minutes on the other side until the bubbles are deeply golden. If you have a gas stove, you could place these cooked naan, directly over the gas flame, to get them to puff up even more. Set each one aside and cover with a towel or foil to keep warm.
• Cook all the naan, then brush each one with ghee, and a light sprinkling of salt, stacking. (You can keep them stacked, wrapped in foil in a warm oven until ready to serve.)
• Right before serving, sprinkle with chopped cilantro, parsley, or scallions.

NAAN

Steps:

• Combine the yeast and sugar with 1/4 cup warm water in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside until it begins to froth, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Meanwhile combine 2 1/2 cups of the flour with the salt in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Make a well in the center and add the yeast-mixture, yogurt, ghee or butter, warm milk and lemon juice, if using. Mix well with your fingers until it forms a sticky or shaggy dough. Add more flour if too shaggy or a little water if too dry.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in a larger lightly-oiled bowl, tightly cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a draft-free place, such as an unlit oven, until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
• If using a pizza stone/steel: An hour before baking, put a pizza stone or steel on the lowest oven rack and preheat to 500 to 550 degrees F. If using a cast-iron skillet/griddle, just before baking, heat the skillet or griddle on the stove over high heat until very hot, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Put some melted ghee or butter in a small bowl. Add the remaining flour to another bowl.
• Divide the dough into 8 balls. Dab each ball in flour, flatten on a lightly floured surface and stretch or roll into an oval shape, thinner in the center and slightly thicker on the sides. Don't worry too much about the shape; I love making various countries when I make my naan! Dust off any extra flour. Brush some ghee or butter on the top of each and sprinkle with nigella seeds if using (add a little more than you want as you will lose a bunch while charring).
• Transfer the stretched naan onto the hot stone or skillet. Cook until you see some bubbles on top, 2 to 3 minutes. Take it out with tongs and flash-cook over an open flame, turning it so that it gets a few brown charred spots on both sides. Spread with a generous pat of butter/ghee and serve hot. Repeat with the remaining naan.

GREEN ONION GARLIC NAAN BREAD

Steps:

• Place bread flour in a bowl. Add salt and baking powder and give it a good whisk until evenly combined.
• Add in Greek yogurt gently, followed by garlic and green onions. Take a wooden spoon and slowly start mixing everything together. Keep mixing, stirring, and pressing until a shaggy dough forms.
• Transfer dough to a work surface and use your hands to press dough together. Knead for a few minutes until dough becomes elastic and a little bit sticky. Add a bit more flour as necessary but try to keep extra flour at an absolute minimum. Knead until dough is a little bit stretchy, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Wrap in plastic and allow to rest on the counter for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Take a bench scraper and cut into 6 equal pieces. Take 1 portion and roll into a ball. Place onto a generously floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll out nice and thin, about 1/8 inch or less. It's ok if the naan is not a perfect circle. You will need extra flour for rolling out as the dough is sticky, but try to use as little as possible.
• Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Transfer dough circles into the hot dry skillet and cook until little bubbles form on the surface and the underside is lightly browned, about 1 minute. Flip naan over and cook for 1 more minute. Press down slightly with a spatula to increase the heat during cooking. Flip over twice more and cook for an additional 15 seconds per side, but make sure not to overcook to preserve the texture. Naan should still be flexible when you remove it from the skillet onto a plate.
• Cover with a kitchen towel to keep warm and moist while you cook the other naan breads. Stack all 6 naan breads on top of each other and keep covered with a kitchen towel.
• When you are finished cooking all 6 naan breads, unstack breads and brush the first naan bread on both sides with a little bit of melted butter. Stack second piece of naan on top and only brush the top side. Keep stacking and buttering all the naan breads. Fold each naan into a triangle and serve.

ONION STUFFED NAAN

Steps:

• Dough:.
• Add sugar and yeast to warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. Add yogurt, ghee, and egg. Mix. we will call this yeast water.
• In a large bowl, mix salt and flours.
• Add yeast water, and knead about 12 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth, and let stand for about an hour till it doubles in size. Ideal room temperature for dough to work will be around 80ºF.
• Punch down dough. Knead again and let it stand another hour till double in size.
• Divide dough in 8 equal size balls. Each ball will make one Naan. If you wish, you may put these balls in a freezer zip-lock bag and freeze away. To thaw, put them in the refrigerator section over night.
• Onion Mixture:.
• Melt the Ghee in a large frying pan. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes or until softened. remove from the heat and add the seasoning and chopped cilantro. Set aside.
• Baking Naan:.
• Preheat oven to 450 ºF.
• Divide the dough ball into two smaller but equal balls.
• Roll out one dough ball by hand to about 5" diameter set aside.
• Roll out the second dough ball by hand to about 5" diameter. Sprinkle about one Tablespoon of onion evenly on the top.
• Put the saved 5" diameter dough on top of the onions. Press and roll out to 6" round, oval or triangular shape.
• Wet you hand and lightly brush the top of the Naan. Sprinkle some cilantro evenly on the surface as garnish. Press the chopped cilantro leafs onto the surface.
• Brush the top of the rolled Naan with melted Ghee.
• Grease a baking sheet. Put the Naan on the baking sheet. Bake 6 to 8 minutes.
• Repeat until all the Naan have been baked.

NAAN

Steps:

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
• Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
• During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
• At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

GOURMET'S SESAME ONION NAN (UYGHUR FLATBREAD)

Steps:

• Stir together warm water and sugar in a measuring cup, then sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes (If yeast doesn't foam, discard and start over with new yeast.
• Stir together flour (3 3/4 cups) salt, and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir together yogurt, egg, and oil in a small bowl. Make a well in center of flour mixture and add yeast mixture and yogurt mixture, then stir in flour mixture gradually with a wooden spoon until dough just comes together.
• Knead dough on a lightly floured surface with floured hands, lightly reflouring work surface and your hands when dough becomes too sticky, using no more than 1/4 cups flour, until dough is smoother, soft, and elastic, about 10 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled large bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Make Topping While Dough Rises: Put oven rack with pizza stone in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees (heating pizza stone will take about 1 hour).
• Coarsely grate onion on largest holes of a box grater and drain well in a sieve. Cook onion and sesame seeds in oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until onion is just beginning to turn golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cool to room temperature.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface without punching down. Cut dough into 2 pieces and trasfer 1 piece to parchment lined pizza peel or baking sheet. (Keep remaining piece of dough covered with plastic wrap).
• Flatten dough with lightly oiled fingertips, patting and gently stretching into an 11 to 12 inch round.
• Spread half of onion mixture over round, then poke holes through dough all over with skewer.
• Slide bread, along with parchment, onto pizza stone. Bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove bread to a rack and discard parchment. While first flatbread is baking, make another bread on another sheet of parchment, then bake in same manner. Serve flatbreads warm.