Naan Bread

My sister and I decided to have an Indian dinner one night, as we've been hooked on the spices used in that cuisine ever since we had our first taste of it at a remarkable Indian buffet in Ottawa, Ontario (I really wish I remembered the name of it, but we were quite young when we went).

Well, we received an Indian cooking book as a gift, very aptly named "Complete Indian Cooking", which includes a variety of recipes like Soups and Starters; Meat (each has their own section); Rice, grains, and pulses; Vegetarian; Breads and Accompaniments; and Desserts, just to name a few. The book also identifies what types of tools one would need in Indian cooking, as well as the spices.

The Naan bread I made from this book was really yummy and much better, and cheaper, than what you can buy at the grocery store. It involved ingredients that any western household would regularly have in their pantry; I only needed to purchase plain yogurt. Perhaps the most tedious part of making bread is the part where you have to let it sit and rise, and this recipe required a whole 4 hours to rise, which is longer than any bread recipe I've tried in the past. On the plus side, when it comes to cooking the bread, it is a rather fast process, because you divide the bread into twelve Naan, stretch the dough into oblong shapes, and cook them on one side in a frying pan. Then, you butter and sprinkle poppy seeds on the raw side and finish them under the broil in your oven for approximately five minutes.

The Naan was quite dense and chewy, which made it an excellent accompaniment to a saucy curry and chutney.


Since the Naan bread recipe made twelve, we had eight pieces left for dinner the next day. It is tomato season here in Ontario, so we decided to make "Double Tomato Bruschetta" from allrecipes.com, which has been a regularly used recipe for my sister and I for the past four years or so. This recipe typically uses a baguette, but since we had the Naan bread, we figured we could slice them in half and get 16 pieces of Bruschetta. Actually, I liked using the Naan for this recipe better than a baguette, because the surface area is greater on which to put the tomato mixture and mozzarella cheese, and we were able to use up all the tomato mixture, which we've typically had to leave behind when using an entire baguette. Because the Naan is so dense, it holds up well to the olive oil, sundried-tomato liquid, and balsamic vinegar in the tomato mixture, and does not become soggy.