The relentless naan thread part 2... also long... but I think I nailed it.

For context: http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1200110/the-relentless-naan-thread-long/p1

Didn't make much progress after those trials until recently. We went on a cruise  last month, one of the highlights of which was a specialty lunch restaurant on the ship serving up tandoori fare. One of my goals for the trip was to cozy up to the chef and get him to spill his naan secrets. The tandoori place on the ship was really pretty good. Better than a number of Indian restaurants that I've been to in Houston. When I told the guy about my naan exploits, and that I built a tandoor, he was happy to share a naan dough recipe ( which is more than 2 places where I asked for naan help cared to do). The problem with recipes on the internet is that they're mostly by home cooks, or chefs pandering to home cooks, so they cheat by using yeast or baking powder (+/- baking soda) for leavening. I couldn't find any recipes that were actually used in restaurants. 

Satbir (the tandoor chef on the ship) said that I had it all wrong using yeast or yogurt to leaven the dough, so I  tried his recipe for naan dough (AP flour, water, oil, milk, eggs) since the naans on the ship were quite good. But the dough was too wet, not leavened enough, and not what I was looking for. He may have held back. But it got me thinking, and since I had some time off after we returned from the cruise, I went at it. 

I ploughed through variations of the dough, baking them in the oven (rack at second level from the top, on a hot stone, broiler on to finish). Bounced some ideas off a  buddy of mine who has a similar interest in all things food related, especially bbq and Indian grub. Perused many many recipes on line and elsewhere, but they were of litle help as most recipes use yeast or baking powder to cheat re: leavening, so they were immediately disqualified. I did read that dough from a previous batch would often be used to leaven a new batch of dough, and that's when the light bulb went off... SOURDOUGH!! I've had sourdough starter on hand for a few months now, since I've been dabbling in baking (especially sourdough loaves lately), so naturally, my naans needed some sourdough. 

Here are some of the dough versions I tried - with and without sourdough, upping the eggs, nixing the water and using milk only, khamir (preferment, using yogurt only for leavening), etc. 




Without sourdough for leavening, the naans turned out like crackers. Passable for Passover, but not quite naans. The sourdough versions of the dough were better, so I worked on that. I found that subbing yogurt (dahi) instead of milk, made for a better texture than using water or milk alone. The naans made with sourdough and yogurt made for a pliable, crispy naan, not too puffy, and more like the naan I was after.

But the baking method wasn't quite right. Tried some in my small egg, but... meh.  Tried it on a stone, ~600°F, even raised higher in the dome, and it still wasn't quite right. The face side wouldn't brown enough before the bottom started burning. And I don't see the point of running an egg at nuclear temps to make naan.






The face of a naan has to "see the fire" like it does in a tandoor. Notes exchanged with my buddy in Boston led to another brainwave - what about using a hot CI skillet, flipped over, so one side cooked from the heat of the skillet, but the face cooked over fire? And that was it. Near perfect (Indian) naan.



 




These naans were by far the best I've made. The dough is best after 3 days in the fridge, but is still good even at the 2 week mark. I'm tired of typing and culling pics, so I'm done for now. Recipe for the dough follows.

Next phase of naan experiments is to try the inverted skillet method on the egg, as well as go OG/ol skool and just do it in the tandoor.