Tava Naan

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour - 3 cups
• Active Dry Yeast - 1 tspn
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Warm water - 1/2 cup
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Sugar - 1 tspn
• Salt - 3/4 tspn
• Oil - 1 tspn

Tava Naan

method

This was my third attempt at making Naan. Very first time, alarm went off because of the excessive heat(500 degrees) from my oven & I had to curtail my Naan making process midway. Then, I tried it on a tava, Naan came out perfect but did not taste good because of the excess baking soda & baking powder added to the recipe. Finally, I gave it a shot by using yeast & made the naan again on a tava & it came out just perfect. So, without further ado, I am presenting you my recipe from my third attempt here. Just so you know, my inspiration for this recipe is from chef Sanjay from VahreVah.com.

1. Dissolve the yeast & sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Leave it covered for 10 minutes or until frothy.
2. Mix in other ingredients & make a dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes to make the gluten form. Gluten is a protein which holds the air released by yeast while the yeast is working on the sugar in the dough. The dough may be little sticky, but that is ok. Cover the bowl & leave it in a warm place for about 3-4 hours or until the dough doubles.
3. Punch the dough with your knuckle to its original size. Punching the dough helps to distribute the air bubbles all through the dough. Knead the dough for 3 minutes & let it rest for 10 more minutes. Resting helps to relax the dough & will make it easier to handle. Otherwise, the dough will not hold the shape, it springs back to a ball.
4. Make the dough into equal sized balls (bigger than chapati dough). If the dough sticks, dip your finger into the dry flour to make the balls & roll it into a circle or tear drop shape. You can even pat the dough by your hand & flip them around using both hands. The weight of the dough will help stretch the dough.
5. Heat an Iron pan or a heavy bottomed pan (for even heat distribution) with lid on for five minutes or till it smokes a bit.
6. Sprinkle a teaspoon of water over the stretched naan (no need to drench the whole area of the naan) & put the sprinkled side of the naan to the heated tava so that the naan sticks to the tava at the sprinkled areas. Cover it with a lid. When the top side starts to bubble up, flip it & cover it with a lid. Cook the naan covered till both the sides form black spots.
7. Spread it with butter or ghee & serve it hot. This recipe makes 8-9 naans.

Make the dough in a glass or plastic bowl. Metal containers conduct heat resulting in uneven rising of the dough.

Aloo Paratta

Ingredients

• For chappathi
• Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Oil - 2 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn
• for stuffing
• Potato - 2 medium
• Cumin powder - 1/4 tspn
• Coriander powder - 1/4 tspn
• Chilli powder - 1/4 - 1/2 tspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Dry methi leaves - 1/4 tspn
• Oil - 3-4 tspn for sauteing

health tip

You may replace regular wheat flour with whole wheat flour in this recipe. Whole wheat flour is rich in fiber & is good for health. Diet conscious people may want to reduce the number of potatoes used in this recipe.

aloo paratta

method

1. Make chappathi dough using ingredients given under chappathi. Usually the flour consumes 50 - 55 percent of water. So approximately 1 1/2 cups of water is used. I learned this from VahrehVah.com.Thanks to chef Sanjai. Make the dough into equal sized balls. Keep them covered while making the stuffing.
2. Boil the potatoes & remove the skin. Mash it as fine as possible. Even a small chunk will interrupt the process. It will pop out & make it harder to roll the chappathi further more.
   In a pan heat some oil. Add ginger garlic paste & other masala powders. Add the mashed potatoes & methi leaves & mix them all together. Let it cool.
3. When cooled divide them into equal sized balls. Almost same size as the chappathi dough balls.
4. Take a chappathi ball & roll it into a small circle just the right size to hold the stuffing. No need to roll it bigger. Making bigger circle will hold some space between the dough & stuffing, which leads to unevenly stuffed chappathi. Roll the chappathi ball starting from center towards outside leaving the center thicker than perimeter.
   
5. Now place a stuffing ball in the center where it is thicker & gather the chappathi together around the stuffing towards top as shown in the picture. More like a dumpling.
   
6. Make a heap by pulling the ends together & twist it. Remove the heap. Roll them in some dry flour & roll it into chappathi.
7. Cook it in a tawa turning each side every 2 minutes. It will puff up beautifully if the stuffing is evenly spread. Repeat the steps from 5 - 8 for all the chappathi balls.
8. Enjoy it with green chutney & tamarind chutney, or with ketchup. This recipe yields 10 parattas.

Pav for Pav Bhaji

Ingredients
All purpose flour or Maida - 7 cups
Dry yeast - 7 grams or 1 package
Warm water - 3 1/2 cups
Sugar - 2 tspn
Salt - 1 3/4 tspn
Butter - 7 tspn
Milk - 3 tspn

Instructions:
Dissolve the dry yeast in warm water along with sugar & leave it in a warm place for 10 minutes. The water should be lukewarm & not too hot. Hot water will kill the yeast. Sugar is needed to make the yeast active. After 10 minutes the yeast mixture will look frothy.

Now add the salt & flour. Mix them together & knead them well for 10 minutes. Kneading helps the gluten to form. Gluten is a protein which gives the dough its elasticity & it helps to hold the air while baking. The dough may be sticky, but don't bother about it. The extra moisture helps to get softer bread.  Finally mix the melted butter & finish the kneading.

Transfer the dough to a bowl & cover it with a lid. Let it sit for an hour or till the dough doubles in size. After the dough doubles in size take it out & punch it down to release the air. Spread some butter in a cookie sheet & dust it with some flour. Make the dough into equal sized balls. The dough may be too sticky to make a ball. Take a glob of dough & roll it over some dry flour as you do for chappathi. Do not knead it with the flour. Arrange the balls in the cookie sheet such as the sides of the balls touches each other.

Cover it with a wet towel or plastic sheet & leave for another hour. After an hour the balls will be doubled in size. Now brush some milk over the balls. Preheat the oven to 375 degree & bake the bread for about 20 to 30 minutes. After 20 minutes take it out from oven & insert a tooth pick into it. If  the dough sticks to the toothpick, put it back in the oven for some more time. If the toothpick comes out clean then the bread is ready to take out of the oven.

Enjoy the bread with subji or the vegetables. Bhaji recipe is available here.