Naan 4, Peshawari or Peshwari, Sweet Leavened Flat Bread
Nan 4 Peshawari Stuffed with dry fruits
Mamta Gupta
Also spelt as Peshwari, gets its name from a city called 'Peshawar' in the north west frontier (NWFP) region of Pakistan. This naan is sweet, stuffed and topped with a mix of nuts, raisins/sultanas and/or desiccated coconut. It is traditionally made in a Tandoor, an Indian clay oven. Tandoors cook food at very high temperatures, which is impossible to achieve in a domestic oven. However, they cook very well on a hot 'tava' or a pre-heated oven or under a preheated grill, the results are pretty good. I cook them on a Tava.
To make Naans soft, the dough needs to be soft. Just like chapatties, the slacker your dough, the better naans rise and the softer they are. So, the consistency should be as slack as you can manage to roll out. Indian chefs often roll it out by hand, just like making a Pizza, not using a rolling pin at all.
Be careful of the amount of yeast you add. Too much yeast will make the dough rise fast and well, but the flavour is not so great! Most people in India do not use yeast at all; they let yoghurt and natural yeast do the work. Makes 8-10 approximately.
Ingredients
For the dough
1 cup hand warm milk
2 cups plain flour or maida
1 tsp. active dry yeast
2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup active natural yoghurt
Hand warm Water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup flour for dusting
For the filling/toppings
1/2 cup blanched almonds or cashew nuts)
2 tbsp. desiccated coconut
2 full tbsp. raisins
1 tbsp. desiccated coconut, optional
2-3 tsp. kalaunji or Nigella seeds (onion seeds)
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. green cardamom powder (ground seeds)
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
Unsalted butter to bind
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, add yeast to the hand warm milk and stir. Allow to sit for a few minutes
Add the oil, sugar, salt and yogurt. Mix everything up well.
Gradually add in the flour a handful at a time, mixing with your hand or a wooden spoon.
Now knead well with your hand. Add enough water to make a soft, pliable, bread like dough.
Brush with a little oil, cover (I use disposable shower caps for this). Let it stand for an hour or two, while you cook rest of the food.
Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing and topping:
I put all ingredients in a food processor and chop coarsely. Hand held chopper also works. Alternatively, chop finely by a chopping, sharp knife.
Take out 1/3rd of this mix for topping while still corse. Keep aside.
Grind the rest a little bit finer, to use as stuffing/filling. Take out and keep in a separate bowl.
Rolling out the naan
Knock the dough down and divide into 8-10 portions. Roll them into balls. Keep covered with a moist cloth. I tend to make one ball at a time, while the previous naan is cooking.
Divide the filling mix into 8 portions.
Dust and roll one ball out a little, place 1/8th of the nut mix in the centre, pull the edges up towards the centre, press and close the ball
Dust and roll out the stuffed ball into to a circle, approximately 20-22 cm. or 8-9 inch. Roll gently; vigorous rolling will make stuffed naans burst.
Sprinkle 1/8 of the fine nut mix evenly on top and gently press with a rolling pin.
Cooking:
Nans are traditionally cooked in a very hot Tandoor. At home, Indians often cook naans on an upturned wok, but I find that they cook quite well on a tava griddle/ a frying pan / under a grill/ in an oven, just as long as the surface is hot and the naans are cooked quickly. Slow cooking makes them tough and leathery. My preferred method is cooking on a Tava.
Place 1-2 naans on a heated griddle/pan. When a few blisters appear, turn it over. After about 30-40 seconds, turn over again and gently coax them to balloon up by pressing with a kitchen towel. If you press on any of the larger blisters that appear, the hot ait in them expands and fiils the whole naan, making it balloon up.
Cook until a few blisters appear on the other side too. You can turn them over a few times to get even cooking.
Cooking in an oven or under a grill: When cooking under a grill or in an oven, roll out 3-4 naans at a time, as many as will fit on your oven tray easily. You can roll out the next batch of naans while the previous batch is baking.
Heat grill to maximum and the oven to around 300°C, the maximum you can get. Leave the tray under the grill or inside the oven, so that it gets really hot. Naans placed on a cold tray will stick and you will get stiff/hard/leathery naans!
Place 3-4 naans at a time on the pre-heated tray quickly, so it does not have time to cool down. Place the tray back in the oven/ under the grill. The naans will puff up fairly quickly. If cooking under a hot grill, you need to turn them over to cook the other side too. Oven will cook both sides simultaneously. When ready, they will have a few brown blisters scattered on each surface.
Cooking naans in a Tandoor Indian Oven: Heat Tandoor according to your instructions.
Roll Naan on a flat surface. Traditionally, the naan is made by slapping the oiled ball of dough between the palms, while rotating and stretching it at the same time, just like a traditional pizza.
Place it on a large, thick roll/wad of cloth and pull one end down to give it a traditional, tear drop shape.
Slap it to the side of the oven wall and let it cook until it blisters well.
Take it off using a long, steel rod. It helps to have 2 rods, so you can catch the naan between the two and take it out without dropping it into the fire! Take care not to burn your hand.
Butter one surface lightly and serve hot. They can be eaten with a curry, but are quite nice eaten on their own, with a cup of hot tea.
To serve: Brush a thin layer of butter/ghee on the surface and serve immediate;y.
