I had previously paused working through Season while still working through The Wok as sourcing new-to-me ingredients for two meals it was just too much effort each week. However, Sunday I made chicken tikka masala to take to some friends and kept some of it as one of our family’s weeknight meals. Since the main dish was already made, I took the opportunity to make Nik Sharma’s Naan recipe.

I had previously made the Naan dough for Margherita Naan Pizza, so I reviewed my notes on that:

The only issue with the prep was the naan dough: I had it rising in the oven out of the way, and a family member preheated the oven to make something else and completely cooked it. Fortunately I had enough of the pastry flour to make a second batch, but I had used up the called-for active dry yeast and had to use some instant yeast we had on hand. I’m not sure how much of a difference that made, but the dough had not doubled in size when it came time to make dinner.

I’m interested in trying this again with an all-purpose flour version of the naan dough…

Nik calls for either all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour can be used and notes “I use whole-wheat pastry flour to make naan because it contains more fiber than all-purpose flour but less gluten, which helps produce a softer bread.” Given my notes from the pizza, I opted for all-purpose flour this time.

I had no problems with the dough rising this time (nor mishaps with others in the family). The recipe makes four pieces, and I did the optional garlic naan for two of them. Nik directs to cook each piece in a skillet over medium-high, covered, for three to four minutes. Then flip, turn the heat to low, and cook, covered, for one to two more minutes. Those times ended up being too long for me. I ended up doing both sides for two minutes.

The naan came out great. Megan said that it was perhaps my best naan ever. The kids enjoyed it too. I’ll certainly do this one again when I can plan ahead enough.

I am cooking my way through Nik Sharma’s Season cookbook. Read more about it.