Naan Breads and Tzaziki

Recipe of the week……….Naan Bread with Homemade Tzaziki

This is the perfect accompaniment to curries or even as a light meal on a hot summers day with some good ham, hummus and a bottle of nice crisp chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, serve it as a starter at a braai or just to impress your friends. The secret to getting them so perfect is to have your oven as hot as possible and then you only cook them for about 5 minutes, test one and if it is not cooked through then cook it for another 4 minutes.

Difficulty: Medium

Makes: 4 big ones or 8 smaller ones

Prep Time 4 ½ hours

Cooking Time 5 minutes

Ingredients for the Naan Bread:

200g cake flour

10g Fresh yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

½  teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons of oil

3  tablespoons of plain yoghurt

1/2 cup lukewarm water

2 tsp chopped fresh coriander

1 tsp crushed garlic

½ lemon

Method:

Cream together half the sugar and yeast, then add in the water and a tablespoon of flour mix all together and leave until it forms a layer of foam on the top.

Add other half of sugar, salt, chopped coriander, crushed garlic, lemon zest and baking soda to the flour and mix well.

Add the oil to the yogurt and mix, then add this to the flour and mix until it becomes a crumbly dough.

Add the water/yeast mixture and make into soft dough, it should be a sloppy dough.

Knead until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough and keep in a warm place for 3-4 hours. The dough should almost be double in volume.

 Heat the oven to 240˚c or the highest it will go, if you have a pizza stone place that in the oven, if not place a thick baking tray in the oven to heat up, leave for at least 20 minutes to heat up. 

Knead the dough again for about two to three minutes and divide the dough into 4 equal parts.

Take each piece of dough, one at a time, and roll into an oval shape about 1cm thick. Dust lightly with dry flour to help with the rolling.

Before putting the Naan in oven, lightly wet your hands and take the rolled Naan, and flip them between your palms and place onto your baking/pizza stone into the oven.

You can place about 2 Naan on the baking/pizza stone at a time. The Naan will take about 5 minutes to cook, depending upon your oven. After the Naan is baked(Naan should be golden brown color on top).

Take naan out of the oven and brush lightly with melted butter or ghee.

wait 2 to 3 minutes before baking the next batch of naan. It gives oven the chance to get heated again to max.

Ingredients for the Tzaziki:

500ml Greek Yoghurt

100ml Tangy Mayonnaise

1 Cucumber finely grated

1 tsp green pepper corns crushed

½ cup chopped mint

1 tsp ground cumin

½ onion grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

After grating the cucumber and the onions, place in a collender for about 20 minutes to drain the excess liquid off. Then combine with all the other ingredients and mix well. It is best to leave it for about 2-3 hours to let the flavour infuse before eating but you can eat it straight away as well.

Bon Appetit