How to make naan at home, plus recipes for using it
Warm, freshly baked bread drives me crazy. I associate it with my grandmother's kitchen, my sister's holiday loaves and trips to Poilane Bakery in Paris.
Little wonder, then, that loaves from the tandoor oven at our neighborhood Indian restaurant haunt my dreams. We go there and I swear I order one of each of their 15 offerings - from plain naan and roti, to deep-fried whole wheat poori to multi-layered potato and cilantro-stuffed aloo paratha. All arrive hot and fresh tucked into baskets between layers of crisp, white cloth.
Christine Manfield's gorgeous book "Tasting India" tells us that bread is a staple across all of India. It's "an everyday necessity as well as a signifier of celebratory and festive occasions." She says thin, soft chapati is perhaps the most common household bread.
However, simple naan is the breakout star in our collective global food embrace.
Manfield says that naan was introduced to the Indian repertoire by
