My First Ever Butter Naan!

If you have been reading my posts for some time now, you have probably read about my monthly goals for self improvement. For this month, one of my goals is to learn how to cook at least 2 Indian dishes. And as of this moment, I am happy to say that I have already accomplished that goal.

One of the dishes I was able to cook to meet my goal was butter naan. I personally like it better than roti. In fact, I like butter naan so much better that I can eat it on its own. So without further ado, let me share with you guys my first ever butter naan!

Puffing is a good sign of cooking your naan (or even roti) right.

Typically, yeast is one of the ingredients when making naan. I did not have that handy so I googled the web for a recipe that does not call for yeast. I tweaked the recipe a bit so continue scrolling below to know more about it.

Butter Naan Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup warm/room temperature milk
• 1/2 cup sweet yogurt/curd
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of baking soda
• 2 tbsp butter

Procedure

1. Sift all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a container.
2. Create a well at the center of the sifted ingredients and pour in the milk and sweet yogurt in the "well".
3. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients to the wet (milk and yogurt) until a soft dough has formed.
4. Let the soft dough sit for two hours.
5. After two hours, knead the dough for about three minutes then start pinching a good portion of the dough, about the size of a golf ball then roll it on a dusted flat surface.
6. After rolling, wet one side of the dough using your hand and put it on an iron pan under medium heat (Indians call it "tawa") wet side down and then cover it with a lid.
7. After about two to three minutes, remove the naan from the iron pan and cook the other side straight to the flame using a hand held griller for about thirty seconds under low heat.
8. Once done, put the naan on a plate and brush it with butter.

My first ever butter naan!

As you can see on the photo above, my first ever butter naan kind of failed because while it was on its final stage of cooking (the hand held grill part), it took some time for me to capture the image so you can see some burnt portions. Nevertheless, it tasted fine. Not really the way I imagined it to be, maybe because I didn't use yeast, so it was not as light and airy as the ones I had from the hotel where Babs and I stayed before moving in to our new apartment. But overall, for a first timer, I think I did fine and Babs actually gave me an 8/10 rating and he is not the type to lie about my cooking just to make me feel good. Hihihi!

Yay! Cooked the rest of them perfectly. I guess. Haha!

So what dish did I cook to match my butter naan with? Find out tomorrow! It's also an Indian dish and a favorite in our household!

Enjoy the rest of your day guys wherever part of the globe you may be!

Veg or Non-Veg?

That is probably one of the most common questions that you will encounter once you find your feet on the beautiful grounds of India.

Whenever you are handed a menu, you will definitely see labels that say Vegetarian/Veg or Non-Vegetarian/Non-Veg. At times, you don't even need to see the menu to find out whether that place sells only vegetarian stuff or not. All you need to do is read the sign outside the restaurant which has its name on it and right below the name (or after the name or even within the name) will be something like "veg and non-veg restaurant" or "purely vegetarian".

A sample menu from a Chinese restaurant chain in India.

You see, where I am from, most people do not really bother if what they are about to eat has meat in it or if they are going to nibble on some leaves and whatnot that did not come from any animal.

In most parts of the world, the two main reasons why people chose to become vegetarians are: one, they believe that animals deserve to live like humans so they should be treated with respect and should not be killed for man's consumption and two, living a vegetarian life is better and healthier than being a carnivore (or an omnivore - one that eats both plants and animals).

An example of a complete Indian non-veg thali (platter).

However, here in India, while people still have the freedom to choose whatever it is that they want to eat, religion plays a very important role when it comes to their diet. Talk about full commitment.

Here, I ordered chicken kebabs and chicken tikka and I got the vegetarian version instead because apparently, they only serve purely vegetarian dishes.

So what do you think is my answer whenever people ask me this question?

Well, I'm more of the non-veg type of person so I had a few minor challenges before when there were no non-veg stuff available on the menu and that I have no choice but to eat whatever was served on my plate because I was very hungry and that finding another place to eat will take a lot of time and oh! That it will be rude to leave a friend's engagement party just to go somewhere else to grab some chicken tandoori and beef curry. Hihihi!

This is my very first full pledged Indian vegetarian platter.

What about you, what would you order? Veg or Non-Veg?