Naan in a tandoor oven

[james]

We went to our local Farmer's Market/Craftfair -- Tuesday evenings in downtown Monterey -- and my highlight was an Indian restaurant making naan in two gas-fired tandoor ovens. Very cool.

They had trays of dough balls that looked remarkably like pizza dough balls. The chefs patted them out to where they looked like a pizza base -- then they stuck them to the side of the tandoor oven. They used a round, padded tool to force the naan against the oven side -- where it would stick and bake for about one minute. A nice char on the side touching the oven, and a golden brown on the other side. The un-stuck them with a wire hook and stacked them up. It was great.

The tandoor oven was 500ºF+. The oven was a refractory cylinder heated with a propane fire. It could hold about 16 naans at a time. The opening is in the top.

I've been complaining about my naan (it's not good) for years. I'm going to try sticking it to the walls next time -- though I need to think about building one of those pads that sticks the naan to the oven wall.

Excellent.
James

[SpringJim]

And you didn't have a camera in your pocket?

Or the new video cam?

[chuckster]

I've had good success just throwing the Naan breads on the hearth and cooking them like baby pizzas.

If I recall correctly there are some utube videos on guys using that padded mitt thing to wack them on the sides of the tandoori oven.

[dmun]

We've learned that the padded thing is called a "bread pad" and you can get one at any Indian grocery, which around here are called, charmingly, "cash and carry". I've been meaning to get one when I get down to Edison the next time.

I've seen a lot of Naan recipes that have both yeast and baking powder, which is weird to me. The liquid is yogurt, which I understand is a thicker and more aggressively flavored substance in the Indian world than the stuff we get at the supermarket.

[Wiley]

Here's one of the better videos I've found of a tandoor oven in use:

YouTube - ROTI


Wiley

[rhollman]

that is a great video. it's exactly what i was looking for. i'm thinking of sticking the naan to the surface just inside my brick pizza oven. I think it would be very similar. Has any one else done this ?

[david s]

I know it's not using a tandoori or a WFO, but for a few naans with a curry, we simply make up some pizza dough roll out a dough ball and put it in the sandwich press. Very little fuss and a fantastic result.

[sacwoodpusher]

I am a little bit concerned about sticking bread on the wall of my oven. My problem is that I already have hairless knuckles from puttig my hands too close to the door.

I wonder if a tandoor can be made with firebrick.....I don't see why not, but do you fire the tandoor by putting a propane burner in the bottom of the tandoor (on the inside) or do you fire the tandoor on the outside.....ie is a tandoor a white oven or a black oven.

[Lburou]

I may be asking the obvious here, but do we have the dough recipe for this naan?

Does gravity do something mysterious while cooking on the Indian oven that cooking the naan on the WFO floor won't do?

[GianniFocaccia]

Just Google Naan recipe.