Buying Good Naan, and Other Things I Don't Make Myself
Okay, so I need to come clean about something before we wrap up this course.
I don't make my own naan. I buy it.
I've tried. It's a whole production with a dough that needs time, and a really hot surface to cook it on, and honestly my kitchen is chaos with five kids moving through it, and it's just never been worth the mess for me. Some of you are probably great bread bakers and could do it in your sleep. If that's you, teach me sometime, I mean that. But this class was curries and dal, and I'm staying in my lane on purpose. I'm not going to stand up here and pretend I have a naan lesson in me.
So let's talk about what to buy instead, because there's a right way and a wrong way to shop for this stuff.
Naan
Most grocery stores around here carry naan in the bakery section or near the international foods aisle — Macey's has it, Costco has a big pack if you're feeding a crowd. Check the ingredients list. You want something short and recognizable: flour, yogurt or milk, yeast, maybe ghee. If it's got a dozen ingredients you can't pronounce, that's usually the sign it's been sitting a while or padded out with stuff you don't need.
To heat it up: a dry skillet, medium-high, thirty seconds a side. Don't walk away — it goes from warm to leathery fast if you leave it too long. You can also do it straight over a gas burner flame for a few seconds if you want a little char, but stand right there with tongs. That's not a "check on it in a minute" situation, that's a "watch it the whole time" situation.
Rice, if you didn't make your own
We covered my rice method a couple lessons back, and I'll be honest, some weeks I just don't have it in me and I grab a bag of frozen basmati or even use the rice cooker on autopilot. No shame in that. Dal doesn't care what vessel got the rice cooked.
Chutneys and pickles
Mango pickle, lime pickle, mint chutney — these are things I mostly buy rather than make, because they take real time and a level of patience I don't have most weeks. Look for small jars in the international aisle. A spoonful of mango pickle next to your dal changes the whole plate. It's sour and hot and a little sweet all at once, and it does a lot of work for very little effort on your part.
Paneer
I'll occasionally make paneer from scratch because it's genuinely just milk and lemon juice and a strainer, but most weeks I buy the block from the store. Nothing wrong with that.
The spices you actually need to buy, one more time
I said this early on and I'll say it again because it's the opinion I hold onto hardest: you don't need twenty spices. Cumin, coriander, turmeric, a chili powder, garam masala. That's the list. The internet will try to sell you a spice cabinet that costs eighty dollars and half of it will sit in your pantry for two years going stale. Ignore it, at least at first. Build out from there once you know what you actually reach for.
And here's the thing about spices you do buy — once they're home, they still need respect. I learned this one the hard way, actually the very first time I toasted whole cumin seeds. I was maybe two months into this whole obsession, feeling pretty proud of myself, oil going in the pan, seeds going in the oil — and then Axel and Jose started fighting over something in the other room, the way brothers do, and I went to go break it up. I was gone maybe ninety seconds. Came back to a kitchen that smelled like a campfire and cumin seeds that had gone completely black. In February. I had to open every window in the apartment with it fifteen degrees outside, fanning smoke out with a dish towel, just mad at myself the whole time.
That's the lesson buried in the buying lesson, I guess. You can buy the best naan in the store and the best chutney in the jar, but the second you're actually cooking — blooming spices in oil — you have to be there. Not glancing over. There. It burns in under a minute and there's no saving it once it's black.
So buy what makes sense to buy. Naan, chutney, paneer, pickle, whatever gets dinner on the table on a Tuesday. Just don't walk away from the pan when something's actually cooking on the stove.
Before next time
Next time we bring it all together for real — a full plate, curry and dal and rice and whatever bread you picked up — so if you haven't grabbed naan yet, this week's the week to swing by the store for it.