Learning to make tandoor oven-baked naan bread at Mantra

Though it’s become an integral part of Indian cuisine, the tandoor oven actually originated in Turkey. Today it is found throughout the Middle East, along with the Balkans, Central Asia, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere. It is traditionally a deep, cylindrically-shaped clay oven, heated at the bottom with a charcoal or wood fire to temperatures of about 400 degrees for meat, and 450 degrees for bread.



Needless to say, most of us don't have one of these at home. But it's still fun to learn about cooking in the tandoor tradition during a weekly Tuesday night class at the Naan Bar at Mantra in Downtown Crossing.

Ranveer Brar, corporate chef at the One World Cuisine restaurant group (which owns Bukhara, Diva and many other Indian restaurants around the city), began by showing us how to prepare dough for naan bread. He mixed 2 pounds of flour seasoned with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, 1 egg, and “thirty percent milk,” using the kneading attachment on a Kitchen Aid mixer to work the dough. It’s preferable to do so by hand, adding a teaspoon of oil toward the end, and being careful not to over-knead. He advised resting the dough in the refrigerator for two hours, and if you don’t happen to have a tandoor oven, using an unglazed porcelain or terra cotta baking slab (or a pizza stone, says my internet research). Roll the dough into a small flat round about the size of a plate. According to Ranveer, slapping it loudly as you shape it is essential. In a tandoor oven, the bread is pressed to the sides of the oven and sticks there. With a regular oven, you’ll need to watch for the dough to puff up, and then turn it over to cook the other side.



Some people flavor the dough with mint or toasted caraway seeds, and some stuff it with (or pile on top) delicious combinations of sweet or savory ingredients like coconut or garlic. At the Naan Bar at Mantra, you can try 3 varieties of naan--ranging from ginger & honey to sundried tomato & rosemary, along with even more inventive combinations like chocolate & marshmallow or PB&J--with 3 kinds of chutney, for twelve dollars.

But bread is not the only item you can cook in a tandoori, and Ranveer continued our lesson with meat kebabs. He encouraged us to marinate chicken, beef, or lamb in yogurt to make it tender, and to flavor it with 10% seasoning--which might include red chili, celery seed, cilantro, coriander seeds, fenugreek, cumin, fried red onions, and garam masala (prepared with a base of cardamom, coriander and rose petals, along with a balance of hot and cool spices).



And speaking of spices, Ranveer leads monthly spice tours (the first Saturday of every month) at Shalimar Indian Foods & Spices in Central Square, with a meal afterward at The Dosa Factory, a casual new lunch counter at the back of the shop, for twenty dollars. And even without a tandoor oven, knowing more about the amazing array of Indian spices (and their ayurvedic properties) would surely be a useful tool for any cook interested in expanding her repertoire to South Asia.

To register for a class, call 617-542-8111 and ask for Laura.