Naan ( fa, نان, nān, ur, , ps, نان, ug, نان, hi, नान, bn, নান) is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried

flatbread A flatbread is a bread made with flour; water, milk, yogurt, or other liquid; and salt, and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened, although some are leavened, such as pizza and pita bread. Flatbreads ran ...

which is found in the cuisines mainly of Western Asia, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Malaysia,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

Etymology

Naan Bakery, Iran, Qajar era (circa 1850)

The earliest appearance of "naan" in English is from 1803 in a travelogue of

William Tooke William Tooke (1744 – 17 November 1820) was a British clergyman and historian of Russia. Life Tooke was the second son of Thomas Tooke (1705–1773) of St. John's, Clerkenwell, by his wife Hannah, only daughter of Thomas Mann of St. James's, ...

. The Persian word ''nān'' 'bread' is attested in Middle Persian as ''n'n'' 'bread, food', which is of Iranian origin, and is a cognate with Parthian ''ngn'', Kurdish ''nan'',

Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to: * Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan * an adjecti ...

''nagan'', Sogdian ''nγn-'', and Pashto ''nəγan'' 'bread'. ''Naan'' may have derived from bread baked on hot pebbles in ancient Persia. The form ''naan'' has a widespread distribution, having been borrowed in a range of languages spoken in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, where it usually refers to a kind of

( tandyr nan). The spelling ''naan'' has been recorded as being first attested in 1979, but dates back at least to 1975, and has since become the normal English spelling.

Varieties

Western Asia

Naan as known today originates from Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and South Asia. The most familiar and readily available varieties of naan in Western countries are those from South Asia. In Iran, as well as in other West Asian nations or ethnic groups in the region, from which the word originated, ''nân'' ( fa, نان) does not carry any special significance, as it is the generic word for any kind of bread. File:Baking bread by nomad women in Lar National Park.jpg, Nan in Iran File:Iranian Bread 1.JPG, Nân-e barbari in Iran File:Naan Sangak.jpg,

Nân-e sangak ''Sangak'' ( fa, سنگک, az, səngək, ku, sengek) or ''nân-e sangak'' ( fa, نان سنگک) is a plain, rectangular, or triangular Iranian whole wheat leavened flatbread. History In Persian 'sangak' means little stone. The bread is b ...

in Iran File:Taftan nan 01.jpg,

Nân-e tâftun Taftan taftoon ( fa, تافتون) or ( ur, ) is a leavening, leavened flour bread from Iranian cuisine, Iranian, Indian cuisine, Indian and cuisine of Pakistan, Pakistani cuisines. It is made with Refined flour, milk, yoghurt, and eggs and bake ...

in Iran

Indian subcontinent

Naan in parts of the Indian subcontinent usually refers to a specific kind of thick flatbread. Generally, it is usually leavened with yeast or with bread starter (leavened naan dough left over from a previous batch); unleavened dough (similar to that used for '' roti'') is also used. Naan, similar to some other breads of South Asian cuisine is cooked in a '' tandoor'', from which tandoori cooking takes its name. This distinguishes it from ''roti'', which is usually cooked on a flat or slightly concave iron griddle called a '' tava''. Modern recipes sometimes substitute baking powder for the yeast. Milk or yogurt may also be used to impart distinct tastes to the naan. Milk used instead of water will, as it does for ordinary bread, yield a softer dough. Also, when bread starter (which contains both yeast and

lactobacilli The ''Lactobacillaceae'' are a family of lactic acid bacteria. It is the only family in the lactic acid bacteria which includes homofermentative and heterofermentative organisms; in the ''Lactobacillaceae,'' the pathway used for hexose fermentati ...

) is used, the milk may undergo modest

lactic fermentation Lactic acid fermentation is a metabolic process by which glucose or other six-carbon sugars (also, disaccharides of six-carbon sugars, e.g. sucrose or lactose) are converted into cellular energy and the metabolite lactate, which is lactic aci ...

. Typically, it is brushed with some water but in some other cultures such as those in the Indian Subcontinent, they brush

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from India. It is commonly used in India for cooking, as a traditional medicine, and for religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by simmering butter, which is churned from c ...

or butter. It enjoys a special position in the Indian cuisine as it can be used to scoop other foods and gravies or served stuffed with a filling. A typical naan recipe involves mixing white or whole wheat flour with active dry yeast, salt, and water. The dough is kneaded for a few minutes, then set aside to rise for a few hours. Once risen, the dough is divided into balls (about 100 g or 3.5 oz each), which are flattened and cooked. In South Asian cuisine, naans are typically flavored with fragrant essences, such as rosewater, ''khus'' ( vetiver), or with butter or

melted on them. Nigella seeds are commonly added to naan as cooked in Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurants throughout the UK. Raisins, lentils and spices can be added. Naan is a natural marriage with Indian and Bangladeshi curries and gravies and can also be covered with, or served as a wrap for, various toppings of

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

, vegetables, or

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

s. This version is sometimes prepared as

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

. It can also be dipped into such soups as '' dal'' and goes well with ''sabzis'' (also known as ''shaakh'').

Indonesia

In Indonesia, naan is popular in Indian Indonesian and Arab Indonesian community as well as

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, Acehnese and Minangkabau–with other variant of ''roti'' like '' roti canai''. This dish usually locally known as ''roti naan'' or ''roti nan'' and cooked using Indonesian spices, such as garlic with local taste.

Myanmar

''Naan bya'' ( my, နံပြား) in

is sometimes served at

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

with tea or coffee. It is round, soft, and blistered, often buttered, or with (boiled peas) on top, or dipped in (mutton soup).

China

The Jingzhou style of

guokui Guokui (), literally "pot helmet", is a kind of flatbread made from flour originating from Shaanxi cuisine. Variations The dish is said to have been invented during the Tang Dynasty by a laborer who cooked flatbread in his iron helmet over a wo ...

, a flatbread prepared inside a cylindrical charcoal oven much like a tandoor, has been described as "Chinese naan". It is also an integral part of Uyghur cuisine, and is known in Chinese as 馕 (''náng'').

Japan

After being promoted by Kandagawa Sekizai Shoukou in 1968, which is now the sole domestic manufacturer of tandoors, naan is now widely available in Indian-style curry restaurants in Japan, where naan is typically free-flow. Some restaurants bake ingredients such as cheese, garlic, onions, and potatoes into the naan, or cover it with toppings like a pizza.

Elsewhere

Naan pizza is a type of

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

where naan is used as the crust instead of the traditional pizza dough. Chefs such as Nigella Lawson, and supermarkets such as Wegmans offer recipes for people to make their own naan pizza at home.

Gallery

File:Bread of Afghanistan in 2010.jpg, Nan in Afghanistan File:Naan in Afghanistan.jpg, Nan in Kabul, Afghanistan File:نان مزاری.jpg, Nan in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan File:Indian naan bread.jpg, Indian naan baked in the tandoor File:Peshawari Roti, Pakistan.jpg, Tandoor-baked naan in Karachi File:二道桥馕店2.jpg, A Uyghur naan store in Ürümqi,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

File:Butter Garlic Naan.jpg, Butter garlic naan File:Cheese Naan.jpg, Paneer naan File:Nanbya.jpg, Burmese nan bya

References

External links

* * {{Burgers Afghan cuisine South Asian breads Yeast breads Flatbreads Persian words and phrases Bangladeshi cuisine Bengali cuisine Pakistani breads Indian cuisine Indian breads Indonesian breads Iranian cuisine Iranian breads Burmese cuisine Egyptian cuisine Egyptian breads Caribbean cuisine