This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen was an quick naan with a filling of… Laughing Cow spreadable cheese! Sounds odd (and decidedly not French) but David explains that he was first introduced to Indian food when living in Paris, in the area around Gare du Nord where there is a large Indian population (I’ve had excellent Indian food in this area also).
David also explains that naan fromage doesn’t actually exist in Indian cooking but it’s something which does exist in the Indian restaurants around Paris and, after a bit of detective work, he figured out that the cheese inside was, indeed La vache qui rit (a little sacrilegious in the land of cheese but it does melt smoothly and evenly inside the naan).
These came together really easily – there is around an hour’s inactive time (while the yeast mixture rests and then again while the dough rests) and there’s a little bit of multi tasking if you do what David does and fry the nann and roll the rest at the same time. I rolled and filled all of the naan before I started frying and it was much easier.
I served these as a snack for myself while I was waiting for Neil to come home one night and then again with a couple of different curry dishes. I was *just* like the naan you can buy – maybe a little thicker than restaurant naan but I was impressed (if I do say so myself) with how “real” they looked and tasted!
(you can *just* see the cheese peeking through in the photo above)
I’ll be using this easy technique again, that’s for sure!
Get the recipe for David Lebovitz’s Indian Cheese Bread on p 50 of My Paris Kitchen.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “My Paris Kitchen” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
Can’t beat a homemade naan. Cheese is the best part. I bet there are other ingredients, just as delicious, to roll into the dough. Looking at your naan, I think I need mine to blacken more.
Definitely there are endless possibilities to add as fillings!
These really were easy to make. I rolled and stuffed mine before frying also as I like to be prepare for everything. It actually went quickly and except for the frying odor, they were delicious.
Luckily I was able to open a window re: the smell. I prob wouldn’t make them in the winter…
Haha, you and I are definitely on the same page with the laughing cow cheese. I was skeptical (since I hadn’t fully read the recipe instructions when I shopped), but once I started rolling it out I was quite thankful to have it. That’s good you can stuff and roll before frying. I did the multi-tasking, which went okay but was a bit hectic every now and then.
I’m definitely not a multi tasker in my tiny kitchen!
What a lovely snack to go with your chosen beverage! Hope to get around to this soon.
It’s so easy!