Naan Bread

Náng is the staple bread of Xinjiang and the Uyghur cultural world — as fundamental to daily eating as rice is in southern China or mantou in the north. Baked in a cylindrical clay tandoor oven, it is eaten at every meal, broken by hand and used alongside polo pilaf, lagman noodle stew, samsa pies or simply dipped in tea or yoghurt.

The dough is wheat flour, yeast, salt and water, sometimes enriched with a little egg or milk. After mixing and a short proof, the dough is portioned and flattened by hand into rounds ranging from palm-sized individual pieces to plate-wide family versions. The surface is stamped with a carved wooden tool (nang chäkküch) that creates a sunflower-like pattern of divots at the centre — these vent steam and create the characteristic pattern. Sesame seeds, nigella (black cumin) seeds or poppy seeds are pressed into the surface before baking.

The stamped round is slapped firmly onto the inside wall of the tandoor at a controlled angle. The radiant heat from the charcoal fire at the base bakes the underside against the clay wall while the exposed upper surface toasts in the ambient heat of the oven. The whole process takes four to seven minutes: the edges char slightly, the centre toasts golden, the bottom develops a slightly smoky, charred flavour from the clay contact. The bread is removed with a hooked tool.

Freshly baked náng has a firm crust and a chewy, substantial interior — quite different from the soft naan common at Indian restaurants. As it cools it hardens; day-old náng is typically dipped in broth or tea to soften.

A large, thick, fully dried ceremonial náng — sometimes over a metre in diameter — is given as a gift at weddings and kept for weeks as a symbol of abundance.