Seva’s Tandoori Ovens Make Exceptional Naan

“Roti is for everyday eating,” says Gurdev Singh as he sits at his Northland Indian restaurant Seva, having just ordered us a dish of tikka masala with a side of naan. “Naan is for special occasions.”

Singh, who hails from the northwest region of India in Punjab, prides himself on many aspects of his restaurant’s menu. Throughout it, vegetarian and vegan dishes boast fresh ingredients. His kitchen doesn’t use dyes (which can sometimes be the case if your tandoori chicken is a particularly bright shade of orange), and he chooses to keep the recipe to his popular tandoori fish a secret. And yet, it’s Seva’s naan that Singh says is “the best.”

In contrast to the more dense and thin slices of roti, Seva’s naan is light and pillowy. It pulls apart with the ease of a fresh biscuit hot out the oven. But ultimately, it’s the smoky bits of char on the bubbly bread that make naan a true delight, and Seva’s specialty tandoor clay oven creates this.

Cooking naan in the oven is quick (Seva’s naan-maker says during a rush, he can prepare a slice, from dough to crispy fluffy disc, in 50 seconds). The ball of dough is flattened, docked and then spread over what can only be described as a dome-shaped pillow. Using the pillow, the cook reaches down into the hot clay oven, which can be anywhere from 450 to 600 degrees, and stamps the dough against the oven’s walls. Sticking to the walls, the dough quickly bubbles and crisps. After about a minute, the cook uses a long poker tool to gently peel the naan off the oven’s wall, and it’s ready to serve immediately. 

As Singh and I use the naan that I just watched bubble in the clay oven moments ago to scoop up bits of rice and creamy tikka masala, neither one of us talks much. We are, for the most part, absorbed in the beautiful food we’ve just been served—until Singh drops some undeniable wisdom.

“Whatever you are enjoying, you enjoy more with naan.”

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