Coconut-Cilantro Flatbread

I’m glad that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is already a standby, because it’s a lot easier to say than what I would have come up with. “When life gives you a failed coconut-cilantro yogurt dip, make coconut-cilantro yogurt flatbread” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. But it does, however, make one delicious bread!

I was making these fantastic spicy sweet Adobo-style wings that I’d been craving since, well, the last time I made them, and thought it might be nice to make a tangy dip for them. I love blue cheese dip with wings, but I was trying to think of something with a bit more Asian flair, so I thought coconut might work. I started with some yogurt, added coconut cream, cilantro, and so on, and although it was tasty, it was too sweet and a bit too thin for what I wanted. I ended up just making a blue cheese dip, and that went wonderfully with the wings, but I had a big bowl of weird yogurt still in my fridge.

It occurred to me that I could make naan, a tasty Indian flatbread made with yogurt. Having no idea how to do that though, I looked around, and found this recipe over on Epicurious. So with a little changes to the original, I was able to, you know, make my proverbial lemonade.

Obviously you could add the ingredients individually like the original recipe does, but in my adaptation I’m going to start with the yogurt dip and go from there.

-adapted from Epicurious.-

makes 8 flatbreads

-1 1/2 cups (plus more for dusting) unbleached all purpose flour

-1 1/2 tsp baking powder

-3/4 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-3/4 cup Coconut-Cilantro Yogurt Dip (recipe below)

-Olive oil (for frying)

1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.

2. Add yogurt dip and mix with a fork until clumps form. Turn the dough onto a clean, floured surface and knead just until it holds together and is smooth, about a minute. If the dough is too wet, add a bit of flour.

3. Flatten the dough and cut into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. One by one, roll out the balls into a flat round, 4-5″ in diameter.

4. Brush a large nonstick pan (I used cast iron) with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add first dough round to the pan and fry until browned and puffy, about 2 minutes a side.

5. When sufficiently browned to your liking, transfer to a platter. Repeat with remaining flatbreads. Add more oil to the pan if needed.

These guys are best served right away. I couldn’t help but eat them right away, actually. It was difficult to save some for dinner! I brushed them with some olive oil mixed with ground coriander seed and freshly chopped cilantro for a little added awesomeness.

makes about 3/4 cup

-7oz container of Greek-style yogurt (I used Fage 2%)

-1/3 cup cilantro, finely chopped

-3 tbsp (or more) coconut cream

-1 tbsp sour cream

-1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

-white pepper and salt to taste

1. Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well. (By the way, the measurements I list here are kind of rough.. when I made this, it was one of those “throwing stuff in a bowl” kind of things…)

Aside from the ones we threw down right away, we actually managed to save some to go with the tamarind prawns we made later. I’ll post the recipe for that soon!

© PopArtichoke 2010