Topic: Restaurant charcoal

[jb]

I guess this is just a question for those members who have their own tandoori oven.My question is what sort of charcoal do you use? I only ask because I had my oven out recently and the amount of smoke coming out of it was enormous,so much more than normal.That's not a problem but the amount of soot actually around the inside was also built up,if I had made naan breads they would have been covered in it.I've always used your bog standard charcoal but I seem to remember someone in am old thread mention restaurant charcoal.It apparently burns for a lot longer and doesn't produce soot.Anyone used it?

[abdulmohed2002]

Hi jb

Hope you are well, good to see you are experimenting. I do not use charcoal anymore but when I did, I used 'lumpwood' charcoal.
I hope this may help!

Abdul 

[Gav Iscon]

I used some last summer to do a whole pork loin. To be honest I didn't see much difference and it burns longer basically because the bits are a lot bigger than regular bbq charcoal. Its usually lumpwood. Bookers Cash and Carry sell 12kg bags of restaurant charcoal for

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hi jb

Hope you are well, good to see you are experimenting.

And good to see you back again, Abdul -- you have been much missed !
** Phil.

[jb]

Hello Abdul,great to hear from you again!! 

[mickdabass]

Hey..great to hear from you Abdul

JB -Restaurant charcoal is not an option - it is a necessity - believe me!
Its virtually the same price per kg as the normal stuff

I use the restaurant charcoal as per the photo (Amazon). I also buy a bag of self lighting charcoal from homebase in the little oily bags and use them to get things underway.

Had a mega day with the tandoor yesterday and made 8 keema and 4 plain naans, 20 or so seekh kebabs and also 8 breasts of chicken tikka. Normally I will give the inside of the tandoor a quick wipe with a damp cloth to remove any ash just before I slap the first naan on, but yesterday the tandoor was that hot, it was already good to go as it was. Got me thinking if having a clean tandoor is possibly a sign that its up to temperature?

Never had a problem with soot.
Sounds like you are using brickettes.
Dont like the smell of those things at all

Anyway, had an excellent day yesterday and only had 1 keema naan and 1 seekh meet an untimely end

[jb]

Hey..great to hear from you Abdul

JB -Restaurant charcoal is not an option - it is a necessity - believe me!
Its virtually the same price per kg as the normal stuff

I use the restaurant charcoal as per the photo (Amazon). I also buy a bag of self lighting charcoal from homebase in the little oily bags and use them to get things underway.

Had a mega day with the tandoor yesterday and made 8 keema and 4 plain naans, 20 or so seekh kebabs and also 8 breasts of chicken tikka. Normally I will give the inside of the tandoor a quick wipe with a damp cloth to remove any ash just before I slap the first naan on, but yesterday the tandoor was that hot, it was already good to go as it was. Got me thinking if having a clean tandoor is possibly a sign that its up to temperature?

Never had a problem with soot.
Sounds like you are using brickettes.
Dont like the smell of those things at all

Anyway, had an excellent day yesterday and only had 1 keema naan and 1 seekh meet an untimely end

Thanks for that.I've just found a place on line that does free delivery.It must be the cheap stuff I was using.I'm guessing the firelighter cubes I have are are not the reason for the soot though.You're right I was using bricketts,just thought it was the same stuff to be honest.I guess cheap isn't always good!! I must get round to making some seekh kebabs.Any particular recipe you use,and more importantly how do you ensure the meat doesn't fall off.I've seen all sorts of tips,from heating the skewers in the tandoori first,or just making sure that the moisture has been taken from the meat mixture.

[mickdabass]

hI JB

following Adeypaynes advice I used 1.5Kg Boneless lamb shoulder mixed with 250g beef mince. I recently bought a mincing attachment for my kenwood mixer so I bought some pre packed lamb from Asda and minced it up. I blended it with half an onion and some of my own Patak Free tikka/keema spice blend (updated recipe to be posted very soon), put it all in the mixer bowl and gave it a good mixing,
Loaded it onto the skewers and cooked it straight away and Bobs yer Uncle!
I usually slip a piece of onion onto the skewers to stop the slide, but didn't even have to bother with that either! Nor did I bother trying to squeeze any water out of the mix.

Putting the kebab mix in the mixer and giving it a thorough mixing seems to be an  important step

I wouldnt like to try and load a heated skewer with keema mince - thats just plain daft!!

The best way I have found so far is to take a portion of mince with your right hand and very roughly shape it into a sausage/turd shape. Then I take the skewer with your left hand and  then push it longways through the sausage as if its a piece of meat. I then keep carefully squeezing the skewered meat to make it longer on the skewer. Does that make sense???

By doing all this I achieved  success with 19 out of 20 seekhs. That ll do me

[Secret Santa]

my own Patak Free tikka/keema spice blend (updated recipe to be posted very soon)

Excellent!

Anything which avoids the jarred junk is a bonus in my book. Look forward to it for my keema naans when I get around to doing them.