Topic: What is a Tandoor?

[Unclebuck]

what dose a real tandoori oven look like? and what makes them so special?

[Cory Ander]

Hi UB,

A tandoor is an oven made of clay and is therefore porous.  It is fuelled either by charcoal (giving the best "charcoally" flavour?) or more commonly (in BIRs) by gas (cleaner, quicker and more efficient?).

It's heated to very high temperatures (350 - 400 degrees C, or so, I think?) so the food cooks (sears) very quickly and remains succulent inside.

The tandoor also absorbs/vaporises all the drips and flavours of food cooked in it and imparts this flavour to the food.  To my mind, it similar to barbecue cooking (a viable and practical alternative for cooking tikka, tandoori, etc).

Haldi has a tandoor (lucky duck  ).  There are some photos of it here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1931.msg16785#msg16785 and here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1691.msg15107#msg15107

There is another photo of a tandoor here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1448.msg16321#msg16321

Hope this helps! 

[Jethro]

You could have a look here too
http://tandooriq.co.uk/