Topic: Tandoor oven

[raygraham]

Yes, I bet it really lends itself to Tikka and Tandoori. What impresses me most is the speed it cooks and the succulence of the meat when it comes out.
You can buy the internal pot seperately and build-your-own. There are one or two websites dedicated to the D.I.Y. option.
I saw a curry program recently where the presenter bought the clay pot in India and it cost ?1.00p (that much!!).
Not that I am rubbing it in at all Pete!!!!

Ray

[George]

I have to wear an old jumper as the heat takes off you arm hairs. It is incredibly hot

Pete

Many thanks for your explanation of how to cook naan bread. I guess this is the type of procedure most chefs would be prepared readily to demonstrate without hiding any secrets.

Encouraged by your accounts and the Thompson website, I'm sold on the idea of installing a tandoor at home, just as soon as I can afford it.

Perhaps you need to construct some sort of heat-resistant sleeve. What do they use in the restaurants, where one man would presumably be cooking dozens, if not hundreds, of naan breads each session?

Regards
George

[Ashes]

Looks brilliant Pete,

I really wish i had space even though I live in a large apartment
I doubt I could fit it in the kitchen anyway. Besides i checked the weight,
it weighs a fair bit. What do you use to heat it? It looks gas?
There are charcoal tandooris but that must be alot more work.

I have tried a great recipe for tandoori chicken in one of
MadjurJaffery?s books that actually came from somekind
of roadside caf?, Flavours of India the book was called i think
I can put the recipe up, but i suspect you already own the book

[pete]

I really wish i had space even though I live in a large apartment
I doubt I could fit it in the kitchen anyway. Besides i checked the weight,
it weighs a fair bit. What do you use to heat it? It looks gas?
There are charcoal tandooris but that must be alot more work.

It runs on lpg (bottled gas)
I've got it outside because I didn't have the space
I found out later, just how much heat it packs out
If I had it in the kitchen, without some form of extraction, it would be unusable in Summer
The restaurants all use gas tandoors
Charcoal is too messy for them
It takes half an hour to get to working temperature with gas
Charcoal takes about an hour
So time is a consideration as well
With gas there is no mess to clean out, as well

If you eat the chicken tikka, when it has just been cooked, it's unbelievable
It melts in your mouth and all the spices have a brilliant vibrant flavour.
When I first tried it, I thought it wasn't cooked
But that's how it turns out
The coals you can see are permanently there
They heat up really hot

 Flavours of India the book was called i think
I can put the recipe up, but i suspect you already own the book

I don't have that book
I would love any recipe for tandoors
Thanks

[Ashes]

Looks delicious!!

try this and send a report Pete
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=533.0

[pete]

Thanks, i'll post soon as I give it a go.
I cook mainly at at the weekends ,and it has to br dry weather.
That is one of the main drawbacks of having th tandoor outside
I haven't tried cooking in the dark yet!

[George]

The restaurants all use gas tandoors. Charcoal is too messy for them.

I'm sure you're right for BIRs. But wouldn't charcoal or wood give an even better (smokey) flavour?

My hope is to build one in the garden, like the Thompson one, and fuel it with charcoal. I guess there's not much cost difference between charcoal and LPG fuel for X amount of heat generated, especially if you don't use it very often. I believe LPG is much more expensive than natural gas, like four or five times the price.

With charcoal, in India, etc. do they just let the tandoor cool, then reach in and remove the ashes, through the opening?

Regards
George

[pete]

It might be nicer but it's definitely not what the restaurants do these days
I think, until the nineties, charcoal was still used

[bryan@232]

          Yes, many restaurants used charcoal until a few years ago , and the smell was part of the restaurant smell until they stopped. [The smell , that is , of the restaurant itself , not necessarily of the food] It may also be one of the reasons why BIR's had a reputation for smelliness which was often used to oppose planning applications.

[Nessa]

I'd like to have a go at a small diy tandoor oven next summer, I suppose a large clay pot from the garden centre with some lit charcoals in the bottom would do a good enough job for chicken tikka, maybe.

(Pete your nans look great btw!).