this is the thermometer I bought from ebay - advertised as up to 380!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310646217329

Not sure the Tandoor is up to commercial use, but I'll certainly do a "Burn what ya Brung" night where people can bring food and I'll whack it in the Tandoor

Hi George,

That was Celsius of course - I don't do foreign money

The temp near the top was still nearly 400 Degrees Celsius.  The picture is misleading, that dot is just above halfway up the inside of the Tandoor.  Near the coals, the thermometer just read "Hi" and I don't think it was saying hello! 

The thermometer was a cheap one off ebay and claimed to only go to 350 Celsius, but I was getting it a lot higher.

The soot around the inside rim had disappeared and I believe that it needs to be above 400 to do that?

I would have put my bread lower down but didn't have the right equipment.

Hi Sverige,  I plan to keep it under shelter as the insulation is 90% Vermiculite & Perlite and just the top 2 Inches  are gravel to keep it weighed down as the previous 2 are really light and also they soak up water like sponges.

The Lid is to stop customers in my pub garden using it as an ashtray   Underneath is the real lid, which is just the sawn off top of the terracotta pot.

Tried my hand at making my own Terracotta Tandoor after seeing it done on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXXamj8lV4

Seemed cheap and easy enough, even for a cack-handed numpty like me

I won't repeat the instructions but it only took 10 minutes or so and I got all the pots at Homebase/Dobbies.

Here are some pics:


The First Collage:
1. The finished tandoor with a borrowed lid from an unused chimenea
2. My addition to the instructions, a stainless steel sink drainer for 99p to act as a 2nd grill
3. Checking the temperature with my whizz-bang new thermometer (notice I still have hair on my forearm!)  This was after 30 minutes.
4. Tweaking the bricks underneath to maximise air-flow (this is key to getting it really hot)

The Second Collage:

1. Balancing a Tikka on a slightly too-short skewer
2. Balancing the skewer on a tent peg
3. Not brave enough to stick a roti on the side in this pic - cooking on a tawa pretty well
4. Say good-bye to forearm hair!  Attempted Tandoori Roti
5 & 6 My breakfast.

Overall this worked a treat.  I used lumpwood charcoal, and this was my second attempt at firing it up.  I would recommend extra long skewers.

The chicken cooked in 5-7 minutes and I used Blade's tried and trusted marinade.

Will give this some more testing over the BBQ season

Hi all, been away a while - work, family commitments - still cooking of course   Mostly making pies, and varieties of home-tweaked peanuts to sell in my pub.

A customer today gave me a plantain - and I vindalooed (new verb) it most delightfully.



The recipe was mostly stolen from ChewyTikka's odds and ends Vindaloo post.  The plantain got boiled for half an hour before adding to the curry.  They are like a more fibrous, denser potato.

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,13537.0.html

But as usual I was missing a few bits so I used fresh chilli, balsamic vinegar and added half a tsp of pataks kashmiri masala.  I would apologise but it tastes fantastic - maybe more like a Madras as I am not a ninja chilli head.

The base was something I found in the back of the freezer - can't even remember which it was....

Looks perfect!

yum diddly yum yum! looks great!

You can get MDH Kashmiri mirch (medium hot) or deggi mirch (hot) from the spices of India website. you can also get the basaar curry powder pictured on the previous page. That is where i buy them from.

There is a delivery charge but if you go over ?30 it is waived :-)

Great description and a lovely looking curry. will have to give turkey a go too .

that looks spot on!