My log burner has just packed up - so I've bought myself a Kadai http://www.kadai.co.uk.

Son in law uses one for bbqing - then yard fire to sit round.

Good tip on the mustard oil in a marinade LC - will give it a go

As for Garps little rantings by ignoring the findings of one Heston Blumenthal in order to sidestep and beat his own lemon juice drum (missing the point entirely)  - there's a quaint old  saying in Cheshire where I hail from - 'No point knocking when there's nobody in !'

Can we look forward to a new tv contest series featuring Garps vs Hestons expertise ?

Think I would believe the results of an MRI scanner Garp as tangible, physical proof of the depth of a marinade penetration - an ingenious idea by the 'off the wall' inquisitive Heston to establish just why Indian cooks insist on using yogurt - rather than your cynical rejection.  Take the time to find and  watch the programme - here is a snippet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDQQKgnh2YI.

The comment wasn't made about marinade tenderising as you put it - it was about the depth of penetration of the marinades spices / flavours.

As for your comment 'If this is Ghoulie and Phil's idea of a 'proof' or even of a scientific experiment, they really need to get out into industry ' - as a chemist and a recognised expert in my field with 50 years experience, I hardly need your lame rejection of another expert in his field - Heston -  to make your dismissal stand up to scrutiny. Don't expose your apparent ignorance any further with more protests of the inadequacy of Hestons findings / work.

Well - I christened my home made tandoor yesterday - charcoal fired.  I would give myself 5 out of 10 for the results.  Took a longer time than I expected to get it hot (1 hour & 2 lots of charcoal) - as i thought it would be - and to cook with, and a lot longer to cook than expected too (40 minutes).  My thoughts :-

1. Not hot enough - hence the length of time - just ordered a probe to check for next time
2. Over loaded the amount I tried in one go - 6 chops, & 2x half chickens split as half chicken on each skewer as 2 parts per half chicken.  Compared to BIR servings, the chicken pieces were a lot larger than you would get as a tandoori half chicken meal. Your comments on overloading / chicken piece size welcome guys
3. Tried a naan at the end - blistered up ok after a minute - but stuck like the proverbial to the clay pot side.  Clearly not hot enough at this point for naan - charcoal in base almost done.

Now having tried it and reading this thread :-
a). I will now measure the temp and use more charcoal and have another set of coals on the go as a top up. Having seen the comment about BIRs using a combination of gas & charcoal within the same tandoor, I may go down this route if I can't get decent results using charcoal alone.
b). Note the need to cure the clay walls with salt / water to prevent naan sticking oil in the dough mix may also help - none in my recipe.

I also suffered from wet marinade areas still present because of the way the chicken pieces & chops slid down the skewer sticking together preventing the charring of the overall meat surface.  My thoughts here are to put  some kind of metal spacer or veg? between each meat piece to ensure they are kept separate to stop the sliding together - maybe use smaller pieces of meat as opposed to quarter chicken pieces that are on the larger side compared to BIR chicken size servings.

Fire away guys at my mistakes so I can bring 'er indoors back onside to the 'delights' of tandoor cooking.

.... aaaaaah - too late CT - I have made up a batch of tandoori chops & tandoori chicken using a recipe online from Delhi - http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/luscious-tandoori-lamb-chops/email - nutmeg & mace in this one.

............... plus a batch of my own version of the Dubai Ravi chicken tikka

Marinading right now for the grand opening /firing up of my Jimmy Doherty style Tandoor oven on Monday - Bank Holiday.

Fingers crossed it goes off OK

@ Garp - have you noticed my avator?  Oh ye of little faith.

You obviously never watched Hestons programmes or bought his books. Unlike you, I did both !

Your cynical question denotes a lack of serious intent to check out my mere repeat of Hestons findings by even a Google search.

Try a lookysee here - http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/spicy-marinade-for-infusing-chicken-spices-heston-blumenthal.html

If that isn't good enough for you, god help you & I won't bother to read your posts ever again.  this is me in 6x cans carlsberg mode !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

re use of Yoghurt - Blumenthal proved (via MRI scanner!) that marinades go into meats MUCH deeper when using yoghurt with the marinade.

Even if you remove most of the marinade from your meat outer before cooking - you will have the flavour carried into the meat much better than without yoghurt.

CT - have you got a link for your tandoori marinades?

Why knock it if it works?  It's all about your palate and what turns you on taste-wise.  Good for you.

So steve - tell us a bit more about yourself - where are you from?   How did you get into the curry world?  .....  And by the way - welcome to the madhouse.