Hey Achmal and Phil
I think you could be onto something.
Hopefully i will give it another whirl at the weekend  ;D

Perhaps the lamb wasn't lean enough?
Or perhaps i hadn't kneeded the mixture for long enough?
Don't think its either of these. I am hoping your earlier suggestion with the cold wet hands will do the trick. Have to wait for the weekend to find out

Quote from: JerryM on January 07, 2011, 06:45 PM

no. it really tasted every bit as good as it's always tasted (the place is the Dilshad).

Was that the place on Highbridge road?

The following photos are for educational purposes only. They are not intended to promote my "Culinary Prowess" but are just an honest account of a random person trying to cook Indian food and having fun  ;D



Thought Id made a tidy job of these. That lid is of a Rajah Minced Garlic Jar to give you some idea of scale CA's Bastardised  Keema mince with 2 dsp rajah tandoori massala in stead of the other massala, 4 Tbsp Gram flour + 2 Tbsp breadcrumbs  (sorry CA)




So far so good


About 3 out of 4 min cooking time and starting to slip down the skewer



The end results - dont they look just like a collection of cremated dog turds? cooking time varied from 3 - 4 mins. Tasted really good tho

Certainly does Ray.
Great idea.

The diameter is 9 1/2" so Rays 12" would fit just right lol

thats genius! what diameter are tavas?

Hi Haldi
That must be why the chicken tikka turned out so well. It was the very first thing i cooked and looking back i realise now that the tandoor was no where near as hot as it was when i cooked the naans.
Beginners luck i guess
Next time i use it i will try to remember to cook the chicken first.
Do you think it would be wise to buy a thermometer of some kind? It would be interesting to know how hot it gets anyway

Thanks UB

I'm sure you have just saved me hours of time
I will give it a go next weekend
When it comes to home Tandoor Cooking...you are the man.
I will let you know how I get on

Oh sorry Phil(Chaa006)
forgot to say: 7 skewers are about 6mm dia
The other one is about 8mm

Suppose that begs the question can a tandoor get too hot?
I would imagine the answer is Yes! I had to blacken the kebabs a bit to ensure they were properly cooked inside. Perhaps the oven was too hot? Perhaps I made then too big? The Keema naans were cooked perfectly though after 1 minute max. You could pull the thin wafer of meat out of the kebab and it remained intact with a rubbery type texture
I think the lid would help to get the temperature up initially though.
I actually carefully balanced a broken paving slab on the top taking great care not to scratch the tandoor while I went out for an hour searching for charcoal and that made a very noticeable difference to the temperature
I fired it up at about 11am and kept it going until about 5pm and used about 8Kg of charcoal. Im sure having a lid would give me a few more mpg tho lol