Quote from: Jethro on March 03, 2008, 04:35 PM
Nice thought SnS, but not sure if it would work with LPG bottled gas and to run a gas line to the garage where it would have to live would be a tad expensive methinks.

You would need a new gas jet and some piping to convert to lpg
I think that would cost about ?40
If it's full size tandoor (which I think it is) then it's a very good price
Almost half it's new value
But it might be too large for you
Having said that, making naans would be a lot easier
I can't get mine to proper restaurant size
The dough hangs too near the flames

I guess it doesn't hurt to have another recipe of something we know
It simply confirms a "standard" preparation

Ok, here we go:-

Ingredients for Chicken Balti

1 desertspoon finely sliced peppers
2 desertspoon finely sliced onions
2 desertspoons veg oil from deep pan fryer
1 teaspoon of thick garlic ginger puree (freshly made)
1 and a half dessertspoons of tomato puree (white tower brand)
1 rounded desertspoon of spice mix
1 teaspoon chilli powder
3 ladles of curry gravy
1 desertspoon dried fenugreek leaves
1 desertspoon of Pataks balti paste
1 portion precooked chicken
1 teaspoon fresh chopped coriander leaves

Heat the oil for a minute then add
Garlic ginger,peppers,onion,tomato puree,spice mix,chilli powder & half a ladle of curry gravy
This mixture should cover the base of the pan
Cook on low for about five minutes
Then add precooked chicken and another half ladle of curry gravy
Stir for a minute then put a lid on the pan
Leave the pan for five more minutes
Stir thoroughly then add the rest of the curry gravy, balti paste and fenugreek leaves
Cook on for five minutes more then pour into a carton with the chopped coriander on top

It's worth mentioning about this incredible BIR aroma
You might think, if you are in the kitchens, you can't smell it
And I agree, you become a bit desensitised to it
But all the same it is still very powerfull
The main smell comes in the early stage of cooking
Within the first five minutes
It's obvious, at this point, that something incredible is happening

This takeaway is a ten minutes journey from home
When I got back, I couldn't believe the temperature of this curry
The carton was red hot
Although these flames look lazy on their cookers, they are packing out serious heat!

Quote from: Jethro on March 29, 2008, 08:41 PM
I'm going to get one for this summer (charcoal one), already got a good BBQ built with the intention of keeping a pre made curry hot on it, while doing tikka and naan in the tandoor.
This is presuming we are going to get a summer this year:)

Hi Jethro
         I've heard that the charcoal ones are meant to be better than gas.
They give an extra smoked flavour
I hope it comes together

Quote from: cg13 on March 29, 2008, 02:26 PM
WHAT CURRY GRAVY DO YOU USE?

Hi CG
      I used to post under the "pete" name when the takeaway chefs didn't know my name.
I've always thought that they would be a bit miffed if they knew their recipes were on this site
So I've hid behind the Haldi name
Hopefully, I could still deny revealing any "secrets"

But back to your question

I reckon the "Saffron" recipe is the closest to what they use
It contains the same ingredients but with potato as well

Quote from: unclebuck on March 29, 2008, 08:38 AM
i really want to get a tandoor - im gonna try and make one this summer all-though i think this recipe would probably explode in a tandoor because of all rising agents 

I've had my tandoor nearly three years now
It runs off bottled propane
When I first had it, it sat outside covered (when cooled) by wood and plastic sheeting.
But as the year drew on and autumn arrived, I grew more concerned by a possible snail or slug occupation.
It doesn't bear to think about, does it?
There were also a few pipes and jubilee clips that started to rust.
I moved house and now keep it in the porch
So everything worked out.
If you are building one, I would assume that it will be outside
Consider the slug problem before you build it
Positioning will be critical
I don't know how you will construct yours, but I bet it will be heavy and hard to move.
The tandoor heat retention is phenomanal
OK, it takes an hour to get going, but it can take seven hours to cool down
I can turn off the central heating in winter after using the tandoor!
I simply open my porch door and the heat rushes in.
It can also generate quite a bit of smoke
"Beware the falling Naan"
They set on fire and are hard to get out
If your tikka marinade is a bit oily or excessive, it drips a lot and burns
Mind you, that does smell very, very nice.
The fumes set off my smoke alarm!!
When I have been tandooring and my wife has come home, she tells me it can be smelt half a road away.
Unfortunately she doesn't enjoy BIR as much as me
A tandoor could be more damaging than an affair!
I hope you do get something together
I only know of one other person with a tandoor, and he dissapeared from this forum ages ago
Tandoors are far more than another oven, they are entertainment and conversation pieces.
It's a real mindblower when you first slap a naan on it's wall.
If you do make a tandoor, you will still need certain tools
Long skewers for tandoori and tikka, and scrapey/hookey thing to get naans out

Quote from: unclebuck on March 29, 2008, 08:24 AM
cool  ;D great pic! did you make em in your tandoor?

No, this was on the tava
There is something about the tava's cooking simplicity that I love
I must use it more
The only other thing I cook on it is chapattis
How about you?

Quote from: unclebuck on March 28, 2008, 05:04 PM
hey, are you the person who has a tandoor?

Yes I am, but I have a tava that I rarely use
When I want to make naans, I have to heat the tandoor for at least half an hour.
That's quite a bit of gas at full blast
The tandoor clay walls need to be really hot, or the dough won't stick and the naans don't rise
If I'm not doing chicken tikka, it's not worth it
Anyhow, I tried your recipe
I got a very light & tasty result
Thank you
I had a minor snag with the recipe
The dough was (as warned) very sticky
I couldn't work with that texture so I added more flour
Sorry I had to change it, but mine was almost like a glue
Maybe I did something wrong
But I still got a very good result
I will use yeast again
Thanks again

Hi UB
      naans are something I make regularly
I had a bought one, the other day, and was a bit upset at how light and fluffy it was compared to some of mine
So I'm doing something little wrong somewhere (probably cooking temperature)
I've never tried naans with yeast before
Although that's not a BIR thing to do, I reckon it's certainly worth a try
Your pictures look amazing
You can almost smell them
This is one to try
Thanks for the post!!

I was in the kitchens of a good takeaway, and they had recently started the curry gravy for next day's use.
They had a big pot about twelve inches high by about fifteen inches diameter.
I had a peek into it, they didn't mind
The liquid was a mixture of oil, water, garlic ginger, salt & tomato puree
Surprisingly it only came to half way up the pot
The other ingredients for the gravy, were a small can of chick peas, a couple of green peppers but loads and loads of onions
They were stacked right up to the top of the pot, half of them completely uncovered by any liquid.
The onions weren't even chopped
They were simply peeled
This mixture is boiled for at least an hour, with a lid on
The water comes out of the onions as it cooks
Conversation is very difficult, at this place
I wish it wasn't, because if you can't see something done, you aren't totally sure you've got it right
Anyhow, from what understand, when the onions have wilted, they add the spice mixture.
That is cooked for an hour, then pureed for use
No separating the oil, at this place

I suppose I have learnt four important points from this

1. If making a scaled down version of this gravy remember the onion:other ingredients ratio
If you wanted to make a ten onion base then you should only use a quarter of a green pepper

2. Don't chop the onions

3. Maybe I am overwatering the gravy. Try it with half of what I usually use

4. Don't overcook the added spices

Before I saw this, I had just tested out a theory
You know the "make in large quantities" changes the base flavour
I got hold of a huge pot
I think it holds about 15 litres, and tried a curry base recipe I was given
I used a full five kg bag of onions and one and a half litres of oil
The spice mix was basaar
It was about a three hour cook
Anyhow, the end result did not exactly match the base sample I had been given
It was close, but missing a very special after taste
One of my kids described this taste as like doughnuts
Crazy as it seems, I thought that a pretty accurate comment
I reckon the oil they use, is seasoned in some way
If you are using this amount of oil then you have enough depth to cook the days poppadoms in
When I try another full size base, I will do that
The spice mix mellows, cooked in a large quantity too
It was the extra hot spice mix (as used in the original sample base)but the base is not hot at all.
The overall flavour is sweet, mild, not overly spicy with quite a depth.
It's very usable, but no way will I use all this!!
Down the drain again
So I suppose the most important point I found, was that nothing "magical" happened making a large scale base
Definitely no apparition of the "Taste"

This BIR aroma is a real killer isn't it?
I was cooking curry one afternoon, then went out for an hour or so
During this later time, I kept getting a waft of BIR
It was coming from my fingers too (just like Davy said)
And that was because I had been adding dried fenugreek leaves by hand
It's a really strong smell
I needed to assert some self control to stop sniffing my fingers
Finger sniffing is not a habit I want to get in to!
I've tried fenugreek in the base, but I thought it seemed to lose it's character
It didn't dominate the flavour, like I thought it would