9

Build a tandoor

TUTORIAL

Right

Perlite is often

sold by weight – be

careful as it’s much

lighter than it looks.

A couple of kilos

should be plenty for a

tandoor this size

WHAT TO COOK

The most famous tandoori foods are, of course, lamb

kebabs. This is because the small size of the meat means

that they can be cooked all the way through before

the outside is burned. This small size also makes them

perfect for our little tandoor. If you’ve made a larger

tandoor, you can also cook larger chunks of meat:

on-the-bone chicken is particularly delicious.

Whatever meat you choose to cook in your tandoor,

the marinade is particularly important. Not only does

this give a fantastic flavour, it also protects the meat

from burning. Tandoori marinades usually contain

yoghurt, which forms a protective barrier, as well as

tenderising the meat and helping the flavours of the

marinade penetrate.

A very basic tandoori marinade is made from a

mixture of yoghurt, spice mix (tandoori spice mixes are

widely available), cooking oil, and lemon juice. From here

you can tweak it to your tastes – we’re particularly fond

of adding some additional cumin. Coat your meat with a

liberal amount of marinade and leave in the fridge for at

least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Alternating meat and vegetables (such as onion or

pepper) on kebabs is both great for flavour and helps the

meat cook evenly.

There’s also a delicious range of traditional tandoori

breads including, most famously, the naan. These are

flatbreads that cook stuck to the inside of the tandoor.

The basic approach is to make a yeast-leavened bread

dough (possibly including nigella seeds), rolling it out

until it’s thin, proving it, and then pressing it onto the side

of the tandoor to cook. It’s a bit of an art to get them in

and out without singeing your arm, but there really is no

other way to get that proper naan flavour. Brush with

melted butter and serve with your tandoor-cooked meats.

You can, of course, cook vegetable kebabs. These

are at a slightly higher risk of falling off the kebab stick

than meat, so make sure you’ve got something solid on

the bottom (such as a firm potato) to stop the whole lot

sliding off into the coals.

If you’ve been following HackSpace magazine for

a while, you will be familiar with the cheese press we

made in issue 2. This is ideal for making paneer (a type

of fresh cheese) that’s a perfect vegetarian option for

the tandoor. However, items in the tandoor are cooked

in the steam given off by juices dripping on the coals, so

if you’ve invited vegetarian guests over, be sure to cook

the paneer first, as any cooked at the same time as meat

will stretch the definition of vegetarian.