Tandoor cooking began with the nomadic tribes in the Steppes
of Central Asia and was brought to India by its Mughal rulers. Archaeologists
have found tandoor remains dating from 2600 B.C. — about the same time as the
building of the pyramids! Originally devised for baking bread, the high searing
heat plus the moisture-retaining properties of the tandoor oven make it equally
effective for cooking meat and fish. Today it has become one of the most
popular cooking methods in India.
We consider
ourselves pretty lucky to have learned the techniques of tandoor Clay Oven for cooking from Michelin
star chef Atul Kochhar of the famed Indian restaurant Benares in London. He was
the first Indian chef to receive a Michelin star and welcomed us into his
kitchen to discover his traditions and learn more about this unique method of
cooking.
The tandoor cooking uses four distinct techniques. Direct
heat rises from the charcoal, a process akin to grilling. The hot clay walls of
the oven bake bread in a way similar to griddling or skillet-roasting. Radiant
heat in the belly of the tandoor produces results similar to convection baking.
And smoke, which occurs as the marinade and meat juices drip onto the hot
coals, adds fragrance and flavour. But it’s more than just that – marinating is
the key to developing exceptional flavour.
Ingredients
cooked in a tandoor are marinated, usually twice, in special aromatic yogurt
marinades to flavour and tenderise. Some of these marinades have more than 30
ingredients in them! The marinated meat or fish are then threaded onto
specially designed skewers, lowered into the Commercial Tandoor and cooked at temperatures as high as 350°C. The
meats cooked in a Commercial TandooriOven are generally moister and tenderer than those cooked by any other
method. In addition, they have a special earthy aroma absorbed from the clay
lining of the oven. The end results are dishes packed with complex flavours you
just can’t duplicate at home.
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