Tandoori Dishes

There is no mystique to a tandoor oven. It is simply a conical tube of sun-baked clay with a wood or charcoal fire laid at the bottom and with an air vent at ground level. The idea is that, because of its shape, there is first the heat from below and then reflected heat that comes from the internal wall of the oven. Food to be cooked is threaded on to a long skewer and placed upright in the tube. You will get exactly the same effect from a wood-fired pizza oven and you can achieve a similar effect by grilling tandoori dishes over a charcoal barbecue. You can, of course, make the following dishes taste quite good in an ordinary oven but, without doubt, cooking tandoori recipes over wood or charcoal in an enclosed clay or brick oven will give you the very best results.