Clay Ovens: For Super Delicious Dishes

From roadside eateries to modern hotels and restaurants, ‘tandoori’ food is considered as lip smacking. It is the technique of cooking meat, fish, poultry or bread in the tandoor. Tandoor is a cylindrical shaped clay oven. In this method of cooking, the meat is coated with a paste of spices and herbs, skewered into an iron stick and cooked in the very hot conditions (up to 900 degrees F).

The tandoors are integral part of kitchens of India, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Middle-east, Pakistan and central Asia. It is made up of clay fired by charcoal. It comes in, large and stable formation, established in the kitchen as well as in small and portable size that one can carry from one place to another.  Regardless of shape, shape and place of origin, tandoor operates on the same principle. The ovens are made up of clay with insulating substance like mud or concrete.

The tandoor can make flatbreads like rotis, naans, paneer tikka, kebabs, pizzas and barbeques. One of the best benefits these ovens is that once heated, they maintain a constant heat for hours with little added fuel.  Tandoors are the best thing for cooking, especially where fuel scarcity is a major issue. But before using tandoors, one must follow some safety measures. Some of them are as follows:

•    If you are new to clay ovens then increase the temperature gradually.
•    Do not pour water on when it is hot.
•    Take extra precaution while using it in windy conditions, as the flames of the oven can go high up to one meter.
•    Keep the oven in the shed
•    Metal surfaces of oven get extremely hot so use gloves while touching it.
•    Never allow children to go near tandoor while operating it

Best advantage of a tandoor is that it roasts the meat in its own juice, which results in appetizing luscious cooked meats. The high temperature ensures that the bread or meat are cooked from inside by preserving their natural flavors.  Though, cooking meat in tandoor requires a lot of time and patience but in the end you will get very tasty dishes.

Nothing actually compares to cooking in a tandoor oven. If you are also planning to buy it for your kitchen, there are many online sites which sell clay ovens at a very affordable price.  These companies sell advanced and best quality tandoors that provide best value for your money.

Tandoor- an ancient science of food

What is a tandoor?

A tandoor is a hollow cylindrical oven similar to a large barrel but it is made up of clay. It is heated by burning charcoal inside at the base of the structure. It can be heated up to 900^o F. Tandoor was founded in northwest India and is still used around the world. It takes a lot of time cool it down sometimes, even a whole night.

Purpose

Tandoor is used mainly to prepare assorted breads like naan, tandoori roti, laccha parantha etc. These breads are very unique in taste as they are exposed to the radiant heat and the smoke of the tandoor. The breads are pasted on the inner lining of the tandoor and are taken out within time by iron skewers as the dough rises and gets cooked.

Other preparations that can be cooked in a tandoor:

Peshawari Seekh: it is a dish prepared with Roasted Cashews, corn and cottage cheese marinated with cream and roasted in a tandoor.

Balochi Aloo: potatoes stuffed with cottage cheese, and roasted in tandoor.

Tandoori chicken: it is a chicken preparation in which the chicken is marinated with yogurt and traditional Indian spices (also known as khadey masale) and cooked in a tandoor.

Chicken tikka: it is a boneless chicken preparation which is first marinated with yogurt and spices and then cooked in a tandoor on skewers.

Types:

On the basis of origin:

Afghan tandoor: it is slightly different from traditional tandoor as the tandoor sits on a structure and made from bricks.

Punjabi tandoor: it is the conventional clay oven which is shaped as a bell; it can either be sent into earth or can rest above the ground.

Armenian tonir: “tonir” is the Armenian word for tandoor, in ancient times the Armenians worshipped “tonir” as they considered it to be the setting sun in the ground because sun was their deity. The tandoor was made inside the grounds and has been one of their traditional styles of cooking ever since.

On the basis of materials and source

Square tandoor: it is the modern type of tandoor which is common to be found in every modern restaurant kitchen. It is in a shape of a cube which is made from stainless steel and the clay pot is added later, the remaining space is filled with fiber blanket to keep the heat inside.

Even though the source of heat was always charcoal, but because of the irregular supply and a special exhaust for the smoke a lot of restaurants shifted to Gas tandoors. These are replicas of square tandoor but instead of charcoal, Liquid petroleum gas was adopted.

Clay Pot Tandoor: these are traditional handmade clay ovens which are prepared with the finest clay, hay and sheep hair are added to strengthen the structure so that it can withstand the high temperature.