Dishes prepared on the grill are especially delicious. The smell of smoke penetrates into every piece of barbecue or fish, which from this acquire their own special aroma. But weather conditions are far from always favorable. In addition, you can cook on the grill a limited number of dishes: you can’t bake flat cakes on open charcoal, and a large piece of meat will probably be raw inside. This is where the tandoor comes to the rescue.
What it is?
A tandoor is an Asian or Eastern ceramic oven designed for cooking. According to some reports, the tandoor appeared over 3000 BC in India, and according to other sources, it was invented in Uzbekistan. This happened thanks to the Sart tribe who lived at that time in this area. They came up with the idea of cooking in a clay jug. For this, firewood was required a little, and the heat lasted longer.
Outwardly, the tandoor resembles a large clay pot with a double lid, made of fireclay refractory clay - a natural, environmentally friendly material. In the lower part, a blower is provided for kindling coal and raking ash with a small spatula. The height of the ceramic furnace without a lid is 70 cm, and with a lid - 105 cm, the diameter of the neck of the pot is 25 cm. The steel frame with forging elements adds to the reliability of the design.
The main cover has special openings for hanging skewers in a vertical position. In addition, the kit includes a special grill on which you can cook fish in a tandoor, as well as vegetables, as on a grill. But this is not the whole list of possible dishes.
What can I cook in tandoor?
Before buying such a ceramic oven, you need to know in advance a list of dishes that can be baked in it. What and how to cook in a tandoor? In fact, the list of dishes is much wider than the one used for the barbecue, and the cooking process is much faster.
Skewers of beef, pork, lamb or chicken, game and poultry, vegetables, bread and tortillas, fish and seafood - all this in a tandoor becomes especially juicy and fragrant. Thanks to a special cooking technology, the walls of the oven evenly warm the food, so the meat will never remain raw inside, but it will not burn, as often happens on the grill.
The benefits of cooking in tandoor
The cooking process in the tandoor is due to heat transfer and infrared radiation from the inner walls of the furnace. Thus, even if there is absolutely no coal left in it, the dishes will still be baked due to the accumulated heat.
Among the benefits of cooking in tandoor are the following:
- Unique tastes - dishes prepared in a clay oven have a special taste and have a slight smell of smoke.
- Save time - in just 15-25 minutes you can get a delicious, juicy and well-baked skewers, poultry or fish.
- Ease of use - no need to turn the skewers over, make sure that the meat does not burn, because the miracle stove will do everything itself.
Now it remains to learn how to cook in the tandoor, and proceed to marinating barbecue. And there is no doubt that it will turn out much tastier than on the grill.
How to cook in a tandoor at home
The cooking process begins with the kindling of coals. For this, previously chopped firewood is laid out at the bottom of the tandoor and set on fire. Their burning occurs under the cover. Immediately after ignition, the walls of the tandoor are covered with black soot, but as the coals form, they again turn white. This will mean that the ceramic stove is ready for cooking.
After the wood burns out, you can suspend the skewers that are included in the kit. Thanks to the thick ceramic walls of the tandoor, it cools very slowly. This means that after the meat, you can cook a side dish without additional kindling of coal.
Recipe for Shish Kebab in Tandoor
A win-win choice of meat for barbecue is pork. Better if it will be the neck. Then the kebab will turn out to be moderately bold, juicy and mouth-watering. This will be facilitated by the special cooking technology that is characteristic of a ceramic furnace. How to cook kebab in tandoor?
First, the meat should be marinated. For 3 kilograms of pork, chopped into medium pieces, you need to take 4 tablespoons of adjika, 1 kg of onion, salt and pepper to taste. Cook deep dishes. Mix the meat with adjika and salt, and then lay out in layers, alternating pork with chopped onion rings. Leave in the refrigerator for 4 hours, or better at night.
One hour before the estimated cooking time, heat the tandoor. To do this, open the blower, put firewood on the bottom of the stove (about two-thirds of the total volume) and set fire to them. When the walls of the tandoor become white, part of the coals should be scooped up, the blower closed, and the barbecue can be suspended in an upright position. Pork cooking time is 20 minutes.
Tandoor cakes
Tandoor cakes are made from unleavened dough. It is kneaded from a glass of water, 0.5 kg of flour, salt (a teaspoon) and dried yeast (a tablespoon). The dough is cooked without dough, but before molding products, it should increase in volume by 2-3 times. Then it will need to be divided into balls weighing 300 g each and stretch with your hands into a cake. Before sending products to the furnace, they are pricked in the center so that they do not deform. How to cook cakes in a tandoor? Right on the walls of the oven. Thanks to special technology, the cakes will stick to them, as if glued.
Before laying the test, the walls of the tandoor must be sprinkled with water. To keep the cakes on the walls of the oven, one side should be moistened with salt water. Then, with the help of a mitten, take a workpiece from the dough and stick it to the wall. When the cakes are browned, they can be removed from the tandoor. The approximate cooking time is 10 minutes.
Lamb in tandoor
Better to cook a lamb leg than in a tandoor, it will not work anywhere. But first, you need to marinate it well, keeping it in spices in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. To prepare a marinade for a two-kilogram leg, you will need 6 heads of garlic, a tablespoon of dry mustard, juice of one lemon, rosemary and salt. Divide the garlic into the cloves, peel and ram into the incisions previously made in the leg. From lemon juice, mustard, salt and rosemary, prepare a marinade, with which you rub your leg on all sides. Then put it in a bag or wrap in cling film and send in the refrigerator.
How to cook meat in tandoor further? To do this, you need to rekindle firewood, wait until the walls in the furnace turn white, and install a hanging grate. Lay a lamb leg on top of it and leave to bake for 2 hours. After the time has expired, open the blower and prepare the leg for another 15 minutes until the crust forms.
How to cook a shank in a tandoor
Due to the fatty layers, the pork knuckle rarely turns dry. But in the tandoor it comes out especially juicy and takes only 40 minutes to cook. Here, on the side dish, you can bake potatoes, which are soaked in meat juice and turn out tender and crumbly.
The knuckle must be carefully rubbed with salt and pepper, and also stuffed with garlic, making small pockets in the meat. Send in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. At this time, melt the ceramic stove.
How to cook a shank with potatoes in a tandoor? Potatoes with peel are laid out on the hanging grid. The knuckle is strung on a skewer. Now you need to hang it so that the juice flows directly onto the potatoes. So in 40 minutes the main course and side dish will be cooked immediately.
Tandoor fish
Steak salmon or any other red fish marinate in lemon juice and salt for 2 hours. Meanwhile, finely chop 2 cloves of garlic, dill, grate a little cheese and mix these ingredients with two tablespoons of cream. It will be a sauce for fish. But how to cook salmon steaks in a tandoor?
To prevent dry fish, it can be cooked in foil. But then you won’t be able to achieve that special aroma that distinguishes grilled dishes from all others. The second option is to get all the coals out of the stove when its walls gain enough heat and the wood is completely burnt out. So the fish can bake evenly for 10 minutes, but not dry. Similarly, you should cook the whole carcass, but increase the cooking time to 15-20 minutes.
Tandoor Duck Recipe
The tandoor duck is cooked on a hanging grill for 1.5 hours. During this time, she manages to bake evenly and soak in the juice of apple filling. To prepare the dish, a duck weighing about two kilograms is taken. It should be washed, dried with a paper towel and rubbed with a mixture of salt and pepper inside and out. For the filling, chop coarsely sweet and sour apples, chop ½ cup walnuts. Stir all the ingredients together, add a teaspoon of honey and cinnamon. Stuff the bird with the resulting mass, sew up the threads and send to the oven.
How to cook duck with apple filling in a tandoor? Place the embers in the center of the furnace. Install the grill. Put a duck on top of it. Close the tandoor with a lid - and you can relax for another 2 hours. The miracle oven will do everything on its own. 15 minutes before the end of cooking, open the lid and blew. An additional stream of air will contribute to the formation of a crust on the bird, and the duck will turn out even more fragrant.
Skewers of vegetables in tandoor
This option for cooking barbecue is a real find for vegetarians. But the baked vegetables are so delicious that you can’t tear the meat-eaters from them. Vegetarian kebab can be served as a side dish to the main course. No less tasty is a warm salad prepared from grilled vegetables.
From people who did not grow up in Asia, the question often arises: how to cook dishes in tandoor? In fact, there is nothing complicated. In the tandoor you can bake almost any vegetables, mushrooms and even fruits. They are prepared directly on a wire rack or strung on a skewer and left in limbo for 7 minutes. A delicious vegetarian kebab is obtained from champignons, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, onions, etc.
The method of inciting tandoor remains the same as in the previous recipes. It is better to dig out the coals from the oven before cooking.
A ceramic stove, or tandoor, will become a real find for gourmets and is ideal as a gift to respected people.