Tandoori

Some of the most recognisable dishes from the vast library of what today is called Indian cuisine are cooked in ovens called tandoors.

Traditionally, if you’ve ever ordered anything – chicken, lamb, mutton or vegetables – with tandoori or somewhere in the name, it would have been cooked on a spear in a bell-shaped, vertical clay oven (resembling an urn) that has been set in the earth, using wood or charcoal to generate temperatures close to 500 degrees Celsius.

As is the case with some other classic dishes such as cataplana, tagine, paella and our own , is a dish that is named after the utensil used to cook it.

Tandoori cooking is thought to have originated among the Aryan tribal people of Persia (modern Iran), although its exact origin is a fiercely contested subject, even in academic circles.

ovens have been widely used across central and south Asia and the Caucus region. Iranians call it ; Uzbeks ; Azerbaijanis ; Armenians , and Georgians tone. Archeologists discovered ovens in the Indian state of Rajasthan dating back to the time of the building of the pyramids.

It is thus quite possible that the clay oven that became known as the tandoori oven substantially followed the same path as the flat breads that were baked in them. These breads followed the path of cereals, especially wheat and barley.

It started in the fertile crescent that spanned modern-day Iraq, Israel, Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan as well as the southeastern fringe of Turkey and the western fringes of Iran. From there, flat breads spread westward around the Mediterranean, across north Africa and southern Europe, northward across the Anatolian peninsula to the Balkans and to central Asia, and eastward to India.

Some sources regard the region of Punjab (before the partitioning of India) as the centre of modern tandoori cooking. Tandoori gained prominence during the Mughal empire as part of the emergence of Mughalai cuisine that is now associated with Indian and Pakistani food.

The tandoori oven had great social importance. Because of the extreme temperatures generated by the oven, it was buried in the earth outside in the open air.

They soon became communal ovens, and it was not uncommon for an entire village to use a single, large tandoori. At some point, the village tandoori oven replaced the village square as the hotspot for village gossip, the place to exchange views, herald the king’s proclamations and host festivals.

Jahangir, the fourth Mughal emperor, whose son built the Taj Mahal, is credited with devising the first portable that was carried by a group of chefs on journeys. It was allegedly used to cook naan, whole roasted baby chicken and large pieces of lamb. It is thus not surprising that he is also credited with the first recipe for what we today know as chicken or tandoori chicken.

The basic construction of a traditional is rather simple. It is a large, vertical, bell-shaped earthen pot with an opening at the top to allow coal to be tipped in or skewers of food to be cooked, and an opening at the side to allow air to pass to fan the flames.

The ingredients that go into the making of a traditional are rather complex and do not merely contain clay. Apart from clay, horsehair, strands of woven coconut fibre (coir) and sometimes even human hair were added to increase its strength.

Once a has been installed, it has to be gradually tempered and cured or seasoned. This process involves heating a small amount of coal at the base as a first step and basting the inside walls with a special paste made from ground spinach, yoghurt, palm sugar and mustard oil. This is then allowed to dry overnight.

The same process with slightly higher heat is repeated the next day and the day after that. This process takes about five to seven days.

These days, it is much easier as tandoori ovens are manufactured from metal using either gas or electricity as fuel.

The meat and chicken dishes cooked in a tandoori oven are typically marinated in yogurt and spices (often called tandoori masala of which there are many varieties). It had a characteristic bright orange-red colour caused by the addition of a special food colourant called tandoori rang (also Red #40 or E129).

Once the is brought to temperature, the meat (or chicken or fish) is skewered and placed into the oven in a vertical position with the sharp end of the skewer resting in the coals at the bottom. Flat breads such as naan are stuck against the side-walls toward the opening of the oven using a cotton bread pad called a .

The now classic Indian dish tandoori chicken was invented by a man called , in his restaurant in Peshawar, Punjab, before the partitioning of India in 1947.

When Peshawar became part of Pakistan, Gujral became a refugee in India and moved his restaurant to Delhi to escape the rioting back home. Here he managed to impress Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first president, so much with his chicken that it became a regular dish at official banquets.

And so world leaders ranging from presidents Richard Nixon and John F Kennedy to Nikita Khrushchev and the king of Nepal were introduced to the magic of tandoori chicken.

From here it became a much loved, truly global dish.

• 2 tablespoons cumin seeds

• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns

• 3⁄4 teaspoon whole cloves

• Seeds from 1 teaspoon green