What is a Tandori Oven? Indian Foods I Have Come to Enjoy
May 14 '01 (Updated Dec 29 '02)
The Bottom Line Indian food can be spicy, but doesn't have to be. Good variety of chicken, vegetarian, seafood and lamb dishes.
What in the world is a tandori oven? I had the pleasure of observing one in action last month. The one I saw was in the Tan Door Indian Restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was about 3 feet tall, about 2 feet square, with about a 1 foot round opening on the top. On the bottom was a gas burner, I believe, with a cover over it, flames coming out, about 1-2" high.
We were enjoying our dinner for two, of tandoori chicken, with saffron rice, mulligatawny soup, a salad and desert. I asked the waitress, who was also the owner's niece, what a tandori oven was. Upon leaving, she invited me to see the oven, which I had asked about earlier in the evening.
She introduced me to her uncle, who she said no longer had any hair on his arms, due to the heat of the oven. He proceeded to take down a mound of white dough, which resembled the shape of a Hostess Snow Ball, and flattened it, tossing it in the air, pizza style, until it was flat and round. He then slapped it to the wall of the oven. The dough began to blister, then darken, and finally it began to peel itself off the side of the oven. It was done. I assumed that he was making this for another customer. I was quite thrilled when he put a bit of butter on it and handed it to me -- hot and chewy! YUM!
We have enjoyed Indian food for the better part of seven years, after having found a coupon for the Jaipur Restaurant in Rockbrook Shopping Center in Omaha. Our favorite menu item is Mulgatawny Soup, a green soup, made with red lentils, which I have made several times at home and will give you the recipe for at the end of the article. There is a bit of spice to this soup, but I wouldn't really call it hot. I do need a Kleenex though, when eating it. It customarily has a bit of cilantro and rice as a garnish. The flavor is enhanced with a bit of lemon squeezed on top, throwing the squeezed lemon piece into my glass of water.
If you find the food a bit too spicy for your liking, often a beer will help cool your palate. Some Indian restaurants also have microbreweries which may offer very interesting choices.
Following are some of the dishes we have enjoyed at the restaurants:
Kabuli naan, has raisins and cashews in it, much like the bread I described earlier, made in the tandori oven.
Papadum, also ranks high on our list, a flat, crisp, fried wafer made from lentils, customarily served with a mint chutney, consisting of yogurt and jalapenos and mint blended in. Just dip the crisp piece into the chutney for a taste sensation!
Chicken Korma, chicken, marinated in yogurt, put on a skewer and cooked in the tandori oven. It has a creamy curry sauce. I would not consider it hot.
Chicken Tikka Korma, chicken, marinated in yogurt, skewered and cooked in the Tandori oven, served with a creamy curry sauce.
Saffron rice Is yet another one of my favorite Indian dishes. The flavor is achieved by adding saffron, cardamom and a few other spices to it. DELECTABLE! It is often used as a base for the many entree toppings which are offered on the Indian menu.
Lamb, seafood and vegetarian dishes are also very popular on Indian menus. I do not care for either lamb nor seafood and like to "get my money's worth," so I tend to order the chicken.
One of the traditional deserts tends to be a cold rice "soup" which is sweet in flavor. I am unsure what name this goes by.
Here is the recipe I promised you earlier. This most closely approximates the soup I have come to love at the Jaipur Restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska. I have adapted it from Madhur Jaffrey's - Indian Cooking
Mulgatawny Soup
1 c split red lentils, picked over, washed and drained
5 c chicken stock
1/2 t. ground tumeric
1 medium potato
5 cloves peeled garlic
1 1/2" piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 c water
1 1/4 t. salt
fresh ground pepper
vegetable oil
1 t. ground cumin seeds
1 t. ground coriander seeds
about 1/4 t. or less ground cayenne pepper
about 1 T. lemon juice
t = teaspoon
T = Tablespoon
Put the lentils, tumeric and and chicken stock into a medium pot and boil gently for 30 minutes with the lid just ajar to let steam escape.
Meanwhile, peel and cut the potato into small pieces and add to the soup mixture, letting simmer an additional 30 minutes.
While this is cooking, put the garlic and ginger in an electric blender, with about 1/8 c water and blend until smooth.
When the soup is done, put it into the electric blender, in three separate batches, to make it easier to handle all the volume, adding 1 t. salt.
In the same pot, or another one, if you wish, add the oil and put your garlic and ginger paste into it, along with your cumin, coriander and cayenne. (If I don't have the preground spices, I like to use a mortar and pestal, which I purchased from a Mexican food market to grind my spices.) Fry until your spices turn a bit brown and start to separate from the oil. Add 1 c. water and bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the pureed soup and lemon juice. If this is too thick, you can thin it with a little water or chicken stock. The original recipe calls for a chicken breast, but I have never had it served this way at a restaurant, so I have left it out.
When I eat this at the restaurant, they put a few grains of rice atop, with a bit of chopped cilantro. They also have a lemon wedge alongside, which I squeeze onto my soup, tossing the rind into my glass of water. Manufique! Or am I in the wrong country???
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