Sorry in getting back so late... I've been a fan of Indian Cuisine for quite some time. Here in Las Vegas we have about four or five very good restaurants. I became interested in tandoor cooking while watching the cook preparing meals using this thing called a tandoor (I had no idea what was involved). I tried cooking flatbreads in my conventional oven but using a bread stone but never got the results like the restaurants. So, I spent a lot of time researching the tandoor but found that hardly any material exists to explain it let alone cook in it. I found Piers Thompson's site on constructing an outdoor tandoor, it was helpful, but what was tough was finding the clay liner itself. Many manufacturers produce tandoors but they are always inside a metal structure, not the liner itself which I wanted. I found a site in India (Marwah tools) that would ship the tandoor to Los Angeles, but I would have to have it shipped to Vegas, I was scared about this because the tandoor (clay) is very fragile (it's not been fired) and didn't want it to break. Luckily our local Indain market's owner is a friend of mine and secured a tandoor thru his supplier out of L.A. and I picked it up at his store. I talked with some of the chefs who work with tandoors, they all said to coat the interior to seal the clay (mainly because of the clay peeling off into your breads, not very tasty) use a mixture of mustard oil, spinach leaves, salt, jaggery, and yogurt, bring to boil and apply to the walls of a slightly heated tandoor. Remember to heat the tandoor *lightly* at first and cover and let it stay heated for 24 hours. Slowly increase your temperature. After installing it and constructing a brick shell filled with sand (similiar to Thompson's) I started cooking and found out the *most* important thing with this cooking - charcoal. A great charcoal (hardwood mesquite is very good, try to get only large chunks, smaller ones are not practical) will give the flavor that everyone can instantly recognize. Do not bother with a gas tandoor (these are useless - completely without flavor). And slightly less important is the temp. You've really got to get these hot and I mean *hot*. Typically, it takes about three hours to get mine hot enough to cook. Remember, the heat has to penetrate the clay just like a baking stone. You'll know when its very hot when you cannot even lighty touch the tandoor or cannot put your arm inside for more than a couple of seconds. Here is a tip - to know if your a tandoor cook just look at one's arm, it should have no hair on it because the oven will certainly have burned it off over the years! Once it been heated then you can lower it a little to cook breads. I make my bread cushion with small tea towels. Get a small wire hanger unfold it and bend it into a circle about 5 or 6 inches (usually you can get two winds with one hanger). Wrap a small towel around the circle so it becomes thicker. Then you can tie two or three more towels around the entire piece and tie the knots in the middle of the back of the cushion and you will get a nice soft but firm bread cushion, the knots serve as a place to put your thumb under so you can grap the cushion a lot easier. A good trick before you cook breads each time you start up the tandoor is take a quart of water and a couple tbl. of salt, mix and dip a towel into. Take the towel and spin it around the top of the inside of a heated tandoor, this will minimize your bread sticking. Naan is not easy to make if you want it done right. I think the most frustrating thing has been the breads, either they stick to the walls (not hot enough tandoor/or too much sugar) or they fall off into the dreaded coals (not enough water applied to the bread), your blood will boil when it happens, you work so hard on bread dough (it takes hours) just to have it become a smoldering, smoking mess! I'll share any recipe if anyone's interested... Cooking meats, however, is very fun, the smell of tandoor chicken, the smoke coming out is incredible! You need reliable sikhs and need to skewer the chicken or other meat in a way that it won't fall off (slide down) the sikh when you place it in the oven. Just weave the meat up and down onto the sikh, it becomes easy once you get the hang of it, but always remember to let the marinade rest on the meat at room temp. for at least 15 minutes. THis will give the marinade some time to dry off (especially the yogurt). Try to cook at a high temp but away from open flame, you can keep the sikh away by planting it into the ash accumulated at the bottom, and keep the top lid slightly open. This keeps all that smoke inside! Sorry for the long post, I had some extra time, if anyone has any questions, I would love to help or would love to find out more from other cooks! J. P. Smith Las Vegas
