Tandoor

Looking into the mouth of a tandoor.

A chef at an Indian restaurant places an item to be cooked inside a tandoor.

A tandoor (Hindi: तन्दूर, Urdu: تندور) is a cylindrical clay oven used in cooking and baking. The tandoor is used for cooking in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Transcaucasus, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia as well as India and Bangladesh.

The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal fire or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself, thus exposing the food to both live-fire, radiant heat cooking, and hot-air, convection cooking.

Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F), and it is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods of time to maintain the high cooking temperature. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven,

The tandoor is used for cooking certain types of Afghan, Pakistani and Indian foods such as tandoori chicken, chicken tikka and bread varieties like tandoori roti and naan. The word tandoori is the adjective meaning "pertaining to the tandoor" and is used to describe a dish cooked in a tandoor. The tandoor is basically used to cook meat while Hindus and Sikhs of India are mostly vegeatarian so it was popularised during Muslim reign in South Asia. It is thought to have travelled to Central Asia and the Middle East along with the Roma people, who originated amongst the Thar Desert tribes. In India, the tandoor is also known by the name of bhatti. The Bhatti tribe of the Thar Desert of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan developed the Bhatti in their desert abode, and thus it gained the name. The tandoor is currently a very important fixture in many Indian restaurants around the world. Some modern day tandoors use electricity or gas instead of charcoal. In Armenia, It is known as a tonir which is a widely used method of cooking barbecue and lavash bread. In Georgia it is called a tone and is used for bread and kebab.

History

Lamb meat, cooked and smoked inside of an Armenian tonir

The oldest examples of a tandoor were found in the Harappa and Mohenjo Daro settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, though earlier Tandoor type ovens have been recovered in early-Harappan contexts on the Makran coast, including the mound site of Balakot. In Sanskrit, the tandoor was referred to as kandu. The word tandoor comes from the Dari words tandūr and tannūr; these are derived from very similar terms, viz. Persian tanūr (تنور), Arabic tandūr, Turkish Tandır and Azeri'təndir' ' kurdish tendûr (which all have the same meaning as explained in the article). However, according to Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary the word originates from Akkadian tinûru, and is mentioned as early as in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgames (reflexes of which are Avestan tanûra and Pahlavi tanûr). As such, the tandoor may not be of Semitic or Iranian origin altogether, dating back as it does to periods before the migration of Aryan and Semitic people to the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia.

Tandoori Cuisine

Chicken Tikka

Main article: Chicken Tikka

Kalmi Kabab, a popular Indian chicken dish made in a tandoor.

Chicken tikka (Hindi: मुर्ग़ टिक्का ; Urdu: مرغ تکہ ; Murgh Tikka ) is a South Asian dish made by grilling small pieces of chicken which have been marinated in spices and yogurt. It is traditionally cooked upon skewers in a tandoor and is usually boneless. It is normally served and eaten with a green coriander chutney, or used in preparing the curry Chicken Tikka Masala.

Tandoori Chicken

Main article: Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori Chicken served in Mumbai, India.

Tandoori Chicken is a roasted chicken delicacy that originated in Peshawar. Tandoori Chicken later became popular Punjabi dish during the time of the Mughal Empire in Central and Southern Asia, it is still popular throughout that area. The chicken is marinated in a yogurt seasoned with garam masala, garlic, ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, and other spices depending on the recipe. Cayenne, red chili powder, or other spices give the typical red color. Turmeric produces a yellow-orange color. In some modern versions red and yellow food coloring is used instead. It is traditionally cooked at high temperatures in an earthen oven (i.e. tandoor), but can also be prepared on a traditional grill.

In many Pakistani and Indian restaurants, red Tandoori chicken is served with sliced onions and wedges of fresh lemon or lime. India's version of barbecued chicken, Tandoori chicken is one of the most popular delicacies stemming from the North of India and has undergone years of perfection.

See also

• Masonry oven
• Khubz