Tandoor - the bread sticks how?

 A tandoor is a large cylindrical clay or metal oven used in central Asian cooking. Northern India uses tandoors to cook various food including naan. Using skewers for meats and vegetables.

For the naan, the dough is slapped against the sides of the oven and quickly baked to puffy goodness. How the dough sticks was a mystery to me. More on that later.

Indian food if one of my favorite cuisines. I love the spices and methods. Curries, masalas, korma and tandoori (my favorite). I have never been in the kitchen of an Indian restaurant (nor have I asked) to see if they use an actual tandoor oven to cook the meat and naan. You can buy a tandoor oven for home. The prices vary but seem to start around $700. Not in my current budget for something I cook a few times a year.

I don’t know where I found the recipe I use for tandoori chicken. The spice mix is from scratch and smells wonderful. Garam Masala can replace the dry spices but it won’t be quite the same.

And yes, it has food coloring in the marinade. It is an optional ingredient. The final results will not be red if it’s left out. I use a powdered pastry coloring. The ingredients seem pretty mundane. If food coloring is not your thing don’t use it. No effect at all on the flavor, just the appearance.

So, what about that naan. I have used a yeast recipe for quite a long time. It’s good but it’s, well, bready. The garlic naan from the restaurant is puffy, has holes in it, has spots on it where it’s charred. I figured that’s the best to be done at home without a tandoor oven.

Let me get completely off subject for a moment. I love actual cooking shows. Not food games or food competitions. I love cooking shows: Emeril, Julia, Galloping Gourmet (yes I am that old) and most definitely Good Eats. These shows are not prevalent on tv much anymore. I have discovered a few good (in my opinion) YouTube shows. And they aren’t so much shows as short videos on a particular food topic. Two of my favorites are Binging with Babish and Adam Ragusea. Which brings me back to naan. Adam Rausea has a video about making naan in a cast iron pan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zogvMiPpQrs

He shows a way to make naan that is more like the restaurant type, puffy, less bready, charred. I made it and must say it’s pretty darn good. No yeast, although he gives a recipe for yeasted naan. The non-yeast recipe uses baking powder and baking soda. Check it out, the video is 11:15 minutes.

Now the secret about how the dough sticks to the side of the tandoor: water!

After making the dough disk, wet one side of the dough with water then slap it on the side of the tandoor. It sticks because the water creates a sticky pasty “glue” that holds it in place. I used a spray bottle. And why, you ask, would I need to do this if the dough is in a cast iron pan? Well in order to get the bubbly surface on top you turn the pan upside down over the heat of the burner and toast it. If it’s not sticking to the pan it will fall onto the burner and well probably catch on fire. Or at least it probably would on my range because it’s gas. Once cooked it easily releases with a spatula.

The tricky part is to hold the 12” heavy cast iron pan upside down over the burner and I wouldn’t want to prepare this for a dinner party of any more than two. You must have heavy duty oven mitts on both hands and be careful not to light them on fire or melt them. I have silicone mitts that work well but still get pretty hot holding the pan. Plus, the pan must be cleaned off between each naan or they won’t release after cooking.

Now back to the tandoori chicken. After marinating the chicken, I grilled it on my Weber gas grill along with the onions and peppers. Use a charcoal grill by all means if that’s your thing. You can serve this with biryani and some nice chutneys. I went simple with just the grilled veggies and naan.

Tandoori Chicken

Recipe inspired by Aarti Sequeira

Servings 8

5   whole  cloves

2   pods  black cardamom

4   pods  green cardamom

2   teaspoon  coriander seeds

1   teaspoon  fennel seeds

1   teaspoon  fenugreek seeds

2   teaspoons  kosher salt

1   teaspoon  pepper, freshly ground

1/2 teaspoon  Kashmiri chile powder

1/2 teaspoon  ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon  paprika

1/4 teaspoon  ground turmeric

1   teaspoon  powdered red food coloring -- optional

2   cups  plain yogurt

1/4 cup  olive oil

1/2 cup  cider vinegar

1   tablespoons  minced garlic

2   inches  ginger -- peeled and minced

8   chicken thighs -- trimmed of fat

8   chicken legs

1   large  onion -- sliced

1   large  green bell pepper -- sliced into rings

2   large  limes -- cut in wedges

Measure out each whole spice in preparation for roasting. Remove the husks from the green and black cardamom.

Heat a 10" cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Toast the cloves, cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds in a cast-iron skillet until fragrant. Pour into a bowl to cool. Then, pour the spices into a spice grinder and grind them until you get a fine powder. In a small bowl, combine the spice mix with the salt, pepper Kashmiri chile powder, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric and red food coloring.

In large bowl whisk together the spice mixture with yogurt, olive oil and vinegar until well combined. It should smell amazing! Taste and adjust with more salt if needed.

Using a paring knife cut slits in the chicken pieces, not quite to the bone. Add the chicken to the bowl of marinade, toss to coat. Marinate at least 1 hour in the fridge and at most overnight.

Heat your grill (gas or charcoal). Place the onion and bell pepper slices on a large plate, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Shake off the marinade and place on the grill. Grill the chicken turning often until they reach an internal temperature of 170°. Begin grilling the onions and bell peppers when the chicken is nearly done. 

Serve the chicken on a platter over the grilled onion and peppers with a fresh squeeze of lime.

NOTES : Cooking Tip: The food coloring is totally optional. Powdered food coloring can be found at Indian grocers or online.

Cooking Tip: Oven method: line a baking sheet with foil. Turn your broiler on. Place each chicken thigh on the baking sheet. Cook the chicken thighs under the broiler until starting to blacken, about 5 minutes. Then turn the oven to 350°F and cook until they reach an internal temperature of 170°.

Garlic Naan in a Cast Iron Skillet — Tawa-style

Recipe By Adam Ragusea

Serving Size: 4 naans

Dough:

2   cups all-purpose flour

1   teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1   teaspoon double-acting baking powder

2   tablespoons oil

1/2 cup milk plus more as needed

1/4 cup yogurt with live cultures

Toppings:

grated garlic

fresh chopped cilantro -- or parsley

melted butter

Combine all the dough ingredients and knead — adding additional milk/water as needed — until you have a dough that is soft, springy, and only a little sticky. Oil the dough ball, cover it and leave it for at least a half hour, but ideally for several hours. (I suspect additional fermentation will occur over those hours if you use a yogurt with live bacterial cultures.)

Knead the dough again right before baking, and divide it into four balls. Get a well-seasoned cast iron skillet heating (medium heat is the right temp on my stove, but you'll have to experiment). Roll out a naan just shy of the thinnest you can make it, top with some grated garlic and chopped cilantro and roll the toppings into the dough. Immediately before baking, flip the dough around and slightly wet the bottom side with water.

Press the dough wet-side-down into the hot skillet. If your heat and dough are right, you should have a few bubbles within two minutes, and the edges should be looking dry and cooked. (Another clue I use about when to flip is to smell for the first hint of anything burning.) When you think the first side is cooked, invert the pan over your burner. (The starch paste on the bottom of the dough should make it stick securely to the skillet.) Turn your heat higher and brown the top side of the dough until the bubble peaks are starting to burn, but before the whole top looks cooked — you want much of the surface to still look doughy.

If you have an induction stove, or you just don't want to do the risky pan-inversion maneuver, you can simply flip the naan and cook the top side directly on the pan, but flip it back around before the top looks fully cooked. You want some doughy surface.

Flip the pan back around and take it off the heat. Brush the naan with melted butter and maybe sprinkle on some salt, then use a spatula to scrape the naan out of the pan. Give the pan a quick wash and dry before you bake the next loaf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zogvMiPpQrs

Laos - Descendants of Sticky Rice

Laos is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. The Lao people originated in China and settled in the country’s current location around 1353. Kingdoms came and went. Trade through the region led to cultural and financial wealth. In 1893, Siam (modern day Thailand) ceded the territory to France and became Laos. France left in 1954 and well we all know how the U.S. handled things. The country came under Communist control in December 1975.

Off politics and on to food. The staple food in Laos is sticky rice. The rice is grown throughout Southeast Asia. Its distinguishing stickiness is due to the lack of amylose and high amount of amylopectin. Sciency words that mean it sticks together when cooked.

Laotians eat more sticky rice than any other culture. A quick read on Wikipedia states: Sticky rice is considered the essence of what it means to be Lao. It has been said that no matter where they are in the world, sticky rice will always be the glue that holds the Lao communities together, connecting them to their culture and to Laos. Often the Lao will refer to themselves as "luk khao niao", which can be translated as "children or descendants of sticky rice".

I found the rice a bit tricky to make. It’s steamed. There is a special steaming pot and basket for this. To me, it looks like a small spittoon pot with an upside-down bamboo hat. I wasn’t intrigued enough to purchase the set. I do have a 5-pound bag of the rice which should last me forever.

The rice must soak for several hours. I put a cup in a bowl and covered with water the morning before cooking. I’d say it sat for about 8 hours. Heat up a big pot of water, dump the rice in a fine-mesh strainer, cover and steam away. It took quite a bit longer than the recipe indicated to become soft. Maybe the hat would work better. Here’s my source: How to Make Sticky Rice (Stovetop or Instant Pot) | Inquiring Chef

Larb (also spelled laap, larp, lahb or laab) is a meat salad considered the national dish of Laos. It is made with any protein and many variations exist. I chose to use pork. I also did not use a red chile. I bought some red fresno chiles at the local Asian market hoping they wouldn’t be too hot. I slice a small piece to try it and immediately spit it out as the heat was instant. The scoville scale for fresnos is 2,000 to 10,000, pretty sure I got a 10,000.

I resorted to red bell pepper. Sigh, I am quiet a light weight with hot chiles. Note on the scoville chart that this chile is only yellow zone hot.

Even without heat the larb was delicious. The funk of fish sauce, the brightness of mint and the tang of the lime were really good.

I also made a Mango & Shrimp Salad, Thum Mak Mouang (Make a Lao'd salad. Mango style. – Little Laos on the Prairie). Shredded green mango, lime juice, funky fish sauce, sweet chili sauce (not real hot) plus more good herbs and such. It also called for hot raw chile but, well, see above. I forgot to add the peanuts at the end so I will need to do this again.