BEST COOKING RECIPES

Traditionally
tandoori dishes are cooked in a tandoor
an oval shaped clay oven with a small fire in the bottom. The heat rises gradually but ultimately reaches a much higher temperature than a barbeque.

A tandoor is normally used to cook naan bread
meats and kebabs (meat or paneer). The bread is stuck to the sides
the kebabs stood vertically and whole chickens rested on a grid over the fire.

For domestic cooking
a tandoor is not really convenient but the meat dishes can be reproduced on a barbeque or in the oven. The bright red appearance of tandoori meats which you may see in Indian restaurants is produced by a food dye which really isn’t necessary to enhance the look of your tandoori dishes.

I have a great fondness for tandoori style food. It has flavour
without being "hot" or high in calories or too filling. In fact it's an ideal dish summer or winter
if you fancy something a little different. As a bonus
it doesn't take hours to prepare. Of course you can take all the effort out of it and use a pre-prepared mix
but I think they have less flavour and you can’t use them for anything else
whereas if you use the individual spices
you can make other dishes as well.

You can easily make tandoori chicken (whole)
tandoori lamb chops (pork would be more unusual
but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t use it
if you prefer) and lamb tikka (kebabs) but my personal favourite is chicken tikka because it’s so quick so here’s my own recipe.

This recipe serves two people - multiply it for as many people as you want.

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken breasts


• 1 small tub Greek yogurt


• 1 tsp ground cumin


• 1 tsp ground coriander


• ฝ tsp ground turmeric


• ฝ tsp ginger powder


• ฝ tsp chilli powder (or to taste)


• 1 small clove garlic
  crushed


• salt to taste


• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Cut the chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes and set aside.
Mix the spice powders and garlic into the yogurt. You can use low fat yogurt if you prefer. You can also use fresh ginger or ginger paste from a jar rather than ginger powder but go easy on the quantity as it can be quite over-powering.

At this point you can also mix in the salt and lemon juice but if you do so
don’t leave the chicken to marinade for more than about 20 minutes or it will become very dry when cooked. If you want to marinade it for a longer time
add the salt and lemon juice just before you cook the dish or sprinkle on to serve.

Thread the chicken onto skewers and either barbeque or cook under a grill using medium heat until the chicken is slightly browned and cooked through.

For a light meal
serve with salad
pitta or naan bread and lemon wedges or for something more substantial with rice and dahl.