The Tandoor Site

Background

I often wonder if I have the only back-garden tandoor in the UK. I'm sure there must be others (and if you've got one please tell me) but it's unusual enough that I should probably explain how it came about.

I like to cook, and I particularly like to cook outside. I enjoy baking bread and I share our national enthusiasm for Indian food. When you combine these preferences it's difficult to see how I survived without a tandoor for so long!

The Tandoor is the traditional oven of North India. It is a simple beehive-shaped clay pot which is heated by charcoal or wood. Meat is cooked inside on long skewers, breads are cooked by being stuck to the inside.

The tandoor cooks by a combination of heat from smouldering embers in the bottom and heat which has been retained by the thick, clay walls and is re-radiated as you cook. The intense heat cooks meat very quickly and seals in the juices, producing the distinctive and succulent results which characterise tandoori food.

The project began in earnest on my birthday when my fiancee bought me the clay tandoor liner. Unfortunately we lived in rented accommodation so I had to wait a year (with the tandoor sitting in our bedroom) before we moved to our own place with a garden where I could build the structure needed to hold the oven. It took three months to build but a competent DIYer could do it in a week given a clear run.

It'll be interesting to see what potential buyers make of it when we come to sell the house.