History
Unravelling the history of the tandoor takes us back by 5000 years to the Indus valley and Harappan civilizations of ancient India. Traces of tandoors were found from the excavation of these historical sites. Use of tandoor however is not limited to only the Indian subcontinent; it was apparently used in West and Central Asia as well. Traces of tandoor have also been found in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. The tandoor was popularized in medieval India by the Mughals. The portable tandoor was invented much later during the reigns of Jahangir, a Mughal ruler. It is said that portable tandoor was carried by a team of cooks whenever he travelled.
So what exactly is a tandoor?
Tandoor is the oven in which tandoori food is cooked. The original tandoor is made from clay and used for cooking all over Asia, starting in Turkey and ending in Bangladesh. Legend has it that the Roma people took the tandoor from their home in the Thar Desert in northwestern India everywhere they went.This cylindrical oven holds a small fire fuelled by wood charcoal. Many tandoors have a door at the bottom so the cook can regulate the intensity of the fire by the amount of oxygen. Ceramic walls inside the oven create an intensive heat that can reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius).The big advantage of a tandoor oven is that they will maintain a high temperature for a long time burning only little fuel. Cooking times in a tandoor oven are generally minutes, sometimes only seconds. The Mediterranean equivalent to a tandoor would be a wood fired pizza oven.
What is so special about tandoori cooking?
Cooking in tandoor uses four different techniques. Radiant heat that comes from the pit has effect akin to baking. Direct heat from charcoal allows grilling. The smoke that is produced from dripping marinade gives exclusive smoky flavor to the dishes cooked in tandoor.High temperatures in tandoor allows juices to seal in, resulting in juicier meat as compared to other methods of cooking. Smoke emanating from dripping marinade, and earthy aroma of clay lining of tandoor gives the food an exclusive complex flavor that is unmatched. Hot clay walls produces effect similar to griddling.Flat breads such as naan and tandoori roti are made by sticking them to the hot clay walls of the tandoor.
Tandoori cooking is a healthy way of cooking food. High temperature in tandoor cooks the food fast making use of external fats such as butter and oil unnecessary. Tandoori does not mean a special recipe, it describes the way of cooking. Tandoori food is cooked in a tandoor. Period. It can be naan, the traditional Indian flatbread prepared from light yeast dough or anything that can be stuck on a skewer and lowered into an oven. Meat, fish and paneer, the Indian cheese, are usually marinated for several hours before they are cooked in the tandoor. A similar marinade, made from yoghurt mixed with spices, is used for tikka dishes.
So who founded the tandoori chicken recipe?
Tandoori chicken as a dish originated in the Punjab before the independence of India and Pakistan. Although tandoor cooked chicken dates back to as early as the Mughal era, the dish is believed to be invented much later. Nearly 100 years ago, a man named Mokha Singh Lamba started a small restaurant in Peshawar, Pakistan. In the center of the restaurant was a tandoor, a cylindrical clay oven, placed there by a man who worked at the restaurant, Kundan Lal Gujral. While bread has been baked in tandoor ovens for hundreds of years and there are several reports of chicken being baked in tandoors since the 16th century, the version Gujral made—with crispy skin and a recognizably bright red exterior—became an enormous success until he was forced to flee Pakistan during the 1947 Partition of India.
In his new home in Delhi, Gujral founded a new restaurant, Moti Mahal, which went on to popularize butter chicken and dal makhani. In its 1950s heyday, it was popular with celebrities and world leaders. Many—including Nixon, John F. Kennedy, and Gandhi—visited it, which may be in part why Gujral's restaurant is credited with launching Indian cuisine—and tandoori chicken—into the international food scene.
Is tandoori chicken tikka different from tandoori chicken ?
The Oxford dictionary describes tikka as “an Indian dish of small pieces of meat or vegetables marinated in a spice mixture”. The main difference between tandoori and tikka dishes is the fact that tikka is made from boneless pieces of meat speared by a skewer. Tandoori generally means that a big piece usually with bones is lowered into the oven.
For example, chicken tikka are marinated pieces of boneless chicken on a skewer while tandoori chicken can be a whole chicken or big chicken portions such as thighs/ breasts stuck on a skewer. The marinade and the cooking method remains the same.
An integral part of Indian cuisine world over!
The Encyclopedia of Food and Culture declared that tandoori cuisine is the most recognizable type of Indian food around the world. Food historians Massimo Montanari and Jean-Louis Flandrin: "Every culture is contaminated by other cultures; every tradition is a child of history and history is never static." It's why chamoy— which came from Chinese immigrants' salted plums—is a staple of Mexican street food, and why tomatoes—brought back from Peru by the Spanish—are popular in Italian cuisine.
http://www.differencebetween.net/object/comparisons-of-food-items/difference-between-tandoor-and-tikka/
https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Tandoori_chicken.html
https://food52.com/blog/16036-the-unlikely-history-of-tandoori-chicken-and-a-recipe
https://thefoodfunda.com/history-of-tandoor-tandoori-cooking/
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