Trendy Indian cuisine is all about the Tandoor oven
Described as simple, robust, versatile and somewhat out of the ordinary, the traditional Indian charcoal oven, the "Tandur" is also known in English as the Tandoor. Tandoori referring to the food items, which are cooked in the Tandoor have achieved the status of the newest trendsetters in the international food-service industry. "Bollyfood", the exciting Indian cuisine, can hardly be imagined without the traditional equipment. Helmut Haase, fun food expert and acknowledged insider on Indian cuisine: "Tandoori represents a heretofore unknown taste explosion for the German palate."The Tandoor somewhat resembles a cask without a lid, in which the food is hung over charcoal. In its simplest form the Tandoor is a large cylindrical container, constructed from a mixture of clay and coconut fibers. The interior wall of the traditional Tandoor oven is hardened by rubbing in a paste made of mustard oil, Indian full-cane sugar (jaggery), yogurt and milled spinach.
Originally the Tandoor was exclusively used for baking bread. For that purpose the flat-cake dough was stuck to the interior wall and baked very fast at the proper temperature. The Indian province of Punjab is recognized as the homeland of the Tandoor. Experts debate the origin of the word "Tandur". It is maintained that the word "tannur" developed from the combination of the Babylonian word "tinuru" with Semitic designation "nar", meaning fire. It has been shown after all through finds that the Tandoor already was in use in 3000 B.C. on the Indian subcontinent. Through trade this ingenious cooking device soon spread across Pakistan and Afghanistan into the Arab region. Finally the English colonial rulers took the Tandoor in the 19th century along with them to Europe.
So it is no wonder that the "modern" Tandoor began its triumphal procession in Great Britain, especially since the British Isles contain large communities of citizens originating from India, Pakistan and Cashmere. After World War II, restaurants specializing in Indian dishes spread throughout the island and with them spread also the use of the Tandoor. Tandoor ovens are now no longer simply hand-crafted individually, but are now the result of industrial production and are made with cemented brick walls, larger units are even made of iron. Many food service specialists in ethnic food restaurants continue to use the Tandoor only for baking bread, while others make use of the entire capabilities of this equipment for preparing delicious Tandoori meat or fish dishes.
The Haase company offers within its current "Bollyfood" program both the oven itself with all the necessary accessories as well as the raw ingredients and spices with the appropriate menu and snack item suggestions for the trendy Indian cuisine. Food-service specialists can also learn how to operate the Tandoor oven in short instructional courses in Rosbach near Frankfurt/Main.