Tandoori and my Bengali Family

 

My mother nor my father made tandoori at home when I was growing up. I personally have not heard of it in my early childhood.

First time I came across tandoori when my father came home from work and the next morning he was emptying his work bag. In it, covered in a silver rapper, were vivid red pieces of chicken that I had never seen before. These primary coloured pieces were named by my dad: tandoori. Along with the pieces were a number of large naan bread all wrapped around each other to be eaten together.

As he was unwrapping them all, I had a quick glimpse of his hands. He had lines of burnt marks in his hands and arms. In a brown man’s skin a burnt mark, without broken skin, appear dark and black. I guess, right now, I could imagine him handling hot pans and other hot tools as a chef. Inevitably mistakes do happen. Consequences of such mistakes scarred him and his hands and arms at the time.

My mother never cooked such a dish at home. Oven at home would rarely work. I don’t think we even tried to use it until a few years ago (nearly 20 years later)  when I tried to teach my siblings how to make a roast chicken - English Style! When it comes to using a cooker, it was alway about cooking curry and other dishes on the hub.

I remember tasting and smelling the pieces even to this day. At the time, I would use my right hand to pick up my share of the pieces when they were put in a few plates for us to eat as a family.   I would gently break a piece off the bones and then wrap them with a naan bread. Within a few minutes my pieces would disappear  in front of me.

Tandoori was and is a delicacy like a gem in my family. You see and smell it  mostly during Eid festival when you visit your cousins and relatives homes or at a wedding ceremony.   I remember a few ‘well-to-do’ relatives would arrange wedding ceremonies to feed over 400 guests, tandoori would definitely be seen as one of the dishes to show off at the wedding.

Origin of Tandoori

I still never had a close bond with tandoori though, although I loved the taste! Tandoori was never part of my Bengali home cooking, having looked into it, tandoori appears to be from Punjab, or to put it bluntly, it's a dish of North West India, instead Eastern Indian subcontinent where my family is from.

The dish is designed to be eaten with naan as what my dad seemed to have brought from the restaurant where he worked. Whereas Bangladeshis are known for cooking rice and fish as their local staple. 

But the dish does require a tandoor, a clay oven.  This clearly explains why it is called tandoori.