I have always wanted a tandoor (an Indian oven they make naan breads and kebabs and tandoor style food in) and had planned to make one when I make my ‘outdoor kitchen’ – a plan for a fixed BBQ, wood fired pizza oven and tandoor – but this will have to wait until I get my patio down.
Whilst out today, I came across two 14″ terracotta pots that were pretty cheap – £15 for both, and I thought I would have a little experiment.
This is one of the pots – you can just make out where I have marked a square up for cutting. The cuts were done at 45 degrees or as near as with a 5″ angle grinder and a stone cutting disk. The 45 degree angle is so the cut out can be put back in place without danger of it falling through.
I also had some 1/4″ rebar lying around – I sharpened the ends of it with the grinder and a metal disk. These will be the skewers – an added benefit of rebar is it is ribbed so it should hold the food better.
Here you can see the cuts made to both pots. The bottom pot has had the lip cut off so the upper pot will sit on it and a small hole cut in it to let air in and poke the fire if need be – the upper pot has the square cut out.
Rather than burn my hands moving the skewers around, they were near enough the right size so they would fit into a bit of bamboo cane – this did split but I whipped the handle with the string I use for tying up my tomatoes.
And this is the tandoor heating up – I lit some charcoal in the bottom of it and almost as soon as I put the upper pot on, it started to roar – the chimney action of the pot helping draw air through the hole I cut in the bottom.
