Tandoori Chicken

April 1, 2003

Our cat has been a member of the family for about 15 years. We promised the sons they could have a pet as soon as our first major house renovation was done when they were small boys.

Naively, I thought kittens grew on trees - well, not literally, but I did think they were easy to come by. But when the time came to get a kitten, there didn't seem to be any round. Apparently they like to arrive in the summer and here it was mid-winter.

I called the SPCA and they phoned back a couple of days later to say one of their branches had about three young cats available.

There was great excitement as we put a cardboard carton in the car and drove out to the animal refuge. There were the cats, about six months old and still fairly kittenish - a couple of tabbies and then this ball of black fluff who marched right up to The Spouse and stood by his foot, waiting to be gathered up. You might say he adopted us. The decision was unanimous.

He has a silly name - Pooksie Pax. That's what Ben called cats when he was a toddler. But Pooksie answers to any name directed at him.

You get used to animals and their habits when they've been around for so long and I suppose we've never thought much of the fact that when we sit at the table for dinner, Pooksie takes up his seat on one of the chairs. Occasionally he might score a titbit but mainly he is content just to be part of the gathering. It's not until friends come to share a meal that we recognise his little idiosyncrasies.

Unfortunately, with age, he seems to have developed a kidney problem and I guess we will be faced with the inevitable sooner or later. Meanwhile, though, in spite of his own special diet, he remains interested in what we are eating.

In the picture he is joining us for some Tandoori Chicken.

While most of us don't run to a Tandoor, a special hot clay oven traditionally used to cook this sort of food, we can still approximate the delicious flavour of Tandoori dishes in a regular oven.

If you go to a restaurant with a Tandoor, see if you can sweet-talk them into letting you have a look. Watching a skilled Tandoori chef manipulating the extra long skewers of food down into the depths of the oven, or persuading the leaf-shaped naan breads stick to the wall of the oven without collapsing into the coals is something worth watching. The temperature inside the oven can reach up to 700F (370C) so it's fairly hot work.

Tandoori Chicken

1.5kg chicken pieces, fat removed
juice of 2-3 lemons
salt
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground roasted cumin seeds
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1-2 teaspoons ground chilli paste
4 cloves garlic crushed
1 cup thick plain yoghurt

Slash the chicken pieces several time and rub in the salt and lemon juice. Mix the spices with the yoghurt and spoons over the chicken. Marinate for 3-4 hours.

Pre-heat your oven to 220C (or 200C fan bake) and place the chicken pieces on a rack in a grilling pan and cook until the juices run clear, turning once or twice during cooking.

I served ours with some fresh green beans and a salad of sliced avocado, Florence fennel and tomatoes, dressed with virgin olive oil, lime juice, chopped basil and freshly ground pepper, sprinkled with a little Maldon sea salt.