Tandoori Paste

This Tandoori Paste recipe is a homemade recipe that can be used with the Tandoori Chicken with Coconut and Coriander Rice recipe on this website, the link is below.

It is best used with the recipe mentioned above however you can just coat some fish, or lamb and put in the oven until cooked.

There is some prep required in assembling these spices however once that is done then all you have to do is roast and grind. Making two batches is probably well worth the effort too.

Keep the spices in a jar in the pantry and just mix with yogurt next time you want to cook up some Tandoori Chicken.

Makes 1 1/3 cups

Ingredients

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 stick cinnamon

5 large dried chilies

10 whole cloves

1 teaspoon ground mace

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon finely ground saffron threads (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons tandoori coloring

1 cup natural yogurt

Method

Place coriander and cumin seeds, cinnamon, chilies, cloves, mace, ginger, turmeric, and salt in a non-stick pan and dry roast over a gentle heat until fragrant. Cool.

Grind into a fine powder with saffron. Add the tandoori coloring. Store in a sealed glass jar.

Blend the powder with yogurt to make a thick paste.

Add 4 large pieces of chicken with bone, coat well and marinate for at least 1 hour (preferably a few hours).

Cook in a preheated hot oven for about 20 minutes until meat is cooked.