Explore Tandoor

I braved the cold Canadian winter and did myself some barbecuing tonight and prepared some Grilled Tandoori Chicken. I'm not a very good barbecuer, in part because I don't have a very good barbecue and in part because fire kind of scares me. I'm always afraid of burning things, even though that charred taste is what makes people love barbecue in the first place. To me, burnt is bad. It's what happens when you cook things the wrong way. Unlike with barbecue sauce where it's the sugar that burns on the grill, the tandoori marinade is based on yogurt and aromatic spices so that char was either singed fat or seared in flavor. My new grilling motto: the blackest parts are the bestest parts (it's a work in progress). Not only did barbecuing remind me of the summer, but this chicken was awesome. Shannon had hers with some leftover Lemon Rice Pilaf and I had mine with the Thai Coconut Rice.

Since I finally opened the package of tamarind I've had in my cupboard in order to prepare the Roasted Garlic and Chili Oil for the Suit and Thai Event, I figured I should come up with more ways to use the tamarind before it dries up to nothing. I cut 1/4 out of the block in order to make tamarind chutney, which I managed to squeeze into 2 different dishes; one sweet and one savory.

The savory dish was Indian Chick Peas. The pan-fried spices mixed with the chutney often overlapped and not only filled the kitchen with wonderful aromas, but also gave the chick peas a pungent flavor that just pleasantly lingered in the mouth rather than having that sometimes overpowering bite often accompanied with curried flavors.

We bought a 5 kilogram (that's like 11 pounds, I think) box of apples of yesterday for 3 dollars and I'm trying to figure out ways to use those up, too. I figured I'd try the tamarind and apples together and thus become my sweet dish, Baked Apples with Tamarind Chutney. It's not often that I eat something, pause and have to
consider just what it is that I'm eating. Shannon looked at me quizzically; "Is it good?" she asked. Well, it's different.

Eating cumin in a dessert seems like something a pregnant woman would crave and it seemed to be what was throwing me off
while eating it. The apples were good, the chutney was good, but eating them together was baffling my taste buds. It wasn't until after eating them that I was finally able to sum things up a bit better. When all was said and done, a pleasant aftertaste of cloves, cinnamon and smoky heat lingered in my mouth. It was like I'd just done a shot of Fireball or Hot 100.