Tandoor Chef
Hunting down the various 20 spices and odd ingredients that go into the wonderful 5000-year-old complex Indian cuisine, and cooking same could take hours. Fortunately, the freezer gods have heard our prayers. Tandoor Chef’s frozen meals to the rescue.
Be bold! Live it up! Replace the same old, boring take out sandwich at the office or boring mid day, plain-vanilla, empty calorie snack with a curry. Note: Some dishes may not immediately seem right for the office. They require an oven (that big chamber that comes with a stove); and not all office break rooms come complete with oven. No problem. You can prepare these foods at home and simply brown-bag them. Or you can take the plunge and start working from home —yes, live the dream!
The veggie roster — which reads like a buffet menu —includes palak paneer. vegetable korma, kofta curry, masala dosa, naan pizza, samosas, paneer tikka masala, veggie masala burgers and channa masala.. We sampled a few at our International Headquarters.
As a starter, we selected Masala Dosa. Prep called for five minutes per side in the frying pan. (Accompanying mint chutney gets popped into the microwave for a few seconds.) The result: fragrant cumin-laced mashed potatoes wrapped in a light, airy crepe.
Our favorite curry of the bunch is the chana masala. (That’s chickpea to you, Cheech). We detected a little grace note of cinnamon (which might not have been a hallucination) and a peppery aftertaste.. The palak paneer (cheese cubes and spinach) actually tasted like spinach and was not overly creamified as too often happens with this dish.
A word or two about the naan pizza. Naan is that wonderful tandoori-oven baked bread. When you add toppings and sauce, you’ve got a Delhi style pizza. Following instructions on the box and putting the pizza on the middle oven shelf yields a crispy crust that enhances the cheese and sauce. The Tandoor Chef Naan Pizza varieties are Eggplant, Margherita, Cilantro Pesto, Spinach and Paneer, Jalapeño. Our favorite was actually Tandoor Chef’s go at the Italianate Margherita Pizza. The spinach and paneer topped pizza also scored —especially for those among us who favor spinach on their slice. We hope Tandoor Chef will add roti pizza to their line as we favor the whole wheat variety of tandoori oven bread. It would be a nice gesture.
The taste test takeaway? It so comforts us to know an Indian chef resides in our freezer.
For more information, click here.