Tandoori Masala Shrimp & Cauliflower

Thank you to Kathy Gori at The Colors of Indian Cooking for this Masala shrimp recipe!

A note from Kathy:

I really thought I’d be back cooking before this, but finally, I’m up to speed. Two-plus months getting over what appears to have been COVID stopped my cooking and my writing. But now, with a clean bill of health and a LOT more energy, I’m back at both.

Aside from the baking, I’ve been starting back cooking and one of the first things I had to do once we got rolling, was fire up my Tandoori Oven from the folks at Homdoor.
     
Tandoori cooking is pretty straightforward and simple, after all, it’s grilling, one of the earliest and most universal forms of grilling. It seems that every country on the planet has some form of tandoor oven. Tandoor cooking is found in India, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia, Armenia, the Caucasus, Georgia, China, and Bangladesh. This style of cooking is also found in Europe, where the Romertopf clay cooking pots are a form of small tandoor oven.
        
One doesn’t have to have an official tandoor oven to cook tandoor style, but it helps. I’ve cooked tandoor dishes for years on a simple American charcoal BBQ, and I have baked tandoor style in my regular oven after lining it top and bottom with pizza stones, or plain unsealed clay pavers from the hardware store. I would crank my oven up to as high as it would go and put the food in. Bingo, instant tandoor. However, having one in the backyard just like a regular grill makes things a lot simpler.
      
So for my first tandoor outing after being down for a couple of months, I chose something pretty simple. Tandoor Cauliflower, (aka Gobi) and Tandoor shrimp or prawns.
   
One of the reasons I decided to use the tandoor is I wanted something simple and easy to fix for a weekend lunch. Now usually tandoor cooking requires an overnight marinade. This tandoor used for fish and vegetables, however, does not, which I why I chose it. The recipe is simple and there are two steps. One involves grinding spices for a tandoor masala, and the other involves a paste. Both make up really quickly and don’t get scared of the number of spices used in the masala. Most are probably in your kitchen already and if they’re not, just skip them.

View the recipe on The Colors of Indian Cooking blog.

Tandoori Masala Shrimp & Cauliflower

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• Author: Kathy Gori

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Description

Authentic Indian masala shrimp and cauliflower, baked in a Hōmdoor tandoor oven.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Tandoori Masala

1/2 stick of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of cardamom seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger powder
1/2 tsp methi seeds (fenugreek)
1/2 tsp ajwain seeds (caraway)

Paste

1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic  or shallot paste
1/2 cup of yogurt
2 Tbs dry roasted (toasted) garbanzo flour
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs of the ground masala powder you just made
1 cauliflower

Tandoori Shrimp

1 lb de-veined, de-shelled  uncooked shrimp
2 cups yogurt
2 Tbs garbanzo flour
2 tsp Kashmiri chili
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
Salt to taste

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Instructions

Grind all the spices for the tandoori masala together and set it aside for later.

Grind the ginger and garlic/shallot into a paste. I combine them together, as it’s easier. Set it aside.

To toast the garbanzo flour, put it into a small pan and heat it until it starts to turn darker. Set it aside.

Mix all the paste ingredients together. Add in the tandoori masala and continue to blend.

Take your cauliflower and break it into florets.

Put the cauliflower florets into the masala mix you just blended.

Coat them well and marinate them for 15 minutes. If you don’t have a tandoor, stick them on a skewer and you can then grill them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile onto prepping the shrimp.

Tandoor Shrimp

Peel and de-vein the shrimp.

Mix the marinade ingredients together and set aside.

Put the shrimp into the marinade and coat them well.

Marinate the shrimp for about 15 minutes.

Thread the shrimp onto skewers. If you don’t have a tandoor grill, put them on your regular grill for about 4-5 minutes, then turn them over and do the same with the other side. You can also bake/broil them in the oven.

Now for the tandoor part…

So I fired up my tandoor and it was no problem getting it to 700 degrees.

The shrimp and cauliflower went into the tandoor on their skewers.

A few minutes of cooking, turning and eyeballing the skewers making sure everything was cooking correctly and not burning…

…and we were done!

We served them up sprinkled with cilantro right from the garden, and lemon wedges from our trees.

Notes

Serve these with basmati rice, pickled red onions or any other sides you desire.

I really love this tandoor and I’ll be showing more dishes you can make with it. I’m especially looking forward to using it on some of my eggplants. It was the perfect getting back to cooking again meal, not too much work and very little cleanup.

Keywords: tandoori shrimp, masala, indian cuisine, tandoori cauliflower

*Photo credit: Alan Berger