Summer cookbook: Hedley Thomas’s tandoori chicken
Ruth opened a wicker picnic basket and on the edge of Tea Tree Bay Beach on that day in January, 1993, I knew for sure and certain we should be inseparable.
I see a young couple each time I pass distinctive flat rocks, golden sands and pools of sea water near the coastal path at Noosa Heads on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
They’re 25. Smiling. Tanned. Happy. Their relationship is new. Everything is exciting and thoughtful and filled with promise.
Ruth opens a wicker picnic basket beside gently lapping waves. Plates, cutlery, a tomato and cucumber salad, and a chilled bottle of bubbly emerge. And then the highlight. Succulent pieces of oven-baked tandoori chicken, with a fresh lemon and yoghurt.
On the edge of Tea Tree Bay Beach on that day in January 1993, I knew for sure and certain we should be inseparable.
We were married in Hong Kong two years later. We love to take our children, Alexander, 25, and Sarah, 22, back to Noosa for family holidays and special weekends.
But in January 1993, Ruth, the aromatic spices of the tandoori chicken she prepared from a recipe favoured by her Indian relatives, the Coral Sea, the dazzling blue of the sky that summer’s day, the champagne were all indelibly imprinted in my memory.
I see and smell and feel it each time I take one of the world’s great short walks three decades later. This would be my perfect last meal, albeit with our children sharing the contents of Ruth’s wicker picnic basket. I love it for the memories as much as for the taste.
Chicken, tandoori style (murgh tandoori)
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
● 8 chicken legs
● 2 tablespoons lemon juice
● Salt
● 20g fresh ginger, finely grated
● 4 cloves garlic, chopped
● 1 teaspoon ground coriander
● 2 teaspoons chilli powder
● 3 tablespoons paprika
● Red food colouring
● 1 tablespoon garam masala
● ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
● 150ml of yoghurt
● 1 lemon, sliced
● 1 onion, sliced
METHOD
Remove skin from chicken legs, wash and dry on paper towelling, cut grooves into the flesh with a sharp knife. Rub the flesh with lemon juice and season with the salt.
Blend the ginger and garlic with a small amount of water, add the cumin, chilli powder, coriander, paprika, red food colouring, garam masala and pepper. Mix in the yoghurt.
Lather the chicken legs in the mixture, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and leave in the fridge overnight to marinate.
Use an oven rack for roasting and cook at 200C for 45 minutes until tender.
Garnish with lemon and onion slices. Add salt as needed.
Hedley Thomas is a two-time winner of the Gold Walkley, the highest award in Australian journalism. He is the writer and host behind The Teacher’s Pet podcast, and the author of The Teacher’s Pet, his book about the case.