Tandoori Paste

Photo: flickr user TheGirlsNY

Ingredients

2 cups Nonfat yogurt (active Cultures are good)

Several cloves garlic

Several pieces chopped fresh

Ginger

Few chopped hot green

Chilies (seeds or not is up To you)

Turmeric

Cayenne pepper or paprika

Garam masala

Preparation

In a blender:I've been unspecific with the measures, because the balance of spices in this is kind of up to the cook...there are probably other ingredients besides these in the commercial tandoori paste, but these are the essentials as I remember them.

Anyway, to prepare the food, marinate whatever you'll be cooking in a mixture of lemon juice and salt for about 1/2 hr. Then add the lemon juice/salt to the stuff in the blender and whirl it up. When you lean over to sniff it should bite back, hard. Pour the tandoori paste over the food, let it sit for up to two hours. Then (for eggplant slices, for example)

Toss on the grill still lightly coated with the tandoori mixture (messy) OR for something big like a head of cauliflower, wrap in tinfoil, slathering a lot of the paste over the top before closing it up. Bake until it's almost done, and then open the tinfoil to let it dry out a bit while it finishes baking.

If you want really bright red, mix some red and yellow food coloring and paint it onto the food during the lemon and salt phase.