Tandoor bread

Tandoor bread is a flat bread baked in a clay oven called a tandoor. The technique has been in use for some five thousand years in Central and West Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It may be leavened or unleavened. It is often round, but may be made as elongated oval lavash or canoe-shaped shotis puri.

Because of the expense of a tandoori oven, Indian villages used to share communal ovens. These have been replaced by the habit of bringing food to a local bakery to be baked there. An alternative is to use a wood- or charcoal-fueled oven or grill to give the food a smoky flavor recalling that of tandoor bread.