When it comes to rich taste and spicy flavors, Indian food has a unique place. People love to eat Indian food around the world, but what if you’re asked to prepare one? How would you go about it?
If you’ve tasted Indian food earlier and wish to make some Indian recipes, the first thing you’ll do is stock your kitchen with common ingredients and the right kind of cookware. This post covers the cookware side of Indian cooking.
Let’s get started
- Pressure Cooker
Have the best pressure cooker in your kitchen, to cook foods like beans, chili, rice, lentils, meat, vegetables and more. Not to mention that the pressure cooker saves a lot of time – up to 75% — and adds flavor to the food. You need to do some searching though.
There is a wide range of electric and stove top pressure cookers available on the market, and you can easily be fooled by substandard brands. Follow the three basic rules while choosing the right pressure cooker for Indian food.
- Always look for branded items, because they’re equipped with safety features and come with a parts warranty.
- Always see the number of safety features before purchasing. Don’t forget to go through the instruction manual before using your pressure cooker.
- There is a recipe book along with the pressure cooker, and you should take a look at it. You may have your ingredients, but you should understand the amount of time required to cook common recipes involving rice, potatoes, meat, and others.
You may want to consider the size of the pot, but this is a secondary factor while purchasing a pressure cooker. Sizes vary between 1 liter and 10 liters.
- Rolling Pins
Rolling pins used for Indian cooking are thinner and have better grips than your usual pins. But, if you’re good at using your pins, there’s no need to buy them; otherwise, visit the Indian store or buy them online.
- Food Processor
You must have had the food processor already. It’s important for grinding spices, purees and vegetables and you are going to need them a lot while cooking Indian food.
- Grater
For coarse grinding, you should have this item in your cookware. It will help you grind onions, tomatoes, ginger, cheese, and garlic.
- Skillet and Wok
These are the basic items in Indian cookware because Indian food is never complete without a flat chapatti. Unlike the Chinese wok, Indian kadais have flat bases.
- Indian Pans and Pots
For cooking Indian food, you also need pans and pots with heavy bottoms, unless you’re not using a pressure cooker. Light pans are not suitable for Indian cooking, because the Indian food will take longer than ten minutes, and only heavy-bottomed pans can stand the heat that long.
Be sure about the material used, since you might have to steam your food, such as idlis, modaks, and momos. Prefer non-stick or stainless steel pots and pans. It is recommended that you use a pressure cooker for cooking and steaming meat and beans.
- Mortar and Pestle
You can do without these items if you have a food processor, but this equipment will help you get better-flavored spices and herbs. You may need to add coarse ground aromatic or herbs in your food, and mortar & pestle will combine the flavors better than any other equipment.
- Bowls
Bowls are vital for Indian cooking, and you’re going to need many. Whether you’re making dough, omelet, salad, spices or anything else, you need bowls for your stuff. Buy different sizes of bowls for your kitchen and use them according to your requirements.
- Chopping Board
This is another item that you probably already have in your kitchen, but for Indian cooking, you’re going to use it rather frequently. Make sure that you have at least two chopping boards, one for cut the meat and the other one for the vegetables.
Chopping boards are available in different materials, including marble, stone, plastic, and wood. It is recommended that you should use wooden material for meat and plastic material for vegetables because these materials will not hurt your knives like other materials.
- Knives
Since you have different kinds of food and many ingredients to add, you need a variety of knives to cut them appropriately. Buy at least three knives with different sizes and designs for meat, vegetables, and spices.
There may be plenty other things you might find after stepping inside an Indian store, but these items should always be on your priority list when buying Indian cookware.
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