Indian Curry Recipes

Indian Cooking Devices

Every cuisine has its own specialized implements that enable you to whip up that great tasting recipe, just so. What does Indian cooking need?

Top of the list is the karahi, close relative to the Chinese wok, only a tad deeper. Most Indian kitchens are stocked with two or three karahis in varying sizes. Dry, sautéed dishes as well as semi-dry foods are what a karahi is used for. A small (about 8” in diameter) version comes in handy to deep fry, to make small quantities of food, or to prepare the tempering that’s typically used to flavor most Indian dishes. Traditionally, karahis come in cast-iron or brass; modern versions are made of anodized steel.

Next in importance is a deep, round, thick-bottomed cooking pot without handles variously known as degchi, pateela or pateeli. Your average Indian kitchen would have several of these in different sizes for boiling milk, cooking rice, making gravy dishes or simply boiling water for tea. Degchis usually have a conveniently wide rim, making them easy to grip with a kitchen napkin while hot and also for pouring out liquids without spilling. A variation on degchi: the handi, a deep, narrow-necked pot with accompanying lid, ideal for slow cooking dishes like pulaos and biryanis. Handis are also used as serving dishes. Previously handis were made with copper and brass; modern users prefer stainless steel and aluminum.

The tawa is a flat, cast-iron griddle, about 8”-10” across, on which rotis (flatbreads) are roasted. You’ll often see street food in India being shallow fried on enormous tawas that gently slope inwards. In southern India, tawas are used to cook dosas – large, crisp crepes made with a rice-and-lentil batter. Accompanying the tawa is the chakla-belan, a round board and rolling pin used to prepare rotis. These come in smooth-surfaced wood or marble. A steel chimta or tongs to remove hot rotis roasted on an open flame completes this ensemble.

‘Palat’ means ‘turn over’ and that’s what a flat-ended palta does -– flips over hot parathas (shallow-fried flatbreads), dosas or even an omelet. Slotted spoons or chhannis are used to drain off oil from deep-fried foods. Typically, Indian cooking spoons – known colloquially as kadchis – end in deep cups to stir curries; they also double up as serving spoons at the dining table.

A survivor from pre-blender days is the wooden mathani, used to churn yoghurt into buttermilk or soften and mash cooked veggies like potatoes or spinach.

Imam Dasta, a mortar and pestle, usually made of iron, marble or any other smooth stone comes in handy for powdering or crushing small quantities of spices, fresh ginger and garlic. The traditional sil-batta, a large, black stone slab on which another heavy, cylindrical stone was rolled back and forth to mash herbs and spice mixtures has now been largely replaced by the mixer-blender, tweaked to suit Indian cooking needs.