Recently, I did a massive kitchen detox and gave away certain utensils to the utensil shop near my place in exchange for stuff I really wanted. All the non- stick ware had to go. I have heard enough already about how Teflon wears off and how it starts leeching dangerous residue into our foods – what’s the point of buying organic produce if I am going to cook it in stuff that is unstable? I had my doubts about aluminium and hindalium (derived from aluminium again) so I ran it past a doctor and then a celebrity nutritionist and both sources confirmed that over a prolonged period, aluminium is not advisable either. Maybe, people need to go back to their grandmum’s old iron kadhais. So the great detox began.
Here’s a list of things that were trashed:
– A ceramic coated aluminium skillet
– A non stick kadhai
– A non stick sauce pan
– A non stick, hard anodised milk pan
– A sandwich toaster from Bajaj that I got as a wedding gift with a non stick coating
– A non stick dosa pan.
– Two hindalium kadhais.
I have managed to retain just these:
– One new non stick dosa tawa, although tomorrow, I do plan on donating this away too. I kept it because I realised I was taking some time to teach myself to make ragi dosas (which stick like crazy to hot iron tawas) and until I mastered them without draining all oil from the world, I needed a back up. But I have arrived, mastered ragi and rawa and neer dosas on my iron tawa so this non stick tawa will be gone too.
– One hard anodised kadhai. I am keeping this because I plan to stew apples in this one.
– One hard anodised tawa for making omelettes and pancakes. I do not wash the iron tawa often – at best, I wipe it clean. Eggy things leave behind an odour so for eggs in particular, the hard anodised tawa will stay – I make pancakes very rarely and omelettes 2-3 times a month so with that low frequency, I guess it’s okay.
Instead of these things, I now use these:
– A small hand me down cast iron kadhai – this is an ancient one that my Mami from udaipur gave me. Perfect for two people.
– Here’s a bit of Udaipur and it’s old city where I got my ironware from – for super cheap prices after my spleen burst from looking at prices of imported cast iron cookware on fancy new ecommerce portals.
In the picture, the guy holding that huge ass ladle agreed to pose for a photo. That ladle made me realise why halwais never go to the gym. I also got some copper glasses and some brassware from here and a daal serving copper-lined bucket – I have always wanted one of those!
An overlarge new kadhai that I bought from Udaipur’s old city, from a lane that specifically sells ironware for the halwais. This is when I am cooking a big batch of stuff, mostly daal and subzis. A few selected hand me downs in the form of brassware – only for cooking Indian desserts like kheer and payasam. Usually never to be used with acidic ingredients like lemon, tamarind, tomatoes etc.
A cast iron tawa which I use for rotis, chapatis, dosas and eggless crepes. This is my mum-in-law’s. I have a feeling it’s older than me.
This baked utensil was made by a friend’s mom in her home clay oven and then it flew from Bangalore to Mumbai and has been the secret of some delicious curries in our kitchen. It used to be brown, now it’s going shiny black in some places and has developed a natural non stick layer on it’s own over the years. Do I use it directly on the flame? Oh yes. I am sure it’s bake safe too but I have way too much bakeware already.
– Giving away all those non stick things earned me a bit of credit at the utensil store so I got myself one of these – a stainless steel sauce pan and I use it for pastas, noodles, risottos. Wok? No, I don’t wok anymore. It’s taken me time to redo my cooking habits and get used to the fact that I must wipe all my ironware clean and dry them over a flame when I wash them (or they rust) and wipe the skillets clean with some oil, get used to how foods cook and caramelise much faster but we have been delighted with how these utensils have been performing. No going back to anything dangerous. I have also learnt that using ironware to cook greens is advisable because it actually brings out the iron in the leaves too and in a nation where women are highly anaemic, this is highly recommended.
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Reema Prasanna is a baking coach, cook, travel & food Writer, blogger, ex-Googler, bathroom singer and wife to the most amazing man. More about her here http://about.me/reema.prasanna