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8 kitchen tools every Indian Kitchen needs

The key to every cuisine is being prepared. If you love cooking Indian and Asian food, your kitchen should have all the right tools and gadgets you need for a successful and authentic meal. These are our top tools for Indian cuisine that every Indian food lover should have in their kitchen for the easiest cooking! You’ll never find an Indian kitchen without these core essentials.

Belan

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The belan is a type of rolling pin, specifically for Indian flatbreads such a chapatis. Unlike typical rolling pins, the belan is much smaller and lighter is thinned out edges. The belan makes flatbread cooking much easier than a normal rolling pin as you can apply more pressure for the perfectly thin disc. Also, the doughs for roti s, chapatis, naans, and puris can be much more delicate and will break under a normal rolling pin. This belan is available here.

Chakla

A chakla is the secondary part to your belan in your delicious Indian bread baking. It is a flat and cicular board perfect for rolling out your chapatis and naans. Chaklas are made with either stone or wood in order to keep the surface stable and reduce any slipping whilst you roll. Traditionally, the need for a chakla came from many rural Indian homes not having kitchen surface.

Pressure Cooker

Most Indian kitchens will have a pressure cooker, simply to deal with the demand of Indian cooking. Sometimes, create a full dish can be laborious and time-consuming, therefore pressure cookers can alleviate some of this. The great thing about pressure cookers is that they’re so versatile. We love to use our to braise lamb until it practically falls apart, and then mix in with our Kohinoor Nihari Sauce. A traditional lamb nihari in a matter of minutes!

Tawa

tawa roti

The tawa is certainly the best way to cook flatbreads. It is a circular and slightly concave griddle pan. This is ideal for cooking Indian flatbreads such as chapatis and rotis as it distributes the heat evenly. The words tawaa in many languages, including Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, literally translates as cooking pan.

Chimta

Chimtas are also called chippios. They’re a pair of long and thing tongs with pointed tips. Often made from iron or stainless steels, they are used to flip the flatbread cooking on the tawa or to hold food about open flames to char it for a unique flavour. This charring technique is often done for rotis.

Kadai

The kadai is the Indian version of a wok. It is a thick, cicruclar, and depp cooking-pot. The kadai was traditionally made from cast iron, however, now they come in a variety of different non stick and stainless steel versions. The kadai is the perfect dish for all those naughty but nice Indian deep fried treats, including bhajis, pakoras, and gulab jamun.

Jhaara

With all the frying in your kadai, a jhaara is an incredibly useful tool. The jhaara is a large, round spatula with holes allowing you to drain your fried treats as your take them out of the kadai.

Masala Dabbamasala dabba kitchen essentials

The masala dabba is one of the most fundamental tools in any Indian kitchen. With Indian dishes containing so many different spices, it’s easiest to have them all together. Masala dabba literally translates as spice container. It is a large steel container with lots of circular dishes for your spices. The best thing about a masala dabba is that it’s completely up to you what spices to have in it, dependent on which you use the most. It keeps the ground spice full of flavour and fresh.

Indian cuisine is renowned for its flavour. Flavour is only possible with great technique, hence why these Indian tools are going to help you perfect your technique and make your cooking easier!