Monisha Bharadwaj - Indian Cooking For Dummies

Chef’s knife: This all-purpose knife is good for all your chopping needs. A 10-inch chef’s knife that is balanced in weight (meaning that the handle and blade weigh about the same) is best for home cooks. Invest in a good-quality chef’s knife, because you’ll be using it every day!

Serrated knife: A serrated knife is used to cut breads such as naans. You can also use a serrated knife on thin-skinned vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes without the knife slipping.

Fillet knife: Although a fillet knife isn’t absolutely essential, after you’ve use one, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without. The blade of a fillet knife is thin and flexible, so it can get between the fish and the skin to bend and remove it without much waste.

In addition to knives, you need a good cutting board. I use a plastic cutting board because it can go in the dishwasher; plus, plastic is nonporous, so it doesn’t hold onto smells such as onion or garlic. Wooden cutting boards are long-lasting, but they need regular sanitizing with a kitchen-safe cleaner and proper drying so they don’t become moldy.

Another advantage of plastic cutting boards is the ability to use different colored boards to prevent cross-contamination of foods. In my kitchen, I have white, green, and brown cutting boards for vegetables and foods that won’t be cooked before serving (like bread), a red cutting board for raw meat, and a blue cutting board for raw fish.

Place a piece of moist paper towel or a nonslip mat under your cutting board to prevent it from sliding around as you work.

After you’ve bought that lovely, expensive knife, you’ll want to look after it to make sure it does its job for a long time to come. Here are my best tips for caring for your knives:

Use knives only for the purpose they were intended. I know it probably happens in every home, but it makes me mad when someone in my family (I’m not naming names) uses one of my kitchen knives to rip open a cardboard box. It dulls the blade, and the knife isn’t meant for that job. If you have someone who does that in your house, hide your knives — or threaten them.

Store your knives separately. Don’t just throw your knives in with everything else in your cutlery drawer. Keep them in a separate compartment, in a knife block, or attached to a magnetic strip on the kitchen wall. (Just make sure if they’re attached to a magnetic strip, they can’t be knocked off and fall to the ground where they could harm your feet, pets, or children underneath.)

Use soap, warm water, and a soft sponge to clean your knives immediately after using them. If you leave them caked with food to be washed later, you’ll be tempted to use steel wool on them, but steel wool may scratch or dull the blade. I never put my knives in the dishwasher and don’t ever soak them either. Dry them with a soft tea towel and put them back into storage after use. A knife is like a child: Neglect it and it won’t turn out well.

Keep your knives sharp. A sharp knife is possibly the most essential tool in any kitchen. Just try using a blunt knife, and you’ll know the meaning of frustration. Plus, a dull blade requires more pressure, which increases the risk of the knife slipping and injuring you. Invest in a good knife sharpener that you can use each month to keep that blade sharp. A knife steel can give you an uneven edge if you use different strokes each time, and they hone more than they sharpen. Sharpening involves the removal of a tiny amount of metal, so for a home cook, it’s probably a good idea to let a sharpener with a constant angle do the job. Always wipe the blade with some paper towel after you’ve sharpened it, holding the knife with the sharp end facing away from you. Your local butcher or kitchen store may be able to help you with professional sharpening if you prefer.

The following utensils are especially useful when making Indian recipes:

Rolling pin: Not all rolling pins are created equal. In fact, you can buy different rolling pins for different tasks. I’ve been to a kitchen shop in London that had a whole wall of rolling pins in various shapes and sizes! A traditional Indian rolling pin (see Figure 3-1) is slimmer than a Western one and comes with a round rolling board, which acts as a template to get the chapattis round as you roll them. The pin itself is tapered and light, which allows you to apply just the right amount of pressure to push the dough into a thin circle.

Grater: A stainless-steel box grater is easy to clean, has various-sized holes on each face, and is safe to hold and use.

Garlic crusher: I can’t stand garlic presses — they’re too fiddly to clean, and you lose half the garlic in the pressing compartment. Instead, I use a plastic twist garlic crusher. You’ll be able to mince fresh ginger in it, too. Best of all, it’s easy to clean under running water, and there’s no waste either.

Peeler: If you’ve tried peeling your vegetables with a paring knife, you’ll know how much safer it feels to do the job with a peeler. Look for a Y-shaped, fixed-blade peeler with a good grip. Choose a functional but inexpensive one that you can replace when it gets dull.

Ladles: You don’t need special ladles for Indian cooking, but my advice is to have a couple of ladles you use just for this purpose. If you use wooden or silicone ladles, the turmeric in curries will turn them yellow, and some even hold on to the aroma of spices.

Tea infuser: A round, mesh snap ball tea infuser is great to fill with spices and immerse into rice or curries while they’re cooking. Just lift out the infuser at the end of cooking and discard the spices.Photograph by Wendy Jo Peterson and Geri Goodale FIGURE 3-1:An Indian rolling pin.

Sieve: You’ll need a sieve for washing rice and lentils and for rinsing beans from a can.

Colander: A colander is used for draining cooked rice in the sink or for washing larger vegetables such as cauliflower florets and potatoes.

You can cook your curry in a standard cooking pot or frying pan, so don’t rush out to buy any specialty equipment just yet. That said, having some Indian cookware makes the experience more fun and authentic. After you’ve tried the recipes and found the ones you love (and made some space in your kitchen), you may want to buy some of the items in this section.

You may have seen small decorative versions of karahis — they’re often used as serving dishes in Indian restaurants. You can’t use decorative karahis for cooking. Instead, what you’re looking for are the larger cooking karahis (see Figure 3-2), which are somewhat similar to a wok in shape but are made of a thicker material. Some karahis have two small ear-shaped handles; others have none. Karahis are sold with a pair of tongs because the handles are made of metal and get as hot as the karahi itself! You can also buy a matching lid with your karahi — the lid has a lip that allows it to sit snug over the top, sealing in the steam.

You can’t use a wok instead of a karahi — your curry might stick to the bottom. Although woks have a similar shape, a wok is much thinner because it’s used for stir-frying on a high heat. A karahi is used for longer cooking processes and is much thicker.