Sunday, March 25, 2018

Indian Kitchen Utensils - Flat Bottomed Saute Pans and Stock Pots

The Indian saute pan or vada satti in Tamil or Kadai in Hindi from back then, is not exactly flat bottomed and the one I had was hard to seat on the stove. It dances around while sauteing and works best when held with one hand for stability and doing the sauteing with the other hand. Not very comfortable. These pans were showcased in the Kitchen Utensils - Saute Pans. You might say that I have been late to the game on this because flat bottomed ones easy to seat on a stove have been available for a while now.



Heavy iron saute pans

I agree. I don't normally like to throw away usable pots and pans once I have developed an attachment with them. But now that they have outlived their usefulness and starting to develop stains which are almost impossible to remove I have no choice but to replace them. I have had those aluminum saute pans for a while but after nearly 20 years they are starting to show their age.

Stainless Steel saute pans


On my recent trip to India I wanted 2 iron saute pans with a flat bottom so they can sit on my stove without wobbling around. I found one that I liked but it was pretty heavy. So I decided to buy another stainless steel one which was slightly lighter than the iron one. If my luggage went beyond the limit one of them would have been left behind. Lucky for us both made their transatlantic trip. I like both of them as they get used for different purposes.

Clear Stock Pot

Along with the saute pans, I was also looking for a slightly larger (5 qt) stock pot since I had to discard a few of my pressure cookers which had lived passed their prime.

All 3 of them get used repeatedly in my kitchen. The stock pot gets used for making a lot of curries, pasta, upma and many other which requires a deep cooking pot. It is my go to cooking utensil for a lot of recipes.

On the stove

Slowly but surely I have removed almost all my non-stick wares out of the kitchen. Dry roasting takes a little bit more careful watching without the non-stick but have simply gotten used to it. And my trusty old cast iron pan is the one that gets a work out for sauteing a lot of long sauteed food.

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