Comments on: I’ll take the Calphalon Indian Wok

By: Lucky

Lucky — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:36:08 +0000

I so really require one cheena chatti!! (Calphalon One Indian Wok) though.. it is SO expensive!! :/

So did you purchase it or a less expensive cheena chatti? If so, could you pleaseee tell me from where?

By: Amrita

Amrita — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:41:46 +0000

Where can I get a good kadai in New York? I'm not too found of all-aluminum ones. And I've seen the aluminum ones with the copper bottoms and they are for serving only (my didi said), and the iron ones at Patel Brothers look really old. Any advice?

Josie, Look around 28th and Lex, all four corners. I've been using my aged pressure cooker for years, with replacement parts, and am not too afraid of it- yet.

By: smokie

smokie — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:10:42 +0000

I use a Calphalon nonstick skillet for cooking all types of "dry" sabji (like tindora, bhindi, etc) and for saucy items like paneer tikka masala and spaghetti sauce. It's like a frying pan but with a wide flat bottom that means it cooks evenly and you can stir the food easily.

Today I made two sabjis in it-- cabbage and asparagus. Everything cooked fast and cleaned up quick. Oh and I love my prestige pressure cooker. It's worth living dangerously.

By: Josie

Josie — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:26:07 +0000

Where can I get a good kadai in New York? I’m not too found of all-aluminum ones. And I’ve seen the aluminum ones with the copper bottoms and they are for serving only (my didi said), and the iron ones at Patel Brothers look really old. Any advice?

By: Maitri

Maitri — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:51:06 +0000

My family doesn't cook anything Indian in Calphalon except for stir fries (South Indian curries) and that, too, in wide flat frying pans.

I'll get my tolerably-expensive alyoominyum rasam/sambar yenams straight from the Mad Ras, thanks.

By: Rani

Rani — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:32:39 +0000

They’re a part of the legacy of Chinese trade with Kerala. You can’t make an appam without it.

the link has mostly pictures of “Paal appam” (milk appam)… i’ve never heard of a cheena chatti … but i do have a paal appam pathram; it’s a very small version of the wok; you can’t really cook anything in it except for 1 paal appam at a time …

but as any hard core mallu knows there are several kinds of appams … plain appam, paal appam, unni appam, ney appam, vattay appam, ela appam, kumbul appam ….

By: Anil

Anil — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:19:23 +0000

My wife and I have a collection of Lodge Cast iron pans ( including a tawa ). We paid about $15 and have never been happier with the quality of dosas and flat breads. With a little care these things are virtually indesctructable.

By: Floridian

Floridian — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:49:56 +0000

My wife and I are both foodies and own a pretty decent collection of cookware, but cook desi food in a calphalon karahi? No way!

Karahi and tawa are two things best left untampered by diasporic improvements. These two utensils are engineering marvels.

We have karahi and tawas in regular sizes as well as huge party sizes that you see only in restaurants. We also have the "puja" version of the restaurant size tawa and karahi, meaning they have never been used for cooking meat. Our entire collection of tawas and karahis consumes a lot of storage space, but since we don't ski, snowmobile, or ride dirt bikes - being pucca desis - we have enough room to store our vast culinary assets.

By: JM

JM — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:10:03 +0000

Very timely for me. I am looking for a nice flat bottomed dosa/roti pan that has no side/lip or a minimal one. The ones I see in desi stores are cast iron or blue steel. We are (or rather the domestic boss is) looking for something lined with stainless steel and a conductive base made of aluminum or copper. There are imported crepe pans and flambe pans with copper bottoms that are hugely expensive. Some of them are also tin lined which renders them unsuitable for our cooking because tin has a tendency to melt and bubble up at high temps. This is why non-stick pans are also out. Are there desi made stainless steel lined Cu/Al bottomed pans that are also not extremely expensive?

By: kusala

kusala — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:58:55 +0000

I am worried. I think you had better be careful with that pressure cooker that you mention becoming so adept with. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you check out this recent post on Ultrabrown.

20-minute channa dal is just not worth it, I tell you!