Mughlai Cooking - Getting Your Kitchen In Order - Implements

You should find that your own kitchen is sufficiently stocked to with everything you need to produce most of the dishes posted to this blog. Good-quality saucepans with heavy bases, wooden spoons, a slotted spoon, mixing bowls, sharp knives, a chopping board, a strainer and a rolling pin are the main essentials. A balloon whisk for beating yogurt and a pastry brush for basting kebabs with marinade may also be useful.

A heavy-bottomed skillet (frying pan) is a must, and you may like to try cooking dome of the dishes in a traditional karahi or balti pan - a deep rounded vessel with two circular handles. The other specialty implement you find in a Pakistani kitchen is a tava, a flat or slightly concave cast-iron frying pan used for cooking chapatis, roti and other breads, patties and for roasting spices.

A food processor, blender, and clean coffee grinder are all major labor-savers and will be invaluable for making pastes or pureeing ingredients quickly and efficiently. Fresh spices can be ground finely in the coffee grinder or by using an old fashioned mortar and pestle.

Now that we've covered the obvious, let's go over some of the other terms you may come across in your cooking adventures.

Chimta - These flat, smooth-edged, long tongs are used for everything from picking up live coals to turning over hot breads.

Katori - Small bowl made out of gold, silver, aluminum, etc. used to serve individual portions of meat, vegetables and dals. Often several katoris are arranged on a thali and the thali is then placed before the diners.

Mutka - Round pot of half-baked clay used for storing water and excellent for making "water pickles."

Tandoor - A large clay oven used for baking chicken, fish, meat, lentils and breads. Very popular in the northern Indian state of Punjab.

Thali - Gold, silver, or brass tray used both for serving and as a plate.