Griddle :

Tawa in hindi. These are usually made of very heavy duty iron or, nowadays of nonstick ware. There are two basic shapes in which they come. One is the slightly shallow variety, which have a very slight concave shape. You could call them saucer shaped. The other is the flat variety which may or may not have lifted edging like that of a pie plate. Griddles may have either a long wooden or plastic handle, or a curved ringlike handle to hold with a glove. The iron ones can get extremely hot, and must be handled with utmost care.

These can also be used for shallow frying if they come with the border, to hold in the fat. Griddles are mainly used to roast leavened breads like rotis, phulkas, etc. and shallow frying like parathas, patties, etc. The concave ones can be used to dry roast ingredients like, cumin, pepper, for the purposes of grinding to a powder.

Tempering Pan :

Tadke ka chammach. This is a small iron crucible- like, cup type deep pan, which has a normally wooden handle, so that the handle stays safe while tempering a dish. It is held with the handle over the fire, with some fat placed inside. This is heated and tempering ingredients like cumin, chillies, curry leaves, mustard, etc. are added to splutter, and this sizzling pan is doused into the dish or the contents poured over the dish to add flavour and zest to the preparation. The best results are obtained with the iron ones, not the nonstick or light varieties.

By Saroj Kering