There are times when the mind decides to take you down the memory lane, to those happy faces and spaces from your childhood. More than the games you played, the friends you made, and the stories heard it would make you crave for that tempting aroma from your grandmother’s kitchen. The yummy sight of that hot boiling gravy in those earthen pots is something you will never get over with. That tangy spicy smell of your favourite mango pickle, the moreish creamy fish curry filled with the goodness of coconut milk, and her special mouth-watering chicken masala have all been missed in your modular kitchen.
Efforts to reproduce those flavours will only fail. Because you don’t have that one integral component of the recipe, the earthen clay pots in which they’re cooked! It’s only now that you have come to realise that most of the magic of a dish comes from what you’re cooking it in, not what you are putting in.
From the Mortar and the Pestle to Hand Mixers
Ancient Indian cookware, the utensils and the tools were all designed to retain all the flavours of the food along with the nutrients. For instance, the mortar and pestle, which were used to grind ingredients, release all the essential oils and flavours. This would be put at stake while you do the same using a grinder machine. Our kitchens have now come a long way from stone grinders to hand mixers, from clay pots to non-stick pans. Not just clay pots, even lanterns made of clay were used in the ancient times in homes and temples.
Everything New is Not Always Good
It’s only when we delve deeper into the cons of the modern cookware that we understand why this journey back to the roots has become essential at this point of time. Most of the utensils that we now use are metal-based. These became popular owing to their ease of operation than the old earthen pots. But hardly do we realize that these utensils destroy most of the nutrients in our food. Our new favourite non-stick pans come with a Teflon coating, which is highly harmful to our health.
Why Your Kitchen Needs a Traditional Retouch!
These modern utensils slowly invaded our kitchens. And, traditional earthen clay cookware, a far better and safer option for cooking, was completely forgotten. Earthen clay cookware gives our food the perfect flavour and also comes with a lot of extra benefits. The porous nature of clay pots helps in retaining the nutrients in the food, which is always lost in our modern cookware.
It is also believed to provide many essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and sulphur. Most importantly, it requires very less oil as it keeps the moisture of the added ingredients intact. This makes it a lot healthier and tastier. Moreover, the alkaline nature of clay helps in maintaining the pH balance of the food by reducing the acidity. The fact that earthen cookware is completely biodegradable makes for the icing on the cake. Owing to all these factors, they’re now highly on-trend as people have now taken the route back to the tradition.
Have You Been Looking for an Indian Dinnerware?
Not just cookware, but a completely Indian serve ware which gives your table an exotic look, is also available in the market. Now, what are you waiting for? It’s high time that an Indian dinner set appeared on your dining table. Sometimes it only takes a hand-decorated glass and a hand-beaten copper teapot to give your table the royal makeover it badly needed. Have a look at our hand-painted Indian dinner set collection and begin your journey back to the roots!
