traditional indian cooking tools

[Karbea]

Hello,

I'm really after some help. Since my dad retired he has massively started indian food, he makes his pastes from scratch, has researched spices etc. For Christmas i'd like to get him something to help with this and I was thinking some tools would be good. Can anyone suggest anything and where i could buy them???

thanks!

You can buy them in most decent Asian grocers. Most of the ones near me (in Glasgow) catering for Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian customers often have a hardware section at the back with pots and pans etc.

Umm, i've no idea where my nearest one would be, which was why i'd hope to find something online. Any idea what they are called?

Pestle and mortar?

What sort of things does he make? I make lots of curries, and I use an electric coffee grinder for my spices. Was about £15 from amazon, and is possibly my most used gadget. Also, what about a masala tin with spices in it? (I think that's what it's called. Can't link as I'm on the phone, but google it).

ok will do. thank you!

I second masala tin, also a tawa/tava which is a large flat griddle pan for making chapatis.

or a karahi- which is a bit like a wok.

Rather than a coffee grinder I would suggest a wet and dry grinder such as this one here. It is the singularly most useful piece of kit that I have for making curries as it will make fantastic wet spice pastes which are essential for Indian, Thai and Malaysian cooking.

This guy is great and has a cookbook plus loads of links on his website: www.greatcurryrecipes.net/

I love the dabba he wrote about on 3rd December. I also love tiffin tins but sadly cannot justify why I would need one.

That Revel grinder is what me and my mum use. Perfect for finely grinding dry spices and also making garlic/ginger paste which is used in most North Indian curries.

If he wants to start making chapattis etc a tava (griddle) would be good, a vhelen (thin rolling pin) and chapatti hotbox (like a thermos box to keep chapattis warm)

A masala dabha with 5 or 7 inserts would be lovely, and a mini pressure cooker if he wants to attempt dhals from scratch.

Where are you located OP? Wembley, southall, Leicester and Birmingham all have Indian kitchenware shops.

I've seen Asian utensils in Wilkos and they l

I've seen Asian utensils in Wilkos and they look very good quality. I would get the spice tin, tawa and maybe a review book