Indian Cooking using Induction Hob

[Anj07]

Hi there,
I've been spending some time reading through the discussions already posted on 'mumsnet' regarding Induction Hobs and Induction cooking.

We are renovating our house and work starts this February, however the kitchen plans require to be confirmed very soon.
I have a busy household with DH and two boys - 8yrs & 6yrs. My kitchen is heavily used and there is a great deal of Indian, Chinese and Thai cooking done. My question is how do theses styles of cooking work out on Induction Hobs, compared to Gas which I currently use?

I look forward to your views and comments, thanks .

Anj07, I have a Bosch induction hob and its excellent for indian cooking, as it is so easy to clean. However I have used the lamona brand induction hob and that didn't work at all.

But I must say that it is a problem as not all of my pots are induction compatible so had to start buying new ones.

Do you know anyone that has an induction hob you can borrow? I know someone that went to a friend's house with a pan and food, and cooked a meal to compare 'the experience'

Thank you for coming back to me. I have been over to a friends house to see her induction hob in action. Unfortunately she was using it to heat food up, so I couldn't really gage how the induction performs with cooking from scratch.... .

Hi IndigoTea,
Can I ask if you can get the same variances in temperature with the induction hob as with gas?

When your cooking indian curries, making chapati's, stir-fry's etc I am so used to whacking the flame up on my gas hob, then reducing down as needed. I'm not sure if the induction reacts the same way.....
I know that ikea do a good range of Induction Hob Pots and Pans, that are good value for money, I know i will have to invest in a new set of pans if I go down this route.

We've recently changed from gas to induction and I find the hob to be really responsive...eg water can go from a gentle simmer on 3 to rolling boil on 7-8 in about a minute.
I've cooked curry, quesadillas (so kind of chapatti like) poppadums and Thai curry so don't see that you'd have any probs

HTH

Thank you LadyGooGoo,
Seems like you're cooking a range of foods on your hob.
I've seen the water boiling demo at my kitchen showroom....it was impressive. Its what got me thinking about going down this route.

I've used both, and find the induction much more sensitive, and responsive across the whole range of temperatures, and actually with a broader range than gas. It's more exact, quicker to respond, and I honestly, honestly think that anyone using anything else is mad. There is nothing it can't do, except set fire to stuff the way you see chefs doing it on TV. Frankly if that's what you want, buy some matches, and still have induction.

You can tell I can't wait to get rid of the gas I'm currently stuck with, and back to an induction hob.

Oh, and it boils water faster than the kettle if you are cooking pasta e.g..

I absolutely love my induction hob, it's really easy to clean and just as responsive as gas, but the one type of cooking I don't find it good for is stir frying. The hob only heats the part of the pan that's in contact with it e.g.the base, so the sides of your wok don't get really hot like they would with a gas flame licking up the side.
I've since seen a hob that had three induction rings and one gas ring and wish I'd looked into getting that instead.

One interesting thing to note about induction hobs that I discovered when I got an electricity usage meter, is that (mine at least) uses 1p per hour in standby, when it's switched off but still plugged in. By switching it on and off at the wall when I need it saves 24p a day.

I love my induction hob too. I was used to gas before but this is much cleaner, and I think it responds faster.

I have no problem with stir frying and I am using the wok I had previously. I was able to keep all my saucepans, I only had to replace my frying pan (and got some nice ones from Ikea).

Thanks NannyR for the tip about turning it off at the wall, I had not thought of that.

Hello, just got a Bosch induction hub and I am unable to puff my rotis. Previously I had a hob from a different company and I could use the makeshift steel net to puff rotis. That steel net doesn’t work on bosch! Please suggest any other options !

TK27, have you been able to find solution yet to puff rotis? Does induction adaptor/converter work for the purpose?

We bought an Everhot last year. I love it. It has a hot plate, a simmer plate and an induction hob.

I do a lot of cookery classes and the schools often use induction hobs, I guess because they are easy to keep clean. The last class I did was a Pad Thai. We cooked it in a large sauté dish and the teaching chef commented that it would normally be cooked in a wok but they hadn’t yet found one that worked well on the induction hobs.

I don’t know if this would effect your decision either way, but I like to heat sear meat to give it a good crust and the flavour that comes from the Maillard reaction. I have found that some induction hobs have a safety cut out that kicks in before the pan has got hot enough for this.

If ever I become fabulously rich I will get a Lacanche cooker with a mix of gas and induction rings but until then I’ll stick with gas.

Lol. I’ve just seen how old this thread is!

Hi last year I wanted to also try the induction hob so after reading reviews I went for it and I’ve never looked back.i use it every day several times ,I cook chappati on it and I can get them to puff I also cook a lot of Indian food ,I also found a YouTube channel where there’s someone that shows you how to cook different foods on induction and if there isn’t a video of something that your thinking about if you comment they will make it I think this is the address of the YouTube channel www.youtube.com/channel/UChb5UN4w1ihe48L-CW0teEA/about
It shows chappati being cooked biryani etc

@Gn31 Do you mind sharing which type you bought? Thanks in advance