Stainless steel cookware in India

Though stainless steel is not non-stick, it is safe, easy to handle and clean. The only good stainless steel cookware I won is my recent buy - Prestige Clip-on Pressure cooker cum pot. I have only made a gravy so far in it and cannot review it now.

I would like to have few premium quality stainless steel cooking pots in my kitchen for making day-to-day sambar, curries and kulambu varieties. 

Ply cookware seems to be the gold standard now for stainless steel where either Aluminium or copper is sandwiched. The food contact surface is safe stainless steel. 
I have never used a ply cookware and have no idea how it competes with a quality heavy gauge stainless steel cookware.

I do have my eyes on some quality stainless steel cookware that are both reasonably and out-of-my reach priced.

Stahl Cookware

Stahl claims to manufacture premium stainless steel cookware including tri-ply. And its proudly Made In India that competes with premium imports.

Stahl Crescent Series-Sauce Pot

I stumbled on their site while googling for tri-ply cookware made in-house. And I'm impressed with their collections.

Stahl Legend Series-Kadai

While the tri-ply cookware named 'Artisan' is completely clad with tri-ply, rest of the cookware has Aluminium sandwiched in their bottom. 

Stahl Artisan Series-Fry pan

Triply collection is priced 2K+, but the rest are priced well. 

Pros for me:

• The pot capacity ranges from as little as 1 liter to a good 6 liters. My need falls between 1 to 2 liters.
• Availability of a triply fry pan and Kadai.
• Investment cast handles. I hate to tighten screws in handles and so prefer this kind of handle.

Cons:

• Price of the triply. Fear of over shelling money without any proof of better performance.
• I wish the sauce pots came with long handles that are cool to touch.

Vinod Cookware

Another proudly Indian company that has been in business since 1963 (their site claims so). And Vinod also has regular Stainless steel with sandwiched Aluminium bottom and fully clad tri ply cookware.

The pot capacity starts from 2 liters and goes way up to 20 liters.

Tall belly Casserole

Tall belly sicily casserole

           Tuscan

Their tri-ply cookware collection has pots and pans and seem to possess bakelite lined handles and knobs. I'm always in doubt of the life of bakelite handles esp. in such expensive cookware which is supposed to last for a lifetime. What if bakelite chips off?  Well, here are some from their triply range.

         

While the regular cookware is priced around 500 INR, the triply is around 2K.

Pros for me:

• Tall belly sicily casserole has cool-to-touch stainless steel long handle
• Priced lesser than Stahl.
• Known company.
• Fry pan and Kadai are available in tri-ply.

Cons:

• There is no pot of less than 2 liters capacity. I would like one in 1.5 liters.
• Bakelite handles in triply cookware. I am not a fan of the blue color bakelite.

P.S.
I love the look of Nolta stainless steel cookware too but, awaiting more info from them.

cookwhere to cookware - Nolta

I'm in the look out for quality, safe and reasonably priced cookware. That is a very sane way of saying that. But in reality, I'm on the internet every minute I could steal, looking for safe cookware, reading articles concerning safety and good Indian brands.

Nolta of Kottaram Trading from Kerala is the first to catch my fancy. I'm curious about their Ceramic, Stainless Steel and Enamelware collections. But they have hardly any information about their cookware material. And when I did call their customer care to get information, they had no knowledge about their cookware other than what is written on their site. Sigh. I really like their collections and am willing to travel to Trivandrum to check them out and buy.

Nolta Stainless steel pot Long handle

I love the look of this pot and its handle. Now, what is the base of this pot made of? Only stainless steel or does it have a Aluminium sandwiched bottom for even heating? Does the long handles remain cool to touch?

Nolta Ceramic cook pot

Nolta Ceramic Curry chatti

These 100% ceramic cookwares are flameproof and can be used on gas stove top or so their site claims. Are they convection oven safe? Can I layer biryani and bake it in my OTG? Their customer care chap had no idea. Also I would love them in pretty colors.

Nolta Enamel Pot

Their enamelware comes in pretty colors and patterns. But what is the base material? Steel, Aluminium or cast iron? If it is not Aluminium, I would buy a whole set in a blink. Though I would not cook with them, I would use them as serveware. I love ceramic and glass as table ware, but with a toddler in hand, these could make a safe-to-handle serve ware with ceramic-looks.

I will write to them for these info and update here if I get any.

Cookwhere to Cookware - 1

In the local radio ads of the yore, one would often listen about cookware stores that claimed to be  'pathira kadal' or 'pathira chakravarthy'. My kitchen can be called one too. I have almost every type of utensil you could see in such a shop. The lofts are filled with gunny bags of cookware, the shelves are loaded with them and the big kitchen is teeming with vessels. And yet, like a woman who cribs about not having clothes to wear despite the overloaded wardrobe, I crib everyday about not having a decent cookware (and also about my dislike towards cooking :)).

My father-in-law owned a wholesale cookware store and when he retired he had to sell the shop as none of his children was interested in it. So he had a truck load of vessels and my beloved thought it would save him money and trips to the store and received a good share of it. This is how I ended up with numerous and huge Aluminium pots. 


Some months ago, when we visited my in-laws' place, I was trying to give my baby boy a bath (he hadn't learned to stand on his own then). Seeing me struggle with him, my MIL asked me to bring 'annakoodai' from the kitchen. Having no clue about this mysterious annakoodai and not being brave enough to ask her to describe that said thing, I ventured into her kitchen looking for it. 'Annam' could mean(AFAIK) either rice or a swan (In Tamil language) and 'koodai' is basket. So I was looking for a swan patterned wire basket or a closely woven basket that could hold rice and it should somehow help me bathe my baby. I was frantically ransacking her kitchen and noticed my FIL dart in, grab a vessel and dart out. That vessel was annakoodai and they use it store and serve cooked rice (and also bathe small babies in). While my MIL owns a 'annakoodai' big enough for me to soak in, my hubby had bought a small one. I use it to soak and wash veggies.

Anna koodai

Aluminium is second in line in my list of never-to-cook-with materials.The first one is of course plastic of any kind.

There are some stainless steel vessels I own, but they are all so thin that if I am not quick enough, they will start a fire in the kitchen (and a fight between the couple who owns them). 

With a new house, we decided (well,I convinced my beloved) to give away almost all of our vessels and bring in a new kitchen in every sense. Yippeeee..

Though I'm happy to be able to shop for my kitchen from the scratch, I'm quite confused by the choices available and difficulty in making a choice that also fits our budget.

Once upon a time...

The house we're planning to build and furnish to make it our home may still be in paper and in our minds, but the dreams are not new - the dream to have a place to call our own, the dream to decorate it with handmade crafts and well-loved curios, the dream to keep it organized, functional and yet aesthetic.

And yes, it started a long time ago, when I was a little girl holding my dad's hands to walk over the bushes and rocks on our plot. When our little house started emerging, the evenings were spent pumping the water with a manual pump and watering the brick walls with lots of love. Though the house was built and is still a well-loved place for our family even after a decade or more, we lived in it only for a short period, too short to make it our home. 

With time, I traveled different cities and grew up a bit more in each and now here I am in a new place where I had least expected to settle down in marital bliss.

This time, I share my dreams with my beloved husband who has now learnt to understand, appreciate and accommodate my crazy dreams, drawings in the air, impulsive and totally different last-minute design changes, trying to cover up my attempts at shooting pics of houses with good design elements and then hastily driving before we get questioned and the things he does for the sake of a peaceful marriage :)

My plan is to keep a log of the design ideas I like and also to keep track of the house from the building stage and then till I get tired of decorating it (perhaps never) and all within a budget.