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Since ancient times, mud vessels are used for cooking and are one of the healthiest ways to cook. Here's why you can use them and how to take care of them.
Since ancient times, mud vessels are used for cooking and are one of the healthiest ways to cook. Here’s why you can use them and how to take care of them.
Mud or the earth is one of the five elements that make up our bodies. The remaining four are water, air, space, and fire. Clay vessels are filled with all the goodness of the Prithvi tattva. Using mud vessels for cooking isn’t just helpful for your health, they have a number of other benefits too!
It is considered to be the most ancient and healthiest way to cook apart from iron and alloy ware. Now, without beating around the bush, let me highlight a few essentials of preparing the mud vessels for cooking, the benefits, and maintenance.
Step one- The initial wash
Before using the mud vessels for cooking anything, you need to prep it for about a week to be able to use it. Freshly baked mud ware must be washed thoroughly with water and a steel scrubber. Wash it till you see no mud or dirt sticking to it.
Step two- First-week care
Once done with the initial scrubbing, fill the vessel with water to the brim and store it in a dry place. Remember to change this water on a daily basis for the next 5-7 days. This helps reduce the moisture-absorbing capacity of the vessel.
Step three- Using it for the first-time
After a week, boil some water in it, while keeping the burner on low flame. Put the vessel to dry and apply some coconut oil inside out. The layer of oil improves the clay’s non-stick nature. It also protects the mud vessel from any fungal growth in future.
The vessel is now fit for daily use. Yes, the initial stage is a time consuming process but once you’re done, it helps increase vessel’s life. Always remember to store it in a dry place.
Cheap and local availability- You can purchase these from any local and neighbourhood potter. Remember to buy the unglazed ones.
Saves fuel- After the first few sessions of slow cooking, the vessel picks up its speed. It takes the same time to cooking with any other ware, but at a lower flame. Also, cooking uses less oil thus making it a healthy option to cook food in.
Natural non-stick- It is the best non-stick ware I ever used. And to add to it, it is organic and non-toxic. The mud vessel can be used to cook anything right from khichdi, any vegetable stew or curry. Chapatis parathas and roasts can be done in clay tawas or pans. The food gets cooked evenly and this helps it remain fresh for a longer time.
Environment and health Friendly- This is the need of the hour. Mud vessels improve the nutritional levels of the food. The curries prepared in it don’t just retain their nutritive value, but also absorbs it from the clay. Calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous are available readily and naturally in mud vessel.
The best part about using a mud vessel is, it doesn’t require any soap for cleaning. Also it’s not advisable to use detergent, as clay tends to absorb it. Use tap water with steel scrubber to scrape and clean it after cooking.
Remember to place it in a dry place. Personally, I prefer to boil water in it after the normal tap water wash. I have been using the clay vessels for more than a year now and can vouch for its innumerable health benefits. And to add to it, it is assisting me befriend mother nature.
Finance professional,an avid blogger. I write to keep the child in me happy and contented. Contributing author of the poetry anthology Nyctophilia and children's book Airavata. read more...
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After some time, unable to bear it any longer, I signed off from the home lunch. My MIL must've heaved a sigh of relief because my portion of groceries would be saved!
Until I married I had never imagined even in my wildest dreams that my diet/ food intake could assume such alarming proportions and affect conjugal harmony. Having stepped into my marital home I discovered to my bewilderment that the four female inmates were frugal eaters. My spouse and his dad ate moderately well.
The family faced a dilemma: my requirement surpassed those of the ladies but most certainly couldn’t be clubbed with the men’s. Why? Simply because they were MEN. “How could you even think of it”? They snubbed me often. (Incidentally, the parents-in-law refused to accept contributions from either of us). They probably expected me to be demure and submissive since I was ‘‘eating off” their money.
So each morning as I left for work I was served three chapattis with a few spoonfuls of curry. Can you believe this curry catered to the ladies’ lunch the previous day, and dinner for all six inmates? The horror of horrors, it crept into my lunch box too. The chapattis made at the crack of dawn were fine till breakfast but by lunch, they turned leathery; the accompanying curry insipid, tasteless.
We can’t bombard impressionable young women in the name of enlightened entertainment to feed them the same drivel. At least let us not label misogynist movies as helping the cause of women.
I have watched at least 2 ‘purported’ trailblazing Bollywood movies in the recent past that left me with a feeling that I had taken part in the ice-bucket challenge all over again. This time around, however, without even the satisfaction of having supported a worthy cause.
Both the movies have about a 90% liking rate on IMDB/Rotten Tomatoes. Both are touted to ‘sensitively’ portray the taboo topics that seem to be mostly hidden underneath a layer of banana peels – dangerous to even tread nearby.
We've been having some cooking chaos during this COVID-19 crisis, as our daughters take over the kitchen with a certain - ahem - attitude!
We’ve been having some cooking chaos during this COVID-19 crisis, as our daughters take over the kitchen with a certain – ahem – attitude!
Everyone in our house is a cook. I mean, everyone likes to cook. We are a joint family made up of 3 women 2 men, and my niece who is a college student and my daughter who likes to call herself a working woman.
“You may be cook, but call us Chef,” says my niece. When I ask what is the difference, I am told, “Cooks cook all the boring stuff, Chefs create and present their creation in a very creative way which makes their food a culinary delight. You cut vegetables and cook them, we chop and grate and sauté all in controlled conditions. You just pour or scrub all the food in utensils and cover them. We display it.”
The kitchen is just a room where you cook, and cooking is just a basic skill. You can do better than find flaws in someone's cooking; try appreciating the effort taken by someone to cook for you.
The kitchen is just a room where you cook, and cooking is just a basic skill. You can do better than find flaws in someone’s cooking; try appreciating the effort taken by someone to cook for you.
Most women would remember their first day after getting married. You wake up in a completely new house, the air feels different, the bed that you slept on feels different infact even going to the washroom feels weird. You make sure you have your alarm on before sleeping as you are worried about getting up late in the morning lest you be judged.
Let’s be honest who really likes to wake up to criticism on the first day of marriage? “The new bride sleeps till so late”, “this won’t work in this house”, “her parents have spoilt her” or “how lazy is she?”