Hob Cooking: My Initial Apprehensions (And What Happens When You're Left With No Choice)

Shifting to a new city comes with its own set of changes. London was no different. It was my first trip to the UK and also the first after getting married. I was instructed to play house in real-time and "have fun". I eventually got used to most things around (a dishwasher at home?! Wow! Because back home we usually washed our utensils by hand or got the maid to clean them).

But the one change that took the longest time to get used to was the hob stove. In India, everyone is used to the regular gas range where it is easy to move around pots and pans, control the heat easily and quickly and juggle between other chores in the kitchen simultaneously. Whereas a hob requires your constant attention, since heat distribution isn't as uniform. A hob (pukka British English or a cook top, its US counter part) is a ceramic plate with a heating element underneath which transfers heat to the selected zone. One would easily dismiss it as an induction plate. But an induction plate, on the other hand, uses coils which generate a magnetic field, which transfer heat to a pan with a compatible base only when the two come in contact with each other.

Though induction plates have become very common in India, especially for bachelors and people who don't cook regularly at home, a considerable percentage of urban Indian households prefer using a gas stove (because that's how we were brought up, right?). Cooking on the hob wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Sometimes it would take too long to heat (and play with my patience) and when it finally did, it would take time for the heat to cool down. After a few instances of the tadka going black and the chapatis turning into poppadums, I finally got a hang of temperature control (though, as a chef, I still wish I had a stove to make some noise and do a jig while cooking).

But why am I telling you all this?

•  It is easy to clean! Cooking’s done for the day? Just wipe off the food residue without too much hard work. Low maintenance for sure.
•  Once heated, it can stay hot for a very long time! So if you’re done heating water for your coffee, you can heat milk right there till the coffee is brewing, even after switching off the knob!
•  It definitely looks stylish (oh yeah totally!!) and gives your kitchen a modern feel.
•  Another advantage is that you do not need specific pots and pans for a ceramic hob unlike its more popular cousin, the induction plate.
• If you're tempted to install one, then Neff, Bosch, Miele and Samsung are the popular brands of kitchen hobs

Moving over to my most favourite part... What was I able to achieve after taking up this new challenge? Well, it made me think and prepare one pot recipes more often, without tons of utensils, saved time, and kept washing-up down to an absolute minimum!

To sum up, I am going to share my extremely simple and tasty recipe of One Pot Pilaf! You can also also put cooked chicken in it and add some protein in your meal.

Ingredients

Sunflower oil 2tsp

Cumin seeds- 1/2tsp

Onion, finely chopped- 1medium

Garlic, chopped- 1big clove or 3-4 small ones

Green chillies, chopped- 1small

Madras Curry powder- 2tsp (more, if you like it spicy!)

Basmati rice- 1/2 bowl

Mixed and diced vegetables- 1 bowl (anything from carrots, potatoes, broccoli, peas, cauliflower, beans, mushrooms)

Baby spinach- a handful of leaves, wash and tear them by hand

Vegetable stock- 1.5 bowl

Method:

Heat oil in a pot (I use my pressure cooker).

Once it heats, add cumin seeds and let them crackle.

Add onion, garlic and green chillies and saute them well.

Now keep adding the vegetables , the hard ones going in first, and saute them well.

Add the curry powder, followed by the rice and mix it up uniformly.

Now add the stock or water, scatter the spinach and season with salt. Close the lid and cook until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender or 3 whistles. Open the lid, give everything a good stir and enjoy! 

Love, Kshipra

References:

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/hobs/article/

https://www.homebuilding.co.uk

http://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/cookers-ovens/hobs/ceramic/_/N-admZ1z0doy2

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/

http://www.smeg.com/

http://www.newsroom.electrolux.com