5 Basic Must Have Accessories In A Kerala Kitchen

A kitchen is a very important part of a house. You have to eat to live and if you have to eat, you require a kitchen for cooking food. Visitors who enter the State of Kerala, in South India are not only amazed by its beauty but also experience the taste of delicious and spicy Kerala food.

In olden times, a majority of women in Kerala were confined within the four walls of their house, and since joint families were prominent in those days, the main job of the women was cooking for the large families. In those days the kitchens were not equipped with electrical appliances as today, as there was no electricity in many of the villages and both wet and dry grinding were done by hands in what was called the ‘aattukkal’ and ‘aammi’. Stoves were made of mud and wood and coconut husks were used to light the fire.

photo credit: Anton Novoselov

But today things are changed. The kitchen styles vary depending on the tastes of the home owners. We can find the warm and cozy traditional kitchen; the modular kitchen with useful ranges of cabinets put together for a comfortable kitchen; clean and spacey contemporary kitchen and the stylish and expensive modern kitchen. Whether you are building a new kitchen or renovating the existing kitchen, your kitchen should be well equipped with all the necessary equipments and appliances, to making cooking pleasurable, comfortable and stress-free.

A well equipped kitchen does not mean a huge investment. The basic equipments can be purchased, within your budget. Normally a kitchen should have some cabinets and shelves to keep things.

As all kitchens around the world, a kitchen in Kerala is also well equipped with the following accessories. Every kitchen has a sink. All the kitchens have utensils and frying pans of varying sizes; spoons, spatulas and bowls and small bottles or jars for putting sugar, salt and powdered spices. Talking about electrical appliances, almost every kitchen has a mixer and a grinder, and refrigerator and some homeowners who can afford it also have a microwave oven.

But no matter what style of kitchen you build, the following are the basic 5 must have accessories found in any kitchen in Kerala:

1. Knives and a decent cutting board – Vegetarian traditional Kerala dishes are made with plenty of vegetables. Knives are also required to cut and clean fish and meat which is a common everyday dish in most of the Christian and Muslim houses.
2. Pot holder and a wiping cloth – Women in Kerala normally use tongs or two small thick clothes as pot holders. A wiping cloth is also necessary to wipe spills.
3. A pair of scissors – This is a very important tool in any kitchen. Milk comes in packets in Kerala, and scissors is the first thing that a Keralite women needs, first thing in the morning. Scissors is also required to cut packets holding various products needed in a kitchen.
4. Clock – A clock in the kitchen is also a very useful accessory, because it helps to monitor cooking and finish cooking on time.
5. Another very important accessory found in all kitchens of Kerala, is a coconut scrapper. Most of the delicacies of Kerala include coconut, and in most of the districts of Kerala, the ‘Fish curry’ is seasoned with coconut milk. So a kitchen in Kerala without a coconut scrapper is incomplete.