Tawa

A slightly concave iron disk: roti, paratha, and the dry heat that makes a bread puff instead of toast.

Also called tava, tawa griddle · From South Asia

A round iron tawa with a puffing roti and a wooden rolling pin beside it.

The journey

Tawa is the South Asian cousin of the comal and the mitad: a round iron plate, slightly dipped, that sits over a flame so dough cooks in seconds. Indian, Pakistani, and some Turkish pages still name it when the bread is the meal's other hand.

A skillet can cook a roti. The tawa's shallow well keeps the bread from sliding and gives the center a different heat from the rim.

Public-domain botanical plate of bread wheat — the grain that made the tawa as necessary as the tandoor. — Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (1887) · Public domain. Source

In the kitchen

Heat it until a drop of water dances. No oil for a lean roti. Flip when pale spots turn brown. For paratha, ghee on the plate, not in a puddle.

The Indian and Pakistani volumes assume this disk the way they assume a rolling pin.

Used in these ComidaTime kitchens

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