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Demystifying Indian Cooking Terms and their meaning I was pleasantly surprised to find out that many non-Indians were visiting this site. So I decided to write this page to help them understand Indian cuisine better. Ignorant Indians are welcome too :) | | Commonly used words in names of Indian dishes Malai - Means it uses cream or yoghurt to get a rich creamy gravy. Exception is "Prawn Malai Curry", where the word "Malai" comes from Malaysia, the origin of the recipe. Handi - Literally means a cooking utensil (round bottomed with a narrow opening). Implies that the dish was cooked in it. Shahi - Literally means 'royal' from the word 'Shah' meaning king. Implies the dish was a favourite of Indian royals. Nawabi - Similar to Shahi, except that 'Nawab' means governor. Murg/Murgh - Means a chicken dish, from the Indian word 'murgi' for chicken. Gosht - Means a meat dish, from the Indian for meat (can be both goat or beef or lamb). Bharta - Means mashed Kulcha - A flatbread stuffed with stuff (like onion, cilantro, etc.) Halwa - An Indian style of dessert, generally in the form of a thick sweet paste. Hari/Haryali - From Indian word "Hara" meaning green. Implies a lot of green vegetables along with the meat. Masala - A filler word which doesn't mean anything. Its just to add another word to an otherwise single word dish. Curry - Same as Masala, doesn't mean anything. Eg. Fish curry. Keema - Means a dish made with minced meat. Paneer - Indian cheese Palak - From Indian word for spinach. Implies that a lot of spinach was used in the dish, but is not the main ingredient. Samosa - Indian snack. Fried dough stuffed with spicy potato filling. Pakora - Similar to samosa, but in this case it is dipped in a batter and fried. Used with a variety of ingredients Paratha - Indian flat bread. Light fried in oil/ghee. Nan - A leavened Indian flatbread Magaz/Magaj - Means brains. Usually goat brain. Also beef brains, but it is prohibited for Hindus, so not easily available. What is Indian cooking? Indian cuisine is extremely diversified and is difficult to descibe in short. Here's a slightly less short description. It is mainly divided in to South Indian and North Indian styles. North Indian cuisine is more heavily persian influenced than South Indian cuisine. North Indian food involves more dairy products, while South Indian use of coconut and coconut oil, is rare in North India. North Indian food is typified by Mughlai influenced foods - korma, kalia, kofta, kabab, tandoori, pulao/pilaf. South Indian food, with a greater empasis on rice, is typified by idli, dosa, sambar, and rasam. North Indians use wheat as staple food in preparations like nan, paratha, chapati, roti and puri. What we share is a common love of spices, of every variety and flavor. Spices have not only characterised Indian cuisine, they have come to characterise India itself and have altered the fate of India and other nations (see my article on influence of spices on the world). There are regional variations and exceptions, to the overall classifications, like goan cuisine, bengali cuisine, marathi cuisine, kashmiri cuisine. All of these have their uniqueness and style. There are even so called "Indian food" originating outside India. For example, curry powder, madras curry, are inventions of the British, and chicken tikka masala, and balti chicken are recent inventions in UK. Serving papad at the beginning with a chutney is also a British invention. One of the reasons for the incredible local variation in Indian cuisine, is that India is a very big country. It has different climates and temperatures all within the same country. Indians like to use fresh local ingredients, and different regions have different local ingredients. Religion has also had its influence. Budhisim and Jainism triggered a focus on vegetarianism and led to a vast array of sophisticated vegetarian dishes. Islam has had a much smaller influence as it has little food restriction other than not eating pork and alcohol. Another reason is the extensive influence of foreign food on Indian cuisine (See my article on this to know more). Although Indians traditionally are not very adventurous with other types of cuisines, we like to experiment with different ingredients in our own cuisine. So while you will rarely find mexican or italian dishes being prepared in Indian homes, we did not hesitate in using potato, tomato and chilli in our own dishes. With increasing affluence Indians are eating out more and becoming increasingly adventurous. With the current age of American influence you will be surprised with the indianized versions of pizza and burger (with kabab pizza and tikka burgers). Refugees and migrants from all over the world, over the centuries, have also added more diversity and flavour to the umbrella of Indian cooking. Syrian christians in Kerala, Baghdadi jews in Cochin, Armenians in Calcutta (they have all left now), Parsi's of Bombay, Chinese, Anglo-Indians, Burmese, all have or have had small communities and maintained their independent cooking styles. The most common style of food in restuarants abroad are North Indian cuisines (due to the many Punjabi restuarant owners). | | Bhuna Bhuna is a dry dish. Little to no water is added, and the natural juices of the meat is used for cooking. Food is allowed to cook till all the water evaporates. Jalfreezi Jalfrezi is an extra hot dish cooked with green chillis and chilli powder. It also has tomato, and capsicum. Dum Dum means literally to 'breathe'. All the ingredients a semi-cooked and sealed in a large pot. Typically a lid is placed over the pot, and is sealed with flour dough. It is then cooked over charcoal fire. The food finishes cooking primarily by the steam. For very large pots, glowing hot coal is also placed on the lid for uniform cooking.
Biryani is the most popular dish made in the Dum cooking style. Dum Pukht Dum-Pukth is similar to Dum style of cooking, except that it is cooked on very low heat over a long time. Kind of like slow cooking. The natural flavors are preserved and the food is very tender. Pulao/Pilaf Rice cooked along with meat and/or vegetables. It gets cooked in the juices released by the meat and/or vegetables. The rice is often lightly fried in butter/ghee in the beginning. Kabab C'mon you know what a kabab is :) There are many claimants for who invented kabab, but we got them from the Persians and just made it better. Kalia It is a fish dish in a rich gravy using oil or ghee and with a sauce made with onion paste. Kofta Kofta means meat balls. The meat balls are made of minced meat (obviously!). It is usually cooked in a spicy gravy. Dosa A south Indian pancake/crepe like item made from rice flour and lentil flour. Usually served with a filling of potato cooked with spices. Served with sambar (a kind of a lentil soup) Dopiaza A cooking style where onion is added at two different stages. Finely sliced and fried to golden brown at the beginning, and thickly sliced slightly fried onion at the end. It also uses yoghurt for a creamy thick gravy, with very little moisture left. Tandoori Tandoori cooking is a very popular style of food. Tandoor is actually a specialized high temperature oven made of clay. The inner surface is specially treated with oil, spinach, brine, and all sorts of things. It resembles a rounded half egg shell. Anything cooked in a tandoor gets labelled as "tandoori". Most Indian families don't own one, so it is very popular item in restuarants. A normal kitchen oven can be used as an alternative. It is used to make nan, kebab, meats and stuffed flatbreads.
Khichdi Mildly spiced rice and daal preparation. Very popular as it can be made with anything you have in the house. It is easy to digest, and nutritive. So is also eaten when one is suffering from a stomach or digestive disorder. It is conceptually similar to the western stew, but with the addition of rice and lentils (and of course Indian spices). Often cooked on rainy days, when you can't go out for shopping, and you cook this with whatever ingredient you have (indians always have rice and lentils at home). Vindaloo Vindaloo is an Indian mispronunciation for Vinho de Alho. It gets its name from Portuguese words vinho=wine and alho=garlic because traditionally Vinho de Alho is made with red wine vinegar and garlic. It is an Indianized version of the Portugese dish, with Indian spices. It's very popular in Britain. Common Cooking utensils Tawa - Similar to the chinese wok, but with a wider bottom Kadhai - Similar to a griddle, but not completely flat. It is rounded and very shallow. Usually used for cooking flatbreads. Balti - Literally means a bucket. It is really not used for cooking, but is sometimes used for serving. Handi - It is a pot with a rounded bottom and a narrow neck. Most of the dishes in an Indian kichen are made in a handi. Dekchi - Same as Handi, but usually means a larger size (can go up to the size of a coffee table). Seek - Skewer. It is typically used for making kababs, which are called seek kababs. This article is by no means exhaustive (even though I am exhausted after writing this!). Feel free to search for more information on google. And of course feel free to ask me or add a comment below.
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