What Does ____ mean in English? - Hindi Cooking terms; Mysteries solved?

Hari bol!

My wife and I have a veggie cook book from India, written in English, but obviously geared towards those with a working knowledge of Hindi. We have compiled a list of words that we can't guesstimate the definition of.

If anyone here knows the meaning of any, could you post it for us? Or if someone knows a creme de la creme of websites with a creme de la creme of glossaries, we would be ever so obliged.

The book has alot of typos, so some of these words may not be spelled right. what to speak of phonetics.
well, here it is:

suji
petha
green gram
achar (we think this one has something to do with pickling?)
barian
papar
malai
jeera
arbee and arbi
ajwain
dhania
tinda
mashed brinjal
kachaloo
euryle farex
-when curd and paneer are used in the same recipe, is the curd supposed to be cottage cheese?-
chirounji
tatri
saunf
kasairoo
jimikand

If anyone else has questions like this or on cooking in general, perhaps this thread could be used?

QUOTE(Srijiva @ Dec 13 2004, 10:10 PM)

Hari bol!

My wife and I have a veggie cook book from India, written in English, but obviously geared towards those with a working knowledge of Hindi. We have compiled a list of words that we can't guesstimate the definition of.

If anyone here knows the meaning of any, could you post it for us? Or if someone knows a creme de la creme of websites with a creme de la creme of glossaries, we would be ever so obliged.

The book has alot of typos, so some of these words may not be spelled right. what to speak of phonetics.
well, here it is:

suji
petha
green gram
achar (we think this one has something to do with pickling?)
barian
papar
malai
jeera
arbee and arbi
ajwain
dhania
tinda
mashed brinjal
kachaloo
euryle farex
-when curd and paneer are used in the same recipe, is the curd supposed to be cottage cheese?-
chirounji
tatri
saunf
kasairoo
jimikand

If anyone else has questions like this or on cooking in general, perhaps this thread could be used?

ajwain=a spice
brinjal= eggplant
malai=cream
jeera=cumin
green gram=mung
papar=papadam aka "poppers" in ISCKON

achar:

"Call it Pickles, Achar or Chutney, it is one of the crucial groups of food in Indian cuisine. Pickle is a big group of food which differ with respect to its flavor, usage, textures, and/or ingredients. Pickles are really different than anything western cuisine has to offer. They may act as relish, sauce, dressing, appetizer or condiments. Pickle is considered an essential part of not only Indian meal but also any other South Asian meal."

Check out this site:

http://theory.tifr.res.in/bombay/history/p...sine/vocab.html

and this:

http://home.earthlink.net/~wwwca/indian_terms11.htm

and an Indian recipes index:

http://www.gadnet.com/recipes.htm

also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cuisine

I hope these help. I am not a linguist but I'm a pretty good cook.

my two cents:
dhaniya= coriander

Suji (sometimes sooji) is farina or semolina I believe.

cool. (sez my wife, wendy) thanks for the links!

QUOTE(Srijiva @ Dec 14 2004, 03:10 AM)

kachaloo

Means one has gone to the bathroom. This is actually the bastardization of English that worked its way into Hindi. The English version would be "Catch a loo." meaning to go to the bathroom ... loo = bathroom. Being that Hindus have high standards of cleanlinness, I am sure it was contextually used saying one should bathe or wash hands after one "Catch a loo." and then engage in the process of cooking.

QUOTE(babu @ Dec 14 2004, 04:03 PM)

QUOTE(Srijiva @ Dec 14 2004, 03:10 AM)

kachaloo

Means one has gone to the bathroom. This is actually the bastardization of English that worked its way into Hindi. The English version would be "Catch a loo." meaning to go to the bathroom ... loo = bathroom. Being that Hindus have high standards of cleanlinness, I am sure it was contextually used saying one should bathe or wash hands after one "Catch a loo." and then engage in the process of cooking.

This is very interesting, I am not at home right now, but I will double check when I get back...I am positive I got all of these words out of the ingrediants lists, my wife conquers

Perhaps if you ad an extra "A" or a "C" ; play with it a little, the word may resemble some kind of foodstuff? Like I had warned originally, the book has many, many typos and the phrasing seems like the editor might of had a poor command of the english language.

O.K. Home from work and here it is, straight from the pages of: "VEGETARIAN KITCHEN KING by "Sanjeev" of Creative Publishing, Nai Sarak, Delhi

Kachaloo {this is what the recipe is even called}

Kachaloo 300 grams
Green Coriander 1 bunch
Green Chili 4~5
Ginger 20 grams
Salt 2 tea spoons
Garam Masala 2 tea spoons
Red Chilli 1/2 tea spoon
Lemon 2 or 3

Method
..."Kachaloos are very hard. Clean, wash, boil them. Grind and make paste with green corriander, green chilli, ginger, 1 tea spoon salt, 1 tea spoon cuminseed and a pinch of asafoetida. Peel and cut kachaloos into small pieces. Add red chilli, salt, ground masala, mix well, also add lemon juice, coriander-ginger paste, mix all the ingrediants well.

so, nowhere does it say in the book about performing or doing a kachaloo before preparing a meal, but it is still good advice

I did just notice an email address.... duh!
But it is much better to hear these definitions from devotees (of all traditions)

I think you have the right answer then. Yes, its good advice to bathe or at least to thoroughly wash one's hands after one catch a loo.

I can't resist a good mystery, so I tackled google in stages and came up with first a latin name and finally the name we all might recognize, Taro.

Here's the evidence:

QUOTE

The Khayber Pass is very famous. Every year many tourists come to visit. One day a woman wanted to buy some vegetables. She saw kachaloo, a local vegetable. She asked a farmer, "What is this?" The farmer said, "Oh, you powerful lady. Do you know this is the brother of the potato." (The kachaloo looks like a potato.)--Muhammad

Botanical Name:           Colocasia esculentum Linn.

Local Name:                 Kachaloo

Habit:                           Cultivated vegetable

Part Used:                    Leaves, Underground stem.

Uses:                            Common vegetable, demulcent.

Native to India and Tropical Asia, where they are commonly grown for food; but mostly grown elsewhere for their tropical-looking foliage. They are a close relative of caladiums, but only have green leaves which are up to ten times larger than caladium leaves.

Elephant Ears get their common name from the leaves, which are shaped like a large ear or shield. Some other common names include coco yam, taro and in the southern United States, it is called a dasheen or malanga. In colder zones these tender bulbs should be grown as an annual or houseplant.

I confirmed the word taro in a couple of other places. All the recipes boiled it and often they refer to how hard it is and how it looks like potatos. Afghani cuisine puts it turnovers. I saw Indian recipes for salads.

I also saw a couple of different sites that look really cool, one a discussion board at http://forums.egullet.org/ which has an Indian cuisine sub-forum where published authors were among the participants. Another was http://www.ndtvcooks.com/default.asp and finally, http://www.tarladalal.com/Default.asp. I will be going back to these sites myself!

You never know where google.com will take you.

That would be Bengali "kachu"

QUOTE(Jagat @ Dec 16 2004, 01:41 AM)

"kachu"

God bless you.

You are so funny, Babulu!

Are you sure it's not "kachu" and "aloo" (potato)?

-lu is the plural suffix in Telugu.

I don't think that's probably what's happening with "kachalu" but anyway...

I remember my mother writing in the shopping list to buy "kachvAlvAdA". After going to the market, my father had to figure out that he had to buy three things: kachu, Alu and AdA (ginger).

Your mother wrote Bengali with sandhi?

Yes, this much of sandhi is very common in our language just for the fun of it.

Thank you ever so much Tapatiji for your search. I guess the local "Food-4-Less" won't be carrying kachaloos then. (They do have the most marvelous coconuts and Cacti, though)

I suppose I could get off me lazy butt and do some googling myself, eh?

My wife is wondering if by Taro, you mean like Taro Root?

UMBELLIFERAE

ajwain: this is indeed a spice as someone said. Specifically it is the seed of carum copticum a member of the umbelliferae family as are cumin
(jeera), coriander (dhania), fennel (saunf), dill (sowa).

Ajwain (pronounced: aj-wine) has a high thymol content like the herb thyme. If you find it hard to get you can substitute with the same amount of thyme. When we were little children our grandmothers would tie little sachets of ajwain around our necks to ward off colds and things,

COLOCASIA ESCULENTA

QUOTE(Srijiva @ Dec 16 2004, 08:26 PM)

My wife is wondering if by Taro, you mean like Taro Root?

I don't know the meaning of kachaloo but in Hindi taro root is called arbi and its leaves which are also eaten are also called arbi. In Fiji we call arbi by its indigenous Fijian name dalo and refer to its leaves with the quaint mixed Fijian and Hindi dalo ke patti. In the West Indies these leaves are known as callaloo.

Yes they seemed to be referring to the root of the plant. I was amused that it was the same plant referred to as elephant ears, as that is a plant I am familiar with. I gather that is why they keep saying it resembles potatoes.

QUOTE(Tapati @ Jan 5 2005, 12:52 AM)

Yes they seemed to be referring to the root of the plant. I was amused that it was the same plant referred to as elephant ears, as that is a plant I am familiar with. I gather that is why they keep saying it resembles potatoes.

The leaves of the taro do look like elephant ears. I am amused you think that they resemble potatoes on that account.

The only similarity between potatoes and taro is that both are starchy vegetables that grow in the soil. However the potato is a tuber and taro is a corm. Also, taro starch is heavier than potato starch being more like the starch in grains.