food vocabulary

spitze_udz

Lets not get devieted from topic.... just for clarification here is the link...

http://www.tarladalal.com/ViewContri...eci peid=5535

Dino

I would like to have a go at cooking Makhani Dal at home but have so far collected recipes that are conflicting in ingredients,methods etc.For instance does the creamy texture come from adding actual cream?One recipe says to add cream,the other no mention of it.One says to use Masoor Dal another Toor dal.I can't easily access either of these (to be honest,I've never heard of Toor Dal) but can easily get Urad Dal that gs_uppal speaks of.While I'm in knowledge seeking mode can anyone tell me what Green Dal is?I've just bought a bag and thought I'd give it a try using other recipes but if someone has a recipe specifically for Green Dal would love to hear it.Hope this isn't too far off the topic but you guys seem to really know your dals.

Digital Drifter

picky,picky. Don't you know the attitude is 'you're lucky that there's a pantry car on this train'. :-)

If you make your way to the pantry car where they make the stuff, you might be able to convince them to give you hot food. I sometimes walk all the way to the pantry car to have my dosas. Of course, it still doesn't mean, it'll be tasty, I'd rather a hot indifferent meal to a cold,limpy, tasteless stuff.

gs_uppal

Breads -
Roti (or Tandoori Roti) - Flat wheat flour bread made in an earthen oven.
Butter Roti - Butter applied on the above
Chapati - A thin wheat flour bread made on a flat steel plate kept above the flame (easier to digest compared to a roti)
Paratha - A wheat flour bread with vegetables or cheese etc stuffed (stuffed paratha) or mixed in it, eg. Aloo(Potatoe) Paratha, Gobi (Cauliflower) Paratha, Mooli (Raddish) Paratha, Methi (Fenugreek) Paratha, Mix Veg Paratha
Special Breads - Naan, Kulcha, Butter Naan,etc. - These are made with wheat flour and lightly fermented with butter milk and breads made of it.

Lentils -
Daal Makhani (Lentil with Butter)- Most common and liked Lentil preparation in North India, also called 'Maa Di Daal', with a spoonful of butter melting on top of the hot Daal. Tastes good with both Breads and Rice
Yellow Daal/ Daal Fry/ Daal tadka - Yellow Daal easy to digest (compared to Black Daal), tastes good with Rice

Vegetables -
1. Cauliflower- Gobi Aloo (with Potato)
Gobi Masala (spicy Gravy)
2. Peas - Mutter Aloo (with Potato)
Mutter paneer (with cottage cheese)
3. Capsicum - Shimla Mirch Aloo (with Potato)
Shimla Mirch Masala (spicy Gravy)
4. Cottage Cheese - Paneer
Shahi Paneer (aromatic and medium spicy gravy)
Paneer Butter Masala (an orange to red gravy - great to taste)
Paneer Pasanda
5. Chickpeas - Chana/Chhole Masala - common in north india with snacks, like cholle bhature (deep fried wheat flour cake/bread) or with samosa (wheat flour outer layer with potato and spices inside and deep fried in oil)
6. Fenugreek - Methi
Methi Malai Mutter (Fenugreek with Peas and Fresh Cream)
7. Spinach - Palak
Palak Paneer (with cottage Cheese)

Chicken Dishes -
Starters (Kebabs/Tikkas/Tandoori etc)
Chicken Tikka (Chicken breasts marinated and cooked in skewer on a charcoal fired clay oven)
Reshmi Kebabs - Chicken breasts/pieces marinated in yoghurt and cooked on charcoal in a clay oven.
Tangdi Kebab - Leg pieces of Chicken
Tandoori Chicken - Chicken Marinated in Spices & Yoghurt cooked in charcoal clay oven.

Chicken with Gravy/Curry
Chicken Masala
Chicken hariyali/hyderabadi (with Spinach)
Chicken Tikka Masala (UK Favourite) - Chicken Tikkas in a Gravy of Onions, Butter, Cream & Tomato
Chicken Patiala/Patialvi - Chicken with Egg Omellete on top

Rice preparations -
Steamed Rice
Jeera Rice (Rice with Fried Cumin Seeds)
Biryani (Veg/Egg/Chicken/Mutton) - Rice cooked with lots of spices and Egg/Chicken/Mutton in an oven
Pulao - (Veg Pulao/Mutter Pulao) - Rice cooked with Vegetables/ Peas

Yoghurt (Dahi) - Whole milk yoghurt (greek style)
Raita - Beaten yoghurt with vegetables (Veg Raita) or small lentil flour dumplings (Boondi raita)
Dahi Vada or Dahi Bhalla (north india) - Large Lentil flour dumplings(made of Urad Daal) in beaten yoghurt. Very good if your stomach is not ok, and very soothing in acidity, if you dont feel like eating anything, eat this and you'll feel good.

spitze_udz

Green Dal is called Moong dal in hindi....
i dont cook many things but if you ask for recipe.. see this link

http://www.tarladalal.com/RecipeSear...moong&PageNo=1

spitze_udz

Hey Dino this will help :
http://www.tarladalal.com/ViewContri...eci peid=5523

gs_uppal

Toor Daal is also called as ARHAR KI DAAL
Green daal is Moong (without cover it is yellow, small daal)
If you make Daal Makhani with Urad/Maa Sabut Daal (Punjabi Daal Makhani) - You dont have to add any cream.
Cook the Daal with some water, onion slices (even without can be done), some chilly, red chilly powder, salt, ginger garlic paste, cumin seeds, pinch of garam masala, jeera powder, coriander powder, turmeric if you want and soaked rajma/ chana daal and give 4-6 whistles in a pressure cooker.
Then keep stirring this intermittingly and heat on medium flame, after 20-30 minutes it will become sticky and creamy, keep adding water in between. Its taste will come only when you cook it for long. Add butter and fresh coriander when it is fully cooked and serve.
http://www.recipedelights.com/recipe.../DalMakhni.htm
http://www.punjabilok.com/rasoi/recipes_14.htm
http://flavoursofindia.tripod.com/dalmakhani.html

Non Punjabis cook Daal makhani with other Daals like Toor(arhar) or Masoor

spitze_udz

We definitely know our dals

Dino

Thanks for the great link spitze_udz.

Re train food.I ordered it every train journey we did our first visit to India in the hope that next time it would improve.It never did.As someone who thought they could eat anything anywhere at times I was pushed to the limits of my capabilities.You're far better off taking a tiffin box or jumping off at platforms and getting a samosa or something (as long as it looks freshly cooked).

Dino

Thankyou very much.I've got a day off work tommorrow and looks like I'm spending it in the kitchen.Heaven.

spitze_udz

Skinner... by now you have cooking knowledge along with knowledge of what to order .....

machadinha

As others have answered, the creaminess comes from the butter and the cooking method I think. For the green dhal, I'm guessing these are what are called mung beans over here, not a lentil at all (but dhal stands for more types of beans I think). The Indonesians call them katjang hidjau. If left to sprout (leave them on a layer of wet cotton balls for a while, or get a special sprouting box -- keep moist at all times) they will form taogé, often used in Indonesian and Chinese cooking (as a vegetable; eat raw or blanched or add in at the latest stage of stirfrying). A simple way to use them (the whole beans) is to cook them together with (brown) rice, say 1:1 or 1:2, both need 1.5 cups of water to 1 cup of the stuff and 45 mins. cooking and they're supposed to be very healthy (any whole grain will help to extract the proteins from beans for that matter).

A use for dhal that I've never come across in India, this is how the Surinamese like their rotis: Take what they call yellow split peas, cook and grind coarsely. Take a ball of chapati dough in your hand, push it in with your thumb to form a shallow hole. Fill with a little bit of the ground peas, close it up, then roll out the dough and bake as usual. The result should be a roti that consists almost of two or several layers with a coarse structure inbetween. (The same can be done with a potato curry mixture and you'll have filled roti.) In Suriname these are called dalbhari and alubhari, respectively, I've had the latter in India too (simply called "stuffed chapati" I think).

I haven't found back the Keralan sweet balls I was talking about (not rasgullah by the way, speaking of which, a sweets section might be in place here. Try barfi, gulab jamun, halwa, jalebis, etc. Basically, just walk into any sweets shop and order a box of different goodies, also great for trainrides -- better stock up good though as there's no way you'll be eating the stuff alone.) I did find the coconut lunch though so here goes, it's called wheat putt or something to that effect:

Mix wheat and flour with water; add ground coconut and steam. Serve with honey, ground peanuts and sliced bananas. Simple but yummy!

Anyway so much for today's culinaries folks.

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Idli

Beans and Lentils with pictures

crvlvr

Spitze,

Which part of India will you be travvelling through? As you already know, India has a number of languages and the same dish will have a different name depending on the language of the area you are in.

Fish -- Machili, Meen, Chaapa, etc. etc. etc..

machadinha

A note on the (mouth-watering) seafood mentioned before, in restaurants fish and other seafood will often be sold by its weight so better make sure you know what you're ordering or you might be in for an unpleasant surprise financially.

And

Great links there! My hunch about the mung beans seems to be right but with the moong dhal it could hardly have been wrong right.