Glossary

Glossary

Every thing about Glossary | Vahrehvah :

Ambal: A sour dish made either with several vegetables or with fish, the sourness being produced by the addition of tamarind pulp. Biryani: Fragrant dish of long-grained aromatic rice combined with beef, mutton, or chicken and a mixture of characteristic spices. Sometimes cooked in sealed containers (dum biriyani).

Bhaja or Bhaji: Anything fried, either by itself or in batter? Bhapa: Fish or vegetables steamed with oil and spices. A classic steaming technique is to wrap the fish in banana leaf to give it a faint musky, smoky scent. Bhate: ('steamed with rice') Any vegetable, such as potatoes, beans, pumpkins, or even dal, first boiled whole and then mashed and seasoned with mustard oil or ghee and spices.

Traditionally the vegetables were placed on top of the rice; then steamed as the rice was being boiled. Bhorta: Any vegetable, fish, or shrimp boiled and coarsely mashed, mixed with spices, mustard oil, and onions. Bhuna: A term of Urdu origin, and applies to meat cooked in spices for a long time without  water.

The spices are slow-cooked in oil (bhunno). The spices first absorb the oil, and when fully cooked release the oil again. Sora; See Kofta Chacchari: Usually a vegetable dish with one or more varieties of vegetables cut into longish strips, sometimes with the stalks of leafy greens added, all lightly seasoned with spices like mustard or poppy seeds and flavoured with a phoron.

The skin and bone of large fish like bhetki or chitol can be made into a chachchari called kanta-chachchari, kanta, meaning fish- bone. Chhanchra: A combination dish made with different vegetables, portions of fish head and fish oil (entrails). Chechki: Tiny pieces of one or more vegetable - or, sometimes even the peels (of potatoes, lau, pumpkin or patol for example)1- usually flavored with panch phoron or whole mustard seeds or kala jeera.

Chopped onion and garlic can also be used, but hardly any ground ' Dalna: Mixed vegetables or eggs,, cooked in medium thick gravy seasoned with ground spices, especially garom mashla and a touch of ghee. Kalia: A very rich preparation of fish, meat or vegetables using a lot of oil and ghee with a sauce usually based on ground ginger and onion paste and garom mashla.

Khichufi: Rice mixed with vegetables and in some cases, boiled eggs. Usually cooked with spices and turmeric powder . Kofta: Ground meat or vegetable croquettes bound together by spices and/or eggs served alone or in savory gravy. Korma: Another term of Urdu origin (literally 'braised with onions), meaning meat or chicken cooked in a mild onion and yoghurt sauce with ghee.

Luchi: Small round unleavened bread fried in oil. See Parata. Porota: Bread made from wheat flour and fried in the oven until golden-brown. Paturi: Typically fish, seasoned with spices (usually shorshe) wrapped in banana leaves and steamed or roasted over a charcoal fire. Polau (Pilaf): Fragrant dish of rice with ghee, spices and small pieces of vegetables.

Long grained aromatic rice is usually used, but some aromatic short grained versions such as Kalijira or Gobindobhog may also be used. Pora: The word literally means charred. Vegetables are wrapped in banana leaves and roasted over a wood, charcoal or coal fire. Some vegetables with skin such as begun (eggplant), are put directly on the flame or coals.

The roasted vegetable is then mixed with onions, oil and spices  Rufi: Unleaved bread made in a tawa and puffed over an open flame. drkari: A general term often used in Bengal the way 'curry' is used in English (it is speculated to be one of the origins of curry). Originally from Persian,, the word first meant uncooked garden vegetables. From this it was a natural extension to mean cooked vegetables or even fish and vegetables cooked together