Reference
Glossary
The words the recipes use. Written down because in thirty years someone will read “one and a half lines of your forefinger” and need to know what a nosu is.
The words the recipes use. Written down because in thirty years someone will read
"one and a half lines of your forefinger" and need to know what a nosu is.
Transliterations are as the family says them, not as a dictionary would spell them.
Dals and pulses
- mug
- mung beans.
- masoor
- red lentils.
- methi
- fenugreek. The seeds when sprouting; the fresh leaves in Manjulaben's thepla.
Spices and mixes
- jeeru
- cumin seeds.
- rai
- mustard seeds.
- rai-methi mix
- the standard mustard-and-fenugreek tempering mix. [Shruti's transcript says "rai netti" — confirm.]
- hing
- asafoetida. Used by the dot.
- haldar
- turmeric.
- dhana
- coriander. Also written dana. Same thing.
- dhana-jiru
- ground coriander-and-cumin mix. A spice in its own right, not the same as dhana.
- vaghar
- the tempering. Hot oil, whole spices, in first. (Shruti's transcript: "vagaar.")
- Eldoret masala
- Induben's masala, from Eldoret, Kenya. Used in the dal and the egg curry. Not yet in the archive.
Vessels and kit
- nosu
- the steel vessel. Shruti's dal specifies "the steel nosu."
- sufariyo
- cooking pot. Plural sufariyot. Shruti avoids one in the sprouts recipe specifically to save vasan.
- vasan
- the dishes. Washing up.
- tawa
- flat griddle. Manjulaben's thepla.
- vati
- small bowl, used as a measure. Induben's kadhi card: "1 vati dahi."
- chamchi
- spoon, used as a measure. "2 chamchi besan."
Measures that aren't measures
- a handful
- a handful. Shruti's sprouts and dal both use it and it's the right unit.
- one and a half lines of your forefinger
- water depth above the dal in the pressure cooker. Put your forefinger on top of the dal; the water should reach the second knuckle line.
- three to four whistles
- pressure cooker. Shruti's own number, arrived at by experiment.
- andaaz se
- by estimate. What most of this actually is.
Places
- Eldoret
- town in Kenya. Induben is from there. The reason there's a Kenyan masala in a Gujarati kitchen.
- Ahmedabad
- Gujarat. Where the recipe tin came from.
Notes on this file
Add to it whenever a word turns up that a stranger wouldn't know. The test isn't
whether you know it — it's whether Nirvaan's kids would.