Field Guide to Indian Ingredients...

[fiveqs]

Hi all! Being a lover of Indian food (as is my Wife), I'd like to be able to make more. We even have a nice little store we can get to. However... there's this issue of not being able to figure out all the ingredeients. Daals being a biggie. There seem to be many different names for things like whole Lentils, split Lentils, Green/Orange/brown Lentils, Garbanzos/Chick Peas etc. Spices like Curry Leaves, Asafoetida, Heeng etc...
So, my question is, is there a guidebook to Indian ingredients that would cover all the ingredients be it beans or veggies, spices or whatever with pictures would be great and all the different names for them. Maybe it exists as a cookbook, stand alone ingredients guide, or even a web page (most sites you pretty much have to already know what you're looking for tho, and I kind of like books anyway ?
If anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. Also a little side question ;-) any good Vegan Indian cookbooks out there or is it pretty much just convert the Vegetarian stuff?
Thanks a Bunch!!
Paul Q

[harpy]

This book is vegan - you might want to read the reports on it before you buy

http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Taste-In.../dp/1897766750

I have got a couple of others in the series and they seem OK but I have to admit I rarely cook from books so my evaluation isn't worth much

Madhur Jaffrey's vegetarian books are worth investigating too (not all of them are vegetarian so watch out). I think some of them do contain explanations of ingredients, she says vaguely. Adapting vegetarian Indian recipes to be vegan would probably be fairly easy.

Hope you hear from someone less vague - also an American recommendation might be better because the ingredients that are available there may be different.

[Korn]

Hi,

There's a little description various kinds of lentils here: Lentils

Here's a link to a vegan Indian cookbook.

I don't think there's such a thing as a book or site dedicated to list only Indian ingredients - but it's an interesting topic!

Some of the ingredients used in Indian cooking aren't always easily available outside India, like eg. fresh fenugreek leaves (the seeds are), and I guess most existing cookbooks in English may focus on stuff that's easy to find outside India.

If you try Amazon, you'll find some books that have ingredient lists which you can see even without buying all these books (by using the Look Inside function).

Here's one of them: http://www.amazon.com/Mom-Love-Compl...rdr_bb_product

There are also some only Indian curry/ingredient shops, and by looking at these you may get an overview of ingredients you may not already be aware of.

We could also use this thread as a place to post various ingredient descriptions found at other sites. Here's a quote from COLLECTION: Indian Recipes (1 of 2)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME INDIAN NAME DESCRIPTION
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Asafoetida Hing Dried gum resin from the root of various
Iranian and East Indian plants. Has a strong
fetid odor - definitely an acquired taste.
May be obtained.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Besan Besan Flour of dried chick peas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardamom Elaichi Dried fruit of a plant.
Mostly the seeds are used.
Seeds of 4 pods measure approximately 1/4 t.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coriander dhania Aromatic herb of the parsley family. Sold as
cilantro or chinese parsley. Also sold as
seed or dry powder.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cumin Jeera Very aromatic and reminiscent. Sold whole or
ground.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dals Dal Hindi name for all members of the legume
or pulse family. Commonly used are: Arhar,
Channa, Masur, Mung, Labia (black-eyed peas),
Rajma (red kidney beans).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fennel Seed Sauf Has an agreeable odor and licorice flavor.
Available whole or ground.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fenugreek Methi Has a pleasant bitter flavor and sweetish
odor.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garam Masala Garam Masala A mixture of spices; details come later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chat Masala Chat Masala A variation of Garam masala.
Available in Indian stores.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ghee Ghee Fat for frying. Pure ghee is clarified
butter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mustard oil Larson Pungent oil made from black mustard seeds.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mint Pudina Aromatic herb. Fresh and dried leaves are
used in the preparation of chutneys. Dried
leaves are much less fragrant than the fresh
ones.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pomegranate Anar dana A flavoring agent. Has some scent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saffron Kesar Made of stigmas of a flower grown in
Kashmir and Spain. It is aromatic and
yields a yellow color.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turmeric Haldi An aromatic powdered root. Used as a
flavoring, and for flavoring curries.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some other links:

An Indian food primer for the interested American

Indian Herbs, Spices And Ingredients

Indian Ingredients

The glossary site at 'Curryholics Cult': http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Island/3012/

From http://www.indianfoodandspices.co.uk/:
Whole spices (several pages long)

http://www.wordanywhere.com/spices.html

Alphabetical search for herbs/ingredients:
http://www.isamaj.com/food/glossary/index.html

Ground Spices

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/

Names Of Ingredients in Indian Languages

The Indian Spice Kitchen: Essential Ingredients and Over 200 Authentic Recipes


Here's a product list mentioning some ingredients that are not mention as often as the most well known Indian spices, eg. annatto seeds, fried melon seeds, popped lotus seeds, sumac, whole pomegranate seeds, and black onion seeds:
http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/sp...hole-133-c.asp

Indian Culinary Ingredients

You may also find some interesting info on the Indian Ministry of Commerce's official Spices Board of India. Here's their catalogue of spices.

Has anyone here used anardana (pomegranate) seeds/powder or curry leaf powder? Or parsley seeds (ajwain/ajowan)?

[Korn]

Here's another book on spicy vegan food, written by an Indian:
Spicy Vegan by Sudha Raina

Maybe this is interesting too:
Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavors from Home and Around the World

Since vegetarian food in South India often is vegan, this book looks very interesting (link to Google Book Search):
Food for the Gods (by Diana Seshadri).

It's got a lot of details about Indian ingredients, and can be bought at Amazon - or here: http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acata...n-Cooking.html

[fiveqs]

Wow! Thanks Korn and Harpy! That's a bunch of links and info, should keep me going for a while In the past we've mostly been using prepared foods, spice mixes, curries etc. The large number of ingredients in many recipes (when you count all the different spices) can be quite intimidating. Time to get organized and make a trip to the store for some supplies other than Maggi noodle packs, Tasty Bites meals, and frozen goodies. Well, maybe some Maggi's Thanks again for all the info... now I've got some surfing to do!
Paul Q