Topic: Useful Translation Herbs/Spice index

[Joe the Schwab]

Thanks Ray,

Here's another for the list:

http://www.indianfoodrecipes.net/glossary.html

Thanks,very helpful but I couldn't help noticing this...

 Balchao
    (Pickling) A Goan specialty where vegetables like aborigines or seafood like prawns are ?pickled? in sugar, vinegar and spices for a day or two before eating.
 ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

It would be interesting to know which spelling checkers automatically replace "aubergine" by "aborigine" !

[Malc.]

Well spotted, you'd certainly need a big pickling jar!!!

[Eternalian]

Newbie here,

sorry if this is the wrong thread for my question but I've come across the word Grabbi on a number of occasions.  What is it?

I Googled it and got an Italian footballer (Corrado) who played a few games for Blackburn Rovers!!!!!!!!   ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Peripatetic Phil]

It looks to me from a quick Google for "Grabbi" and "Spice" in juxtaposition as if some may use it to describe "curry gravy" (i.e., curry sauce); "b" and "v" are not distinguished in some languages (e.g., Catalan), so it is possible to conjecture that that is how the usage arose.  Here is a quote in context :

"How to make Butter Chicken the way a high street curry restaurant cooks it. You'll need some grabbi/gravy as a base for the sauce (excellent recipes available on the RCR real curry recipes site). For the chicken tikka, follow the instructions on a jar of Tikka paste such as Patak's. The rest are kitchen store cupboard ingredients. The smoking coal part is something that Indian families do at home and I'm not aware of any restaurant that does it; I do it because the kids enjoy it."

[Eternalian]

Many thanks Chaa006 for your help and research, it's much appreciated.

[commis]

Hi

Chaa006, thank you for your information.

Regards

[Peripatetic Phil]

Confused !  What edit do you suggest (should I clarify that this is the base sauce that is being called "grabbi" rather than the finished sauce, or is there something else that could be improved ?).  Always open to constructive criticism 

[Razor]

Hi Chaa,

I've have also read that definition of Grabbi, as the way Gravy is pronounced by folk form the sub-continent however, I have had also had it explained to me form my local TA owner that it actually derives from the word "Garab" (not sure the spelling is right) which is Tamil, meaning sauce!  He also told me that the word "curry" is the Tamil word for sauce too but depending on the context, determines which word is to be used?

Interesting, nonetheless.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hmm, 'fraid that Tamil is not one of my languages, so I can't comment on the garab/grabbi connection, but after a lot more searching I can find only two other references to "grabbi" on the context of curry gravy.  One is a plea to Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi to demonstrate how to make grabbi/gravy on his television programme, and the other is an observation from someone who was allowed into an Indian restaurant kitchen :

"My most embarrassing moment was when I asked a chef why he had two grabbis/gravies on the go. He shouted "One grabbi - just made from onion" and gave up on me as a complete idiot. Which is what I felt when he finished the dish and dumped his chef's spoon in the "other gravy" pan ready for the washer-upper. (It did look quite tasty though.)"