Thai Pumpkin Curry

This is a great and nutritious curry. Thai red curry paste is available in many supermarkets, Asian grocery stores and some spice and seasoning shops (it's not expensive). It is usually sold in small jars, which is how I buy it, but just to prove me wrong, when I went to buy it for this recipe, they were out of the brands in jars, but they had it in small cans.

 

Ingredients (4 servings): 

 

3 cups chopped fresh pumpkin, in bite-size pieces (you can substitute acorn or butternut squash, if you'd like)

3 tablespoons peanut oil

1/4 cup chopped red onion

4 cloves minced garlic

2 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 hot chili pepper (preferably red, but green is fine)

3 or 4 tablespoons Thai red curry paste 

1 cup kale, torn into smaller pieces, with no thick stems

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (use black pepper if you don't have white)

3/4 teaspoon ground coriander

2/3 cup mild chicken broth or vegetable broth

1 can (13.5 to 14 ounces) coconut milk

2 teaspoons soy sauce + 1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

garnish with roasted peanuts and/or cashews or serve on the side 

Heat the peanut oil in a heavy bottom pan over medium heat. Add the red onion, garlic, ginger, chili pepper and red bell pepper; saute for about 3 minutes, then stir in the Thai red curry paste. Cook just about 1 1/2 minutes (don't let anything scorch or get dark in color), then add the pumpkin, ground turmeric, ground cinnamon, ground white pepper, ground coriander, and stir constantly. After another 2 minutes, add the chicken or vegetable broth and let the curry heat up again until it begins to bubble, stirring occasionally. Adjust the heat (to low or to 'simmer,' if you have that setting) to maintain a steady light simmer (not a rolling boil) and let the curry simmer about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the pumpkin is tender (when the pumpkin is about half cooked, add the kale and continue to mix the kale in as it cooks down). When the pumpkin is just tender, stir in the coconut milk, and mix it in well. Do your best to dissolve the brown sugar in the soy sauce and then stir this into the curry (civilization will not end if the brown sugar isn't completely dissolved, as it will dissolve in the hot liquid). Cook a further 2 to 3 minutes, then mix in the fresh lime juice. You can sprinkle some roasted peanuts and/or roasted cashews on top of each serving, or simply serve them on the side. Serve with rice. 

I put the peanuts and cashews in a small dish on the side ... 

WORD HISTORY:

Shawl-The origin of this word is uncertain, but it "could" be as simple as being derived from transliterated Persian "Shaliat," the Persian form of transliterated "Chaliyam," a city in southwestern India.^ The "theory" is, the cloth used for making the piece of clothing used as a large scarf for the head and upper body got its name from the city where it was made. The Persian form, transliterated "shal," was taken by Urdu and Hindi and then borrowed by English in the mid 1600s, when England was getting more and more involved in India. German seems to have had initial exposure to the word from Persian, but it didn't really become more common in German until the 1700s as a borrowing from its cousin, English; and indeed, German used the spelling "Shawl," but later altered it to the more typical German phonetic spelling of "Schal." 

 

^ Chaliyam/Shaliat is in the Indian state of Kerala in southwestern India, along the part of the Indian Ocean known as the Arabian Sea. The main language there is Malayam, which is from the Dravidian family of languages (English is from the Germanic family of languages, which is from the broader Indo European language family).  

Indian/Pakistani Sweetened Fried Batter: Jalebi

A squeeze bottle is great to use for this recipe. If you don't already have such a squeeze bottle, like you often see on tables in diners or restaurants for ketchup and mustard, they are usually available in dollar stores or in the kitchen utensil section of supermarkets and department stores. You may have to cut the spout a little for a bigger opening; otherwise, the opening will be too small and the batter stream will be too thin. You could also wash out an empty plastic ketchup bottle; just be sure to get the ketchup-y, vinegary taste washed out of it. I looked at perhaps 15 Jalebi recipes and most called for using orange food coloring in the batter, while a couple gave it as optional. Food coloring is something I very rarely use, although I've always kept it in the cabinet, and I mean always ... is food coloring from 1973 still safe to use? Actually, I'm joking, because I did buy some food coloring just a couple of months ago ... so I tossed the coloring from 1973. hahaha! I didn't have orange food coloring, and from what I understand, it is not commonly sold as a separate color in the U.S., so I added like 4 drops of yellow and 2 drops of red to the batter (see photo of the batter below). Jalebi is very easy to make, although getting the hang of making the spiral forms is more difficult than you might think; at least it was for me; but then again, dotting an "i" or crossing a "t" can be challenging to me. This was my first attempt at Jalebi, so if you give the recipe a try, you'll likely get the shape down to an art form within a minute or two.   

Ingredients (multiple servings):

1 cup flour
3 tablespoons chickpea flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 drops orange food coloring, if you have it; otherwise, 4 drops of yellow and 2 of red food coloring
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
oil or ghee (clarified butter) for frying

For the syrup:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
few strands of saffron (you can substitute 1 teaspoon ground turmeric)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the batter: In a bowl mix together the flour, chickpea flour, baking powder, baking soda, food coloring, turmeric, ground cardamon, yogurt and 1/2 cup water. You will almost certainly need more water, but after the initial 1/2 cup, add it a tablespoon at a time, until you reach a point that the batter is fluid, but not runny; something like the consistency of thick ketchup. Cover the bowl with a towel or some plastic wrap and let it sit on your counter for about 12 hours. This time allows the batter to ferment, and some recipes call for a little shorter time, but some recipes mention to allow the batter to sit for up to 24 hours. Now, some people don't go through this extended process; and instead, they let the batter sit like 15 to 30 minutes, or even less, then they begin to cook. Whatever you choose to do, put the batter into a squeeze bottle. Add about 1/2 inch of oil to a skillet or a pan (a skillet generally gives you room to maneuver, as it is wide, but not terribly deep, and I prefer this). Heat the oil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low or medium low, depending upon your burner settings. Squeeze the batter in a continuous stream in a circular motion to form rings of batter about 2 inches in diameter. If the batter spreads out too much, you'll need to add some flour to thicken it a bit. If you have trouble squeezing the batter from the bottle, you likely need a little water to thin the batter, but I would only add a teaspoon at a time, until you are able to get a steady stream of batter. The jalebi cook quickly, so after 20 to 30 seconds, flip the jalebi over and cook the other side; this time, likely only about 15 seconds or so. Dip the cooked jalebi into the syrup, drain any excess syrup and then put the jalebi onto a plate, or onto serving plates. Serve warm.  
For the syrup: In a heavy bottomed pan, add the sugar and water, bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a steady gentle simmer until the syrup thickens, stirring pretty much constantly to prevent scorching. The syrup should be just thickened enough to coat the jalebi when they are dipped in, but not so thick as to set up. 

The "Jalebi" batter ...

WORD HISTORY:
Rajah (also spelled "raja")-This word for "an Indian prince or princely ruler" is related to quite a number of words, including: "reckon," "right" and "rich," all words from the Germanic roots of English, and also to "direct," "regimen," "rex" and "regulate," all Latin-derived words borrowed by English. "Rajah" goes back to Indo European "reg" which had the idea of "move in a straight line;" thus also, "direct in a proper way;" thus also, "rule." This gave Indo Aryan (a branch of the Indo Iranian language family of Indo European) "(h)raja," which meant, "ruler, king." This gave Sanskrit^ "rajan," meaning "king, prince, ruler." This gave transliterated Hindi and Urdu "raja," with the same meanings. English borrowed the word in the mid 1500s as English involvement in India intensified, although it took a little time for the word to come into more common usage in England and other parts of Britain. It is not a common word in American English, and I dare say that many Americans would not know what you were talking about if you used it here in the U.S. It "may" have better recognition in Canadian English, as Canada has maintained more of a direct connection to the United Kingdom as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, although Canada is an autonomous nation.    

^ "Sanskrit" is an ancient language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European; thus, it is related to English, although much further down the family tree. It is still in use to some degree, especially in India.

Indian Fried Cheese in Chili Gravy

Paneer is a compressed form of fresh cheese. It is available in cheese shops, Indian/Pakistani grocery stores and some supermarkets. It is very similar to farmer's cheese, and I've read that you can use farmer's cheese or tofu as a substitute, although I've never used either of these for this recipe. This is an Indian dish with Chinese influence. You can make it as mild or as spicy hot as you'd like, but at least I hope you'll use the ground red pepper to experience a little "kick" to the recipe. "Heat lovers" can add both the ground red pepper and 2 to 4 fresh hot chilies, which should keep their mouths blazing, their foreheads sweating and their moods happy. Some people make a batter to coat the cheese before frying it, but I've dry coated the paneer, although I've also made batter fried paneer. Both are wonderful, but I give this recipe the edge. Americans and Canadians, at least, would likely call the liquid part a "sauce," but the people of the Indian Subcontinent call it "gravy," and that's groovy by me. Good served with rice or with naan or roti bread.    

Ingredients (2 to 3 servings)

To fry the paneer:
1/2 to 2/3 pound paneer, cut into about 3/4 inch cubes
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper or hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground black or white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil (more if needed)

To make the gravy:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or canola oil
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
3 green onions (with green), chopped
1 tablespoon grated/minced ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 to 4 hot chilies (serranos or jalapeños are good), chopped (seeds removed if you prefer)
1 chopped Roma tomato (or medium tomato) with juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon ground hot red pepper (like cayenne)
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika (the redder the bedder ... ah, better)
1/2 teaspoon ground black or white pepper
1 tablespoon butter 
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar 
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch well mixed with 3 to 4 tablespoons water  

To fry the paneer: In a bowl, add the cornstarch, flour, ground red pepper, ground white or black pepper, turmeric and salt, mix well. Add the paneer cubes to the dry mixture and gently turn to coat. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Shake excess flour mixture from each paneer cube, then add the cubes to the skillet. Lightly brown the cheese cubes on all sides by frying for a total of about 4 minutes (do not overcook, or the cheese will become tough; just lightly brown it, and the outside will have a slightly firm texture, while the inside will remain nice and soft). Drain the paneer cubes on paper towels. To make the gravy: Have your ingredients lined up and ready to go. You can use the same skillet and just add enough oil to make about 3 tablespoons, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the green and red pepper and stir, then about 1 minute later add the chili peppers and stir, then add the grated ginger and minced garlic and stir well. After about 30 seconds, add the tomato and stir, then add the soy sauce, ketchup, ground red pepper, paprika, and ground white or black pepper, stir very well. Add the rice vinegar, the sugar and the butter, stir until the butter melts, then add the water, stirring well to get everything mixed together. Let the gravy cook until it bubbles, then begin stirring in the cornstarch/water mixture, and let the gravy thicken to your preferred level of thickness.     

With naan bread ...

WORD HISTORY:
Paneer (also "panir")-This word's ultimate origin is uncertain, but it goes back to Persian "pynl," which meant "cheese," in general. This then developed to transliterated Persian "panir," which was taken by Hindi/Urdu as transliterated "panir." This was borrowed by English, but I cannot determine when it was borrowed. The "Merriam-Webster Dictionary" says "1954" for first use in English, but I would believe the word to have been around earlier, although perhaps not in great usage. It is still not a terribly common word in American English, but it might be used more in British English because of Britain's colonial connection to India. I would think mainly people with knowledge of foods from the Indian subcontinent or cheese experts are most commonly familiar with it. Other sources do not even give a presumed date for an English borrowing.    

Indian Chicken Curry

"Chicken Curry" is a popular dish on the Indian subcontinent, as well as in the United Kingdom, as it was one of the dishes brought there during the time when much of the subcontinent was a British colony. With trading ships traveling the world and stopping in so many places and with people of the Indian subcontinent emigrating to other parts of the world, recipes for chicken curry spread elsewhere, and as you can imagine, there are numerous recipes, but there are many variations right within the Indian subcontinent,* including some with far less sauce, often called "gravy" by people of the subcontinent. As I have said before about some Indian recipes, they can contain a long list of ingredients, but that's often because these recipes contain many wonderful spices. 

You can use chicken pieces with bones, which IS traditional, but let's be honest, boneless chicken is easy to deal with when eating, so that's what I often use, and I haven't been hit by a piece of naan bread yet, darn it! It's so good. I've also used some bright red sweet paprika, which is not traditional, but it helps to give more red color to the dish.**

Ingredients:

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds small chicken pieces, bones-in or boneless
2 medium onions, chopped
2 to 3 chilies (serranos or jalapeños are good), chopped
2 to 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 inch piece ginger, grated
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (or olive oil)
2/3 teaspoon turmeric
2 bay leaves
1 heaping teaspoon ground red pepper (like cayenne)
1 heaping teaspoon sweet paprika, the redder the color, the better
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (also called coriander)
(optional) if you want to thicken the curry, grind up 10 or 12 cashews, stir the meal into the gravy

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion until browned. When the onion is not quite browned, add the garlic and the ginger and saute until the onion is browned, stirring or swirling the ingredients in the pan as they cook (to prevent them from burning). Add the chopped chilies, chopped tomato and the turmeric, saute until chilies and tomatoes soften. Add the chicken and stir to mix, cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often to brown the chicken pieces somewhat. Add the ground red pepper, paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, black pepper, ground cloves, cinnamon, salt, stir well to mix in everything. Add the water and stir again, cook for a minute or two, then cover, reduce heat to low and cook about 25 minutes. If using ground cashews, stir them in and continue stirring for about another 1 to 2 minutes. Good served with rice or naan bread, or even better, with both.

* In northeastern India and Bangladesh they often add potatoes to the dish. Sri Lanka is one of the countries of the Indian subcontinent and I have a recipe for a Sri Lankan chicken curry at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/03/sri-lankan-chicken-curry.html

** The red peppers used in much of the cooking of the Indian subcontinent give a nice bright red color, something not always easy to duplicate with "Western" chili powders or ground red peppers.

WORD HISTORY:
Bandana-This word is related to "bind," "bend," "bond" and "band,"^ all words from the Germanic roots of English. "Bandana" (also spelled "bandanna" by some) goes back to Indo European "bhendh," which had the notion of "to tie, tie up, to bind." This gave Sanskrit "badhnati," which meant "binds." This gave Hindi "bandhnu," meaning "a process of tying cloth and then dyeing it" (the source of modern tie-dyeing). This was borrowed by English in the mid 1700s as "bandanna" (apparently double 'n' initially and by some still today), meaning, "colorful handkerchief," later in American English usage, "handkerchief worn around the neck by cowboys," then also, "colorful cloth worn on the head." 

^ The meaning of "band" for "a group of people, often like outlaws or musicians," was borrowed by English from French. The meaning, "strip of something, usually flat, that separates an area from another, often by color," also came from French ("bande") and it influenced (expanded) the existing English meaning "strip of something used to bind." The French form came from the same Old Germanic source, but was absorbed into French from Germanic Frankish. 

Indian Vegetable Fritters: Pakoras

"Pakoras" are fried "clumps" of seasoned batter made of chickpea flour which is filled with a mixture of chopped vegetables, or just individual vegetables like onion, cauliflower or chili peppers (mild or hot). Another word used for them in India is "pakoda," although potatoes fixed this same general way are generally called "bajii" or "bhaji."* Pakoras are often served with tea or spiced tea (masala chai) and some also serve some chutney on the side. Myself, I like some ranch dressing for dipping. To make your own ranch dressing, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2016/06/homemade-ranch-dressing.html 

Pakoras are easy to make and I made mine somewhat larger than is likely typical in India (most recipes call for the use of a tablespoon of batter, but I used a serving spoon). Once you are ready to cook, fry the pakoras in batches and do not overcrowd the pan or they will likely soak up the oil and become soggy. The temperature of the oil has to be maintained (350 F, about 180 C), and a small cube of bread should sizzle and brown when dropped into the oil. Remove each batch of fried pakoras with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels. Also remove any small bits that may have broken off into the oil while frying, or these bits will burn and discolor the oil, as well as imparting their burnt flavor to the oil and to the next batches of pakoras. 

Ingredients (for about 15 to 25 pakoras, depending upon the size):

1  2/3 cups chickpea flour
2/3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (according to your heat preference)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped (larger pieces likely won't cook properly)
1/4 cup mild green chili pepper, like banana pepper, chopped
1/4 cup mild red pepper, like red bell pepper, chopped
1 to 2 green hot chili peppers (I use serranos), seeded and finely chopped (again, according to your heat preference)
1/4 cup chopped spinach leaves (no stems)
1/4 cup coriander/cilantro leaves
water (enough to make a thick batter)
oil for frying

In a bowl add the chickpea flour, baking powder, ground red pepper, turmeric, garlic, ginger and salt; mix together well. Now add the chopped vegetables and the coriander/cilantro leaves. Slowly add water and mix to incorporate the water until a thick batter forms. I use my hand to do the mixing. The batter should be a bit thicker than pancake batter. Let the batter sit while the oil heats, then use a table spoon (or the somewhat larger serving spoon) and put the batter into the hot oil. Fry the pakoras in small batches until they are golden brown, which should only take a few minutes for each batch. If you use a smaller amount of oil that won't cover the pakoras, you will need to turn the pakoras to cook them on both sides.

* For such a recipe for potatoes, here is a link. This is based upon heavy Indian influence in Kenya, where the potatoes are called "bhajias" : https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/03/kenyan-potato-bites-potato-bhajias.html

WORD HISTORY:
Bungalow-This word for a "low level one story house" is related to "Bangladesh" and to "Bengal," words from the Indian subcontinent borrowed by English. The origin of the word likely goes back to the name of an ancient god from some parts of the Indian subcontinent which formed the basis of the words "Bengal" and "Bengali." Transliterated Hindi, an Indo European language, and one of the main languages of the Indian subcontinent, had "bangla," which meant "a low level house with a thatched roof." This gave Gujarati, an Indo European language now spoken by about 60 million in the Gujarat area of India, the transliterated "bangalo," with the same general meaning. English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1600s from Hindi and Gujarati from British involvement in India and it conveyed the meaning, "low level house of the Bengali style, with a covered terrace." 

Shrimp with a Malaysian Touch

There are various recipes for shrimp in Malaysian cooking, and this is really my version of a recipe that sort of fits in with Malaysian style shrimp. As I note below, you don't have to go looking for special soy sauce, as you can use regular soy sauce, but just add a little molasses or brown sugar to sweet it up a bit. Further, you also don't need to buy curry leaves, an ingredient common in Malaysian and some other south Asian cooking. Curry leaves have nothing to do with curry powder. The leaves are a bit citrusy in taste, but you can substitute the zest of 1 1/2 limes. I first made this dish with tomato sauce and rice wine vinegar, but I had noticed some similar Malaysian recipes that simply used ketchup, so I tried it, and I found that I liked the ketchup version better. This dish was certainly not spicy hot, but rather the hot chili pepper gave it a little zip and that's what is intended; however, remember, as I've noted here before, hot chilies can vary tremendously in heat. I've actually had habanero chilies that were extremely mild, like a "1" on a scale of 1 to 10. On the other hand, I've had some jalapeño chilies that brought tears to my eyes. Further, cooking often reduces the punch of chilies a bit. Similar dishes in Malaysia are served with bread to help sop up the great sauce. 

Ingredients:

1 pound large shrimp, deveined
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped or grated ginger
2/3 cup mild red chilies (red bell pepper is fine), chopped 
1 hot red chili pepper
12 to 15 curry leaves, or zest of 1 1/2 limes
2 tablespoons soy sauce*
2/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 to 4 tablespoons oil

Add oil to skillet and set over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger, mild chilies, hot chili and curry leaves. Cook until the ingredients soften, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning. Stir in the soy sauce, the ketchup and the sesame oil, mixing everything well. Add the shrimp and cook until just cooked through. Serve with rice or bread or both.

*  I used "Ketjap Manis," which is Indonesian soy sauce. It is syrupy and sweet. Some supermarkets or Asian markets will likely have "ketjap manis," but the keyword here is, "some." You can substitute regular soy sauce with some molasses, or even brown sugar, cooked together for just a few minutes.

Click on photo to enlarge ...

WORD HISTORY:
Shawl-The history of this word is difficult, but it "may" have originated from the textile town  "Shaliat" in southwestern India, also known as "Chaliyam, Saliyam, Chale." Historically that area of India was influenced by the Persians, Arabs and Portuguese. The idea is, "shawls" were produced in the town, which gave transliterated Persian "sal," seemingly originally with the meaning, "neck scarf." This was borrowed by Hindi and Urdu ^ and English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s with the heavy involvement of the English on the Indian Subcontinent. By the mid 1700s, the meaning had expanded to a "large piece of cloth used by women that is draped over the head that also covered the upper body." German borrowed the word from English as "Schal."  

^ Both Hindi and Urdu are Hindustani languages from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo Iranian branch of Indo European. They are related to English, but much further down the family tree.

Chinese Cucumber Salad

This dish is also at times called, "(Chinese) Smashed Cucumber Salad." Like most popular dishes, the recipe for this cucumber salad can vary a little.

Ingredients:

2 English (aka seedless) cucumbers
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon fresh hot red chili pepper, finely chopped* 
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt

Wash the cucumbers very well and dry them. Cut the ends from the cucumbers and then very loosely wrap the cucumbers in plastic wrap, but do not peel them. Use a kitchen mallet or a heavy skillet and hit the cucumbers until they are split (now you see why the salad is often called "smashed cucumber salad"). Remove the cucumbers and slice them lengthwise a couple of times, then cut those long pieces into pieces of about 1/2 inch or so. Put the pieces into a strainer and add the salt and sugar. Put the strainer over a bowl and let the cucumbers drain for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, mix the other ingredients together well. Add the drained cucumber pieces to the mixture and stir well, making sure all of the cucumber pieces are coated. You can serve the salad immediately or refrigerate it for about an hour.

* Instead of fresh chili pepper, you can also use chili pepper flakes or sambol oelek chili sauce (Sambal Oelek is an Indonesian chunky hot chili pepper sauce. It should be easily found in the Asian section, or in the hot sauce section, of supermarkets). If you don't like any heat, just use some red or yellow bell pepper.

WORD HISTORY:
China-This word's history is a bit uncertain, although it "seems" to go back to the "Qin" dynasty, which ruled in China during and around 220 B.C., although the word "might" predate that time. This then was taken by Sanskrit as "cinah," and "cinas," as the name for the people of the area of China; thus, this would also be the direct ancient source of "Chinese" in English and other European languages. This "likely" became part of Hindi, as transliterated "cin" (long "i"), and this was picked up by the Portuguese as "China," as they explored, traded and set up outposts in the Indian subcontinent. The Portuguese took the word back to Europe, where it was taken by English in the first half of the 1500s. The 1600s saw the term "china" used for porcelain dishware in English, as these were originally brought in from China. 

Indian Mint Chutney

Chutneys are common throughout the Indian subcontinent and this is another good one, featuring mint. As with other chutneys, there are variations to this recipe, with one variation being that some do not use yogurt, but use only water to make mint chutney.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plain yogurt (Indian or Greek style yogurt, which are thicker, will make it more authentic)
3/4 cup fresh coriander
1  2/3 cups fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 serrano or jalapeno chili pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (or black salt, if you have it)*

Because everything will be processed/blended, the ingredients do not have to be uniformly chopped/cut. Add all ingredients into a blender/food processor and blend briefly to form more of a chunky paste.

* There are a few types of black salt, including one used in black magic and is not for consumption. Hawaiian black salt has charcoal mixed in. Indian black salt has a sulfur (British English: sulphur)  content. It is fairly commonly used in the cooking of the Indian subcontinent. Indian black salt is available in "some" supermarkets, "some" herb and spice shops, Asian shops or Indian/Pakistani product shops, as well as online. Both Hawaiian and Indian black salts are believed by some to have health benefits.

Mint chutney with some Indian style flatbread

WORD HISTORY:
Cummerbund-This is a compound word, with the first part going back to Indo European "khemm," which had the notion of, "bend, twist, curve." This gave Persian^ the transliterated "kamar," which meant, "waist" (get it? "curved part of the body"). The second part of this word, "bund," is related to "bind," "band" and "bound." It traces back to the Indo European root "bhendh," which had the notion of "tying up something." This gave transliterated Persian "band," "something that binds." The Persian compound was thus, "kamarband;" that is, "cloth that binds around the waist." This passed into Hindi and Urdu^^ as the transliterated "kamarband," and English borrowed the term in the early 1600s. German later borrowed the word from English as, "Kummerbund."

^ Persian is from the Indo Iranian branch of the Indo European family of languages. It is related to English, but much further down the family tree.

^^ Both Hindi and Urdu are Hindustani languages from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo Iranian branch of Indo European. They are related to English, but much further down the family tree. 

Scrambled Eggs a la India

Scrambled egg dishes in India go by different names: egg bhurji, akoori, ekoori, akuri, and perhaps others, but they are all spiced up scrambled eggs and have many of the same ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (yellow, brown or black) 
1 small onion, chopped
1 or 2 green or red chili peppers, chopped, or 1 or 2 teaspoons chili pepper flakes
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
3 tablespoons fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or sunflower oil)
1 tablespoon butter (to finish)

It is good to use a spatter screen for your skillet. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds, which will begin to pop within a few seconds; immediately add the onion, the ginger and the chili pepper; cook until the onion begins to soften. Add the tomato and cook for about 1 minute, then add the ground cumin, the turmeric, the salt and 2 tablespoons of the chopped coriander. Stir to mix and cook an additional minute. Lower the heat to low, then pour the beaten eggs over the mixture. Stir occasionally as the eggs begin to firm up into the curds of scrambled eggs. Divide the tablespoon of butter into smaller pieces and add to the top of each serving. The hot eggs will melt the butter. Sprinkle a little of the remaining tablespoon of chopped coriander over each serving.  

With some flatbread

WORD HISTORY:
Cheetah-This word for "a large, sleek, spotted member of the cat family, known for its speed and agility; and thus, its hunting prowess," is distantly related to obsolete English words "hador" and "hædor," dialectal forms from the same Old Germanic source, with both meaning "bright;" thus also, "clear" (close English cousin, German, still has "heiter," meaning "bright, cheery"), and very distantly related to both "shine," and to the suffix "-hood," as in "neighborhood, adulthood." It goes back to Indo European "skai," which meant "bright, shining, clear." This produced the "k" dominant form "kitro/kitdra," with the same meanings. This gave Sanskrit^ the transliterated "chitra," which meant, "speckled." This then produced "chitraka," which meant, "speckled body;" thus, "type of leopard." This gave Hindi the transliterated "chita," and the transliterated Urdu "cheeta,"^^ meaning "speckled or multicolored cat, a cheetah." England's involvement in India brought the word into English in the 1700s, although its wider use didn't happen until later in the 1700s.     

^ Sanskrit is an ancient language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European; thus, it is related to English, although much further down the family tree. It is still in use to some degree, especially in India.

^^ Hindi and Urdu are also Indo European languages from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European. They have many similarities and are mutually intelligible in most cases.

Mango Chutney

For those unfamiliar with chutney, it is a type of Indian relish, or preserves. I'm using "Indian" in the broad sense, to include the people of former parts of India; namely, Pakistan and Bangladesh, although chutney is also made in the island nation of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon). This entire area was once under British colonial rule. There are many types of chutney, made from anything like mint or coriander, to apples, to apricots to tomatoes, but mango chutney is seemingly the best known type in "western nations," especially Britain, Canada and the United States. When I've had mango chutney in Indian restaurants, it has always been less sweet than store bought brands. An Indian restaurant owner once told me the British liked the chutney to be sweeter, and that British companies naturally made it that way to cater to the taste of their own market. These British brands then spread to North America, although, just a guess, I would bet at least 3 cents, that a fairly large percentage of Americans have never tasted chutney, and that many people have no idea even what it is. Besides the sweetened and spiced mango, there is often also a little "heat" from the addition of cayenne pepper or chopped hot chili peppers. Chutney is commonly served as a condiment for meat, including ham and sausage, or as a topping for sandwiches.

Ingredients:

2 large, somewhat less than ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
3 tablespoons chopped red bell pepper
1 cup brown sugar (I use dark brown)
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 inch piece ginger, grated
1 jalapeño or serrano chili pepper, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon turmeric 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons curry powder

Bring all ingredients to a boil, stir well and lower the heat and gently simmer until the mango is just tender, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. The chutney should be pretty thick and it will thicken further as it cools.

WORD HISTORY:
Chutney-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown. It goes back to Hindi "chatna," which had the meaning, "eat flavorful food." This then produced Hindi/Urdu, "catni/chatni," which was the name for "spiced or sweetened vegetables or fruits used to accompany other foods." It was borrowed into English in the early 1800s, although it likely was in use by British military and colonial authorities in India before that time. NOTE: Hindi and Urdu are Indo European languages from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European.

Tandoori-Style Chicken, An Indian & Pakistani Dish

The name of this dish comes from a particular type of oven used on the Indian subcontinent, called a "tandoor" (see Word History below), a large vase-like oven usually made of clay. The ovens, with coals and wood in the bottoms, can reach temperatures of between 800 and 1000 degrees F. These ovens are also used to bake the famous "naan bread," which is why the bread has little charred spots on it. Of course, many Indian restaurants worldwide use these ovens too. You won't have to send for this oven, however, as your own oven can do the work, it will just take a little longer for the chicken to cook. I've read where the chicken will cook in like 8 to 12 minutes in a tandoor. 

Ingredients:

2 pounds of chicken parts (legs and thighs, or you can use all the same, if you'd like)
1 teaspoon salt
juice of one lemon
1 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
2 teaspoon paprika (plus more for dusting)
1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (1 teaspoon will not add much heat)
1 tablespoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon garam masala (a spice mix common in India and Pakistan, available in many supermarkets)
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil (this is needed only if you skin the chicken)
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
lemon or lime wedges for serving

In India and Pakistan they use chicken pieces without the skin, but I kept it on and it turned out great.* Cut some slits in the meat clear to the bone, so that the marinade will penetrate and it will also help the chicken to cook quickly. I used all thighs and I cut three 1 1/2 inch slits in each. Mix the spices, ginger, garlic, lemon juice and yogurt in a bowl. I used large freezer bags to marinate the chicken. Put the chicken pieces into the bags, then add the yogurt/seasoning mixture. Close the bags and "squish" the marinade around to coat all of the chicken well. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours, but 12 to 15 hours is better. Remove the bags from the refrigerator and let sit about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, heat your oven to 550 (F). Take the chicken pieces from the bags and place them in one layer on a foil lined baking sheet.** Sprinkle each piece with a fair amount of paprika, but not to cover it. Bake for 30 minutes on middle rack. Use a knife or fork to see how close the chicken is to being done. I baked mine for a total of 40 minutes and it was perfect, but all ovens vary, and the size of the chicken pieces will also matter for cooking time, especially thighs, and I left the skin on too. The skin was crispy and marked with red from the paprika, and with some charred spots. Yummy! The meat itself was very tender and I could taste the wonderful spices, but not much heat from the cayenne. After removing the chicken from the oven, I let it set for about 5 minutes. Of course, there will be melted chicken fat on your tray, so be careful when taking it from the oven. Serve with lemon or lime wedges and naan bread if you have access to it.

* I looked at about a dozen recipes for this chicken and all but two removed the skin.

** Only two recipes mentioned wiping off the marinade, so I left it on, then sprinkled on the paprika. 

Click to enlarge the photo

Tandoor-This word seems to go back to the Semitic language family, more particularly, to Akkadian, a Semitic language of the Middle East that died out in about the 2nd Century A.D. Akkadian had the transliterated "tinuru," which meant oven, with the "nuru" part being derived from Semitic "nar," meaning "fire, heat." This was borrowed by Persian, an Indo European language related to English, further down the family tree, as "tanur," and this spread into Hindi and Urdu, both Indo European languages of the Indian subcontinent. Exactly when the word was borrowed into English is tough to say, but perhaps it was borrowed as early as the mid 1600s, due to England's trade and developing colonial interests in India, which then included modern Pakistan and Bangladesh. Certainly by the 20th Century the word had become somewhat more common in English, again from Britain's ties to the Indian subcontinent, but also because of Indian immigrants, not only to Britain, but also to North America. 

Bengali Potatoes & Black Pepper

This is a simple dish with the spiciness of the pepper. It is from Bengal, a region which lies in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Bengal region is both in India and Bangladesh. Dhaka is the largest city of the region, and it is also the capital of Bangladesh. The second largest regional city is Kolkata, still known to many by its English rendering, "Calcutta," a city which lies in India. While I put in my own ingredient amounts, this recipe is from "Indian Cooking," by Madhur Jaffrey, North American edition, 2003, Barron's, NY.

4 or 5 medium white potatoes boiled in their skins, then chilled, then peeled and cut into small chunks
1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 

In a large, heavy bottomed skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the potatoes and fry therm for a minute or two. Add the salt and stir to mix. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover the potatoes and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pepper and stir to mix. Cook for another 2 minutes uncovered, then add the cilantro, stirring once more.

WORD HISTORY:
Cot -This word for a "small, light weight, easily transportable bed," and, "a hammock-style bed, originally used on ships in officer's quarters," "seems" to have a non Indo European origin, possibly from a Dravidian source in southern India, such as "katil/kattil," with the meaning, "small bed." This gave Hindi the transliterated form, "khat," with the same general meaning. Hindi is an Indo European language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European. English borrowed the word in the first half of the 1600s, as a result of the growing involvement of England in India.    

"Chai" Spiced Tea: Masala Chai

Updated slightly 10-3-22

Chai is a type of spiced tea drink, usually black tea, brewed with spices, milk and sweetener. It is pronounced like "ch," as in Charles, and 'eye,' the organ of sight. Chai is highly common in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and in these countries it is often called "masala chai," from the mixture of spices used to make it (the word 'chai' itself simply means 'tea'). I tend to make a large cup (like a mug of about 16 to 20 ounces) of chai, so this is the recipe for that amount. You can adjust the ingredient amounts according to the amount of chai you want to make. This is my recipe version of chai.   

Ingredients:

16 ounces of water (some water will boil off)1 1/2 tablespoons loose black tea *
1/2 inch piece of ginger, chopped or grated
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (or 5 or 6 cardamom pods, crushed to release their flavor)
1 teaspoon ground cloves (or 2 whole cloves)
1 cinnamon stick (about 3 inches)
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup milk (I use canned evaporated milk, see note *)
1 tablespoon honey
sugar to taste (I use about three teaspoons, see note *) 

Stir the loose tea into the water, along with the ginger, cardamon, ground cloves, cinnamon stick, mace and black pepper. Heat to just boiling, then reduce heat to a bare simmer. Brew for three minutes, then add the milk and stir. Bring back to a bare simmer and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let steep for about 2 minutes. Strain the tea, and then add the honey and sugar, stirring to mix and dissolve. Serve. 

* When I began making chai years ago, I experimented with the type and amount of black tea, and the amounts of the other ingredients I used. My suggestion is that you do likewise, using this recipe as a guide the first time, and then making adjustments if you feel they are needed the next time you make it. Also, I like strong tea, so bear that in mind as to the amount of black tea I used in this recipe (see note at end). I also used East Frisian tea from Germany, because it has a strong flavor, as it is made from "Assam" tea leaves; a type of tea grown in India and typically used there for masala chai; otherwise, I use a brand of American black tea in teabags for a regular, non-chai, cup of tea. If you use regular black tea, it likely will not be as strong, so keep that in mind, for your own taste preference. As for sugar, my experience in Indian restaurants is that the chai is very sweet (and I'm sweet enough). My guess is, they don't use any honey, as I do, but they likely add "at least" two or three tablespoons of sugar for this amount of tea, and perhaps more. Once the tea simmers for awhile, evaporation and the amount absorbed, and retained, by the tea leaves will lessen the amount of actual chai you end up with, which will be "about" 16 ounces for the amount of this recipe, and this is about what you would think of as three regular cups of tea, so the three teaspoons of sugar is not out of line, but the one tablespoon of honey helps to further sweeten the tea, but without going quite to the "restaurant" level of sweetness. Also with the milk, from what I understand from Indian restaurants and people from India and Pakistan I've met over the years, the amount of milk used in their own countries is generally about 1/3 to 1/2 of the amount of water, but I have cut down on the milk. For many years, I did not add black pepper, but then I gave it a try and I liked it, so now I always add it (many in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh also add black pepper).  Note: There is a "modified" type of chai called "karak chai" or "kadak chai," which means "strong tea." It is similar, but often with more tea and longer simmering time to give it a stronger flavor and higher amount of caffeine. Here is the link to this type of chai: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/10/creamy-strong-chai-karak-chai.html

My big mug of chai, with some gingersnaps

WORD HISTORY:
Pundit-This word goes back to Sanskrit ^ "panditah," which had the notion of "learned man, teacher." ^^ Where Sanskrit got the word is unknown, but the Sanskrit form gave Hindi ^^^ "pandit," with the meaning, "a learned man of the Hindu religion, who interprets the Hindu religion;" thus also, "a Hindu religious philosopher." The word was borrowed into English as, "pandit/pundit," in the second half of the 1600s, as a result of British commercial involvement in India by the (English/British) East India Company. The meaning in English later gradually broadened to today's meaning of, "a supposed authority on a subject who comments and/or offers criticism on that subject."    

^ Sanskrit is an ancient language from the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo European. It is still in use to some degree, especially in India. It is related to English, but much further down the family tree.

^^ In English there are two words spelled "l-e-a-r-n-e-d." First there is the past tense form of the verb "to learn," which is pronounced as if, "lernd" (see note). Then there is "learned," pronounced as if "lern-ed," with the "ed" pronounced like the shortened form of Edward, and meaning, "the result of having learned (the first form) a particular subject or field." It is "sometimes" written as "learnèd," with the accent mark over the "e." NOTE: The past tense form, "learned," is also spelled and pronounced "learnt," especially in Britain, but it is often pronounced that way elsewhere, including in the United States, where it would NOT be considered as proper. I kind of imagine American English purists cringing every time they hear a person from England use "learnt," and I'm not kidding about this. Some take these things VERY seriously.

^^^ Hindi is from the overall "Indo-Iranian" branch of the Indo European languages, and is, therefore, related to English, but much further down the family tree. Hindi is the official language of government in India, along with.....English!

"A Night In Casablanca," With the Marx Brothers

While many people do not consider this movie to be one of the classics of the Marx Brothers, I disagree, and when I first saw it many years ago, I laughed so hard at a couple of scenes, I actually got sick. The Marx Brothers were a family comedy act born in New York City to German Jewish immigrants in the latter part of the 1800s, although one, Herbert, known by his stage nickname of "Zeppo," was born in 1901. In the history of American comedy, the Marx Brothers rank right up at or near the top, depending upon who is doing the ranking. In their early film career Groucho, Chico (pronounced "chicko," not "cheeko"), Harpo and Zeppo appeared together, but from the mid 1930s on, it was Groucho, Chico and Harpo. "A Night in Casablanca" was their next to last film together and it was made just after the end of World War Two. Thereafter, Groucho remained very much in the public eye with a radio show which then was transferred to television on NBC. It was a game show called, "You Bet Your Life," and to this day I remember watching that show as a child with my grandmother way back in the 1950s, when all such shows were in black and white.

"A Night in Casablanca" centers around a hotel in Casablanca, Morocco managed by Ronald Kornblow (played by Groucho), whose recent predecessors had died at the hands of Nazis staying at the hotel. The Nazis are trying to get artworks and other treasures pillaged by the Nazis in Europe during the war, but hidden in a remote storage room in the hotel. The head Nazi goes by a fake name, as he is really being hunted as a Nazi war criminal. His valet is "Rusty" (played by Harpo). Rusty is good friends with "Corbaccio" (played by Chico),  who does some work for the hotel, as well as owning a camel rental/ taxi service, called the "Yellow Camel Company," with his competitor being the "Checkerboard Camel Company." As with the previous hotel managers, the Nazis plan to kill Kornblow, but Rusty finds out their plan and goes to Corbaccio to "tell" him. For those unaware, as part of his act, Harpo Marx did not speak, so when he "tells" Corbaccio, it is by a number of gestures, body movements and whistles, and Corbaccio must then figure out what Rusty is trying to tell him. It is a hysterical scene!

I will not go further, so as not to spoil the movie for anyone who has not seen it, but there are other hilarious scenes, including, among others, Groucho being constantly interrupted while he is trying to make out with a woman (actually a Nazi accomplice), the Marx Brothers hiding in the same room where the Nazis are trying to pack as they prepare to flee, and Harpo piloting the Nazi getaway plane! Further, you will be treated to a popular song of that era, "Who's Sorry Now," and also Harpo playing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 on his harp, as well as Chico playing "The Beer Barrel Polka" on the piano and leading the orchestra in the hotel nightclub. Do yourself a favor and see this movie!

The photo is from the Warner Home Video DVD from 2004. 

    
WORD HISTORY:
Loot-This word comes in a noun version, meaning "items and valuables taken by plunder or theft, with some type of violence usually implied, often conquest," and also, "money," a meaning which seems to have developed in American English, perhaps from underworld slang in the 1920s. It also has a verb form which means "to plunder, to rob." It goes back to Sanskrit "lunt," which meant "to plunder." Exactly where Sanskrit got the word is uncertain. This produced Sanskrit "luntam," a noun meaning "plundered goods."  This gave Hindi "lut" with the same meaning. English borrowed the word in the late 1700s from Hindi.  

Tea Time

Expanded a bit on 12-27-2015 and photo added, as well as a little editing on 8-19-21

Tea drinking apparently goes back at least 4500 to 5000 years in China. It wasn't until the mid 1500s that western Europeans came into contact with tea, as the Portuguese settled in Macao (also "Macau") in southeastern China, which remained as a Portuguese colony until 1999! Then Dutch traders established themselves in southeastern Asia in Indonesia in the early 1600s, which later became the Dutch colony "the Dutch East Indies." The mid 1600s brought the marriage of England's King Charles II to a Portuguese princess, who made tea drinking a prominent feature among the nobility. The price of tea in those times was prohibitive for the spread of the drink to those not in the upper classes, but increased trade and involvement in India brought more tea, and lower prices, and sugar, into England. It wasn't long before the British began to sweeten their tea with sugar from the New World and tea drinking became popular with the general population, making tea the national drink. The ancestral homeland of the English (the Anglo-Saxons) is northern Germany, and their close relatives, the Saxons and the Frisians, still inhabit the area. The similar climate to Britain along the North Sea coast of Germany, and the availability of tea from Dutch importers, made tea a popular drink with the Frisian and Saxon population of the area, where tea is still the regional beverage. In the East Frisian part of northern Germany, rock candy is used to sweeten their tea, with some cream carefully layered a bit below the surface. The idea is to provide three distinct tastes: the bitter black tea at the top, the tea/cream mixture in the middle, and then the addition of the sweetness of the melting rock candy near the bottom. The East Frisians are known for their pickiness for black tea and their brands are considered topnotch.

Russians have had a strong attachment to tea going back to the 1600s, although its high price initially limited its availability to the upper classes. Russians traded directly with the Chinese by overland route, organized in caravans. It was quite a trip and "supposedly" the tea acquired a smoky flavor from being near the campfires during its long journey,* a characteristic still common in the most popular form of black tea in Russia, although the flavoring is now added. It is the national beverage of Russia, although vodka drinkers may question that... hic! Hey, I'm a tea drinker, honest!

Chai is a spiced black tea (sometimes green tea) and is my favorite. Chai typically has a lot of milk and sugar, and you can most certainly get it in any Indian or Pakistani restaurant in the U.S. or elsewhere. I make my own, pretty much every day, although I'm sure some Indians might not approve of my recipe or technique, although from what I'm told, there are considerable variations, even in India. Generally chai is black tea in about a 50-50 milk/water mixture, but I use far less milk (I use evaporated milk). When I've bought chai at Indian restaurants, it has always been very sweet, and I make it somewhat less so. I use fresh grated ginger, some ground cardamom, a bit of ground cloves (and often some ground allspice, too), a small bit of mace (or nutmeg), and some ground cinnamon. Some Indians or Pakistanis use black pepper in chai, too, and others use fennel seed. After letting the spices steep for awhile, you can strain the tea into your cup. You can buy tea bags already with a spice mixture in them, but I've never been very impressed with the result. You can also put the ingredients into a pan and gently boil the mixture. In this case, I tend to use a cinnamon stick, rather than ground cinnamon, as well as whole cloves and crushed cardamom seeds. I prefer to add the milk after the cooking is done, but you can cook it right along with the tea. Note: A while back, I also started using black pepper in chai, sometimes ground or sometimes whole crushed peppercorns. It gives the chai that added "zip."  

* It seems a bit of a stretch to me that tea packed for such a trip would acquire the smoky flavor this way. I wonder if at some point some open tea was exposed to the campfire smoke, the users liked it, and they then chose to repeat the process?

 

WORD HISTORY:
Tea-This word comes from a Sino-Tibetan word, "sla/tsla," which likely meant "leaf." Sino-Tibetan is a large language family in Asia and Southeast Asia which is the ancient ancestor of the Chinese dialects, like Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as southeastern Asian languages like Burmese and others. Sino-Tibetan is to these modern Asian languages what Indo European is to English, German, Italian, Russian, etc. Min Nan, a dialect of Sino-Tibetan had "te." Malay, an unrelated language from the Austronesian language family^  in southeastern Asia, borrowed the word from Min Nan as "teh." The Dutch East India Company was a private company granted Asian trade rights by the Dutch government in the early 1600s. The Dutch picked up the word from Malay "teh," rendered in Dutch as "thee," which they then brought back to western Europe, along with a lot of the product itself. English borrowed the word in the mid 1600s as both "tee" and "tea," before finally settling on the latter. Many other European languages borrowed the word from Dutch, for example, German has "Tee" (pronounced "tay"), West Frisian has "tee," French has "thé." Interestingly, the Portuguese had established themselves in southeastern China, at Macao, in the mid 1500s. The Chinese dialect in Macao pronounced their form of Sino-Tibetan "sla/tsla" as "cha." The Portuguese took the term as "chá," which they have retained to this day as their word for "tea." This same Chinese term spread elsewhere, providing forms to Russian and Persian, and from Persian to Hindi and other languages/dialects in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. English borrowed the word, likely from Hindi, as "chai," a term now used more specifically for "sweetened spiced tea." It is pronounced "ch," as in Charles, and "eye."    

^ Hawaiian is from the Austronesian language family, too.

"Gandhi," The Movie & History, Part Three

India had a social system called the "Caste System." While most strongly associated with the Hindu religion, it had adherents among some of  India's Muslims and Christians.^ This stratified social system divided Indians into various fixed groups, with little or no social mobility for people of these groups. At the bottom were the "untouchables," with people in this group often suffering terrible discrimination and ill treatment, and with no way out of their "fixed" social position at the bottom of Indian society. Mahatma Gandhi's tolerance and inclusiveness for people of various religious and political views also included his desire to improve the acceptability and the plight of the those at the lowest levels of society. In the early 1930s Gandhi undertook a fast to bring national attention to the situation of the "untouchables" and to protest a British approved plan to give "untouchables" a separate system of representation under a newly devised Indian constitution. Gandhi rejected such a division. To demonstrate inclusiveness, Gandhi preferred to call the "untouchables" the more acceptable "children of God." Gandhi's fast and his subsequent concentration for a time on the nation's social system diverted attention from the attempts to attain freedom from British colonial rule, but it was part of the Mahatma's plan to gradually bring India toward the ability to rule itself and provide a more equitable society.

Gandhi's campaign brought discussions about the overall system and it achieved the abandonment of the division of the nation's representatives in the constitution. Many Hindu leaders reconsidered, or outright reversed, their previous support for the overall social system of India. In an ominous sign, however, more orthodox Hindu elements drifted further from Gandhi's ideals of tolerance and inclusiveness.

Next, Gandhi focused his and the nation's efforts on the Indian economy. India was a land of extreme poverty, which Gandhi believed was made worse by exploitation by capitalist interests at the highest economic level, who were not ethical in their treatment of workers. Workers labored long hours, but large profits went to business owners, while the workers earned so little, they could not always get the necessary food or clothing for themselves or their families. To Gandhi, capitalists benefited far out of proportion from the labor of others. He believed the system had to be made fairer, with workers gaining proper wages and respect for the goods they helped to produce, but that workers could not let themselves fall into laziness. Needless to say, business people were not thrilled with Gandhi's ideas. In what became a trademark of Gandhi, he took to spinning his own clothes, and encouraged his Indian brethren to do the same. Why? Indian cotton was sent to England and manufactured into clothing, returning to India at prices many times the original cost. Gandhi reasoned, why not keep the cotton in India, with Indians making their own clothing and keeping the costs at a minimum? The spinning wheel became a symbol of Indian independence.^^ Gandhi likewise promoted Indian agriculture as a means to limit the country's dependence on colonial food products.^^^  Further, by gaining more independence on food and clothing products, it also weakened the British reasons for maintaining colonial rule; that was, to have a colony that produced raw materials that could then go to Britain to be processed or refined, and then returned, at least in part, to the colony for sale at handsome profits. So Gandhi's effort also had major ties to his view of gaining Indian independence from Britain. 

Next, the last part on "Gandhi"

^ Keep in mind, this was still the "large" India, which then included Pakistan and Bangladesh.

^^ Gandhi's beliefs were also critical of (then) modern technology utilized by capitalists, which replaced workers with various mechanical devices. There has always been a struggle between displaced workers and technology, but technology always wins in the end. While Gandhi correctly saw a large Indian population that needed work, work at times deprived by technology, the idea that technological advances can be held back in favor of less efficient methods of production was too idealistic, in my opinion. Understand, Gandhi did not dismiss technology in all cases, and he understood the need for mass production in more advanced nations, but he saw unemployment and under employment as one of the social ills of India, only made worse by technology.

^^^ Large landholders charged rent to small farmers on their land either in cash or by taking percentages of farm goods. At times farmers could not produce enough to pay rent and provide for their families.  

Photo is of DVD edition released in 2001 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

WORD HISTORY:
Guru-This word goes back to Indo European "gru/gur," which had the notion of "heavy," which then produced the idea of "serious," and also "heavy with knowledge," which gave Sanskrit "guru," which meant "respected for knowledge;" and thus produced the eventual meaning "teacher," with the further meaning of "priest" in religious contexts. Sanskrit is an ancient Indo European language still used to some extent, often in religion, primarily in India. The word then passed to Hindi and Urdu, both common Indo European languages in India and Pakistan. The word was borrowed by English, likely in the mid to late 1700s, as India came under the firmer control of Britain, but the word didn't really spread throughout English until later, eventually expanding the meaning to the more general "adviser, mentor," with no particular association with religion. The word came into widespread usage during the late 1960s as the Beatles and other popular music groups delved into Indian religion.       

"Gandhi," The Movie & History, Part Two

Mohandas Gandhi chose to "fight" British rule of India by peaceful means, through non-cooperation with the colonial government. There is a scene in the movie "Gandhi," where Gandhi tells other, less patient and less peaceful, Indian leaders, in speaking about the British, "I want to change their minds, not kill them for weaknesses we all possess." Now, I can't tell you if Gandhi ever really said that in real life (I've tried to find it, but without success), or if this came from a scriptwriter, but the basic part of the statement was a major part of his non violent campaign to gain independence. That line has stayed with me for all of these years, and maybe regular readers have noticed, when writing about politics or economics, I frequently say things like, "both sides do it," or "such and such is human nature," or "most people want or do this or that." After all, for instance, we're all greedy to some extent, but those with great power have the ability to exploit others to try to satisfy their greed, and they need to have some restraints placed upon them, lest they destroy the lives of others, and perhaps even themselves eventually, as the exploited turn on them with a vengeance.

Gandhi was arrested several times and spent the equivalent of about 6 to 7 years of his life in prison in India (he also was jailed in South Africa earlier). Other Indian leaders were also jailed. He picked his times and places for non violent protests with great thought, including one that had Gandhi and supporters walk (it was called a "march") nearly 250 miles to the sea over more than a three week period, building the suspense and news coverage, and then pick up small lumps of salt from the beach in violation of colonial law.* Gandhi was later arrested, but another major part of the protest took place at a nearby salt works, and it occurred without Gandhi. News coverage was extensive, depicting how peaceful Indians were clubbed by police. The Indians did not fight back as the clubs fractured several skulls, and reportedly a few hundred Indians were hospitalized, and a couple died. Reports went around the world, and people everywhere began to question British rule of India, although these protests did not in themselves result in Indian independence.

Next, in Part Three, a little more on Mahatma Gandhi 

* The British had implemented a monopoly on salt production and collection in India, and they taxed it too. Salt is a necessary mineral for life, and it was especially so in India's hot climate. While the tax was not particularly high, India's population was terribly impoverished, making it difficult for many to pay the tax and buy the salt on extremely limited incomes. The salt was there for the taking from coastal areas, but it was against the law for Indians to take it without paying the tax.   

Photo is of DVD edition released in 2001 by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

  WORD HISTORY:
Sikh-A "Sikh" is a person from a particular religious sect in India which was established in the mid 1400s in Punjab, a region of northern India at that time, and now a region divided between India and Pakistan. English traders established trading posts in India in the early 1600s, from which eventually developed colonial rule over the area, which then included modern Pakistan and Bangladesh. The use of the term "Sikh" seems to have become more widespread in English usage by the mid to late 1700s. "Sikh" traces back to ancient Sanskrit, an early Indo European dialect/language that still exists, and the Sanskrit word "siksati," which means "a student, one who learns." This gave "Punjabi" and "Hindi"^ the term "sikh," which means "a student of, or disciple of."   

^ Both Punjabi and Hindi are Indo European languages and are thus related to English, but further down the family tree. Punjabi is spoken extensively in Pakistan and northwestern India. Hindi is the official language of government in India, along with.....English!

Tarzan, Escape From Reality

First published in March 2009, modified with photo and Word History, 6/1/2016

We all need to get away from the grueling events going on around us on a daily basis; maybe its work, maybe its NO work, maybe its financial, maybe its illness, maybe its an issue with a loved one. This is true, not only in trying economic times, but even in better times, as harsh reality never rests and it spares no one, regardless of background, from at least an occasional smack upside the head or an out and out punch in the nose. To avoid a knockout blow, we often retreat to something that makes us forget, however temporarily, the troubling aspects of life. Just don’t forget to return to Planet Earth afterwards, no matter how much the other option appeals to you. Movies are one way to escape from reality, and “Tarzan” certainly provided many a person with a path through their own personal jungle to a place where these immortal characters of the screen gave us temporary shelter in the world of fiction.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, an American born in Chicago, wrote a series of books about the main character, Tarzan, a man of the African jungle, with the strength of the apes he lived around. Burroughs’ Tarzan stories differed from the later movies, and one of the reasons for that was, Burroughs signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, known to many simply as “MGM,” that permitted them to use his characters, but NOT his stories. I happen to think that this worked out for the better, as Burroughs’ Tarzan was educated, and was thus very different from the character many people around the world came to know. While there had been previous Tarzan films, it was when “MGM” developed a series of six movies between 1932 and 1942, centered around the Tarzan character, his companion Jane, and a mischievous chimp by the name of Cheeta, that Tarzan became a mainstay. After three movies, the studio decided to add another character, “Boy,” who was not their natural born son, as Tarzan and Jane were not legally married, a subject as “taboo” to the movie censors, and likely to much of the public of those times, as many things were to the native tribes depicted in the Tarzan movies. In order to get around such a touchy subject, the writers had Boy’s parents killed in a plane crash, the baby found by a group of chimps and eventually taken to Tarzan and Jane by Cheeta. Just to make note here, neither Boy nor Cheeta were original Burroughs’ characters, but simply developed by the MGM writers.

When I was a kid Tarzan was BIG stuff! Attempts by so many of us to imitate, however badly, the “Tarzan yell,” were commonplace. Up along a steep hillside near my neighborhood, someone had draped a heavy, thick rope over a huge tree branch in an attempt to provide us with a swinging vine, as depicted in the movies. We simply called it “The Tarzan Swing,“ and need I say, a few broken arms came as the penalty for those unskilled enough at using it, although their “yells” may have ended up being closer to the true Tarzan yell, so elusive previously.

While commercial television got under way after World War Two, it wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that virtually EVERY American home had a television. Whether this is true or not, I’m not sure, but I remember it being said back then that more American homes had televisions than had telephones. Hey, at least some folks didn’t have their favorite shows interrupted! Television stations found a great source of entertainment for viewers by airing old movies, and since color programming didn’t become pretty much standard until the mid 1960s, the old black and white movies of the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s were easily transferred to the small screen. I can’t say exactly when, but I’ll just say circa 1960, the Tarzan movies were released to television, and they were a SMASH HIT! To me, to many of my generation, and to many from the generations when the movies were first released to theaters, Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller WAS Tarzan. Any other actors who portrayed the “Ape Man,” no matter how competent, were purely imitators. Maureen O’Sullivan was Jane, but I think we came to later accept others in that role, but not easily. Cheeta was beloved by all, maybe even more than Weissmuller, as the chimp character showed us the close similarities, but also the dissimilarities, between humans and our closest relatives, chimpanzees.

The Tarzan movies gave us a chance to escape to a place where this monumental jungle man figure could communicate with the animals in his jungle habitat, especially the elephants, chimps, and apes; where Tarzan, Jane, and eventually Boy, shared the jungle with creatures large and small, vicious and meek, and where there seemed to be a true natural balance between all involved. Trouble almost always came when other humans, usually ruthless, greedy white men (and sometimes women)* intruded into Tarzan’s paradise to exploit some aspect of its environment, including in the last MGM episode, Boy, who was snatched for a circus act.

To those unaware, these films were shot at the MGM studios in Hollywood, with occasional location filming done in Florida for some underwater scenes. They were NOT shot in Africa, nor in New York, even though the one story has Boy taken to New York for the circus. The scenes of vast animal herds and prowling lions or leopards were added to the movies from previous footage that was actually filmed in Africa for another movie. The scenes of New York in the one movie, are just that, scenes of various NY buildings, but the actors weren’t present for filming there. MGM had a “jungle” put together at its studios, complete with a large water tank and even a river for those water scenes in the various pictures. They also had Tarzan and Jane’s “tree house” built there. Johnny Weissmuller didn’t swing through the trees “with the greatest of ease,” they used a professional acrobat. Tarzan’s famous underwater fight with a huge crocodile (the footage was used over in several episodes) was a fight with a mechanical croc, with dye sacks attached to it, so that when Tarzan stabbed the beast, it looked like blood flowing into the water.

Cheeta was portrayed by several different chimps during the course of the entire twelve episode Weissmuller series, and while Cheeta is usually referred to as a female in the stories, most of the chimps used were males. How they got those chimps to do some of things they did, truly amazes me to this day. I recall in the early 1960s, not long after the release of the movies to television, Weissmuller made a national tour and was welcomed everywhere by big crowds. As I recollect, he told of how he met Cheeta, although I don’t believe he said which Cheeta, since, as I mentioned, there were several different chimps used during Weissmuller’s career. I believe part of the reason for this was, they used younger chimps, as from what I’ve read, a chimp’s “personality” can change pretty dramatically after a certain age, and they can become aggressive, as unfortunately recently happened when a chimp viciously attacked a woman, almost killing her. Anyway, by all accounts, all of the chimps used to play Cheeta absolutely LOVED Johnny Weissmuller. Of course, he was a huge man, I think 6’ 3,” and he learned to quickly assert dominance over the chimps, as instructed by their trainers. Weissmuller’s son related a story in a book about his father, saying how much this one “Cheeta” loved his father, and Johnny would go and visit him in the zoo after the studio retired the chimp. The chimp died and Johhny told his son that it was almost like losing a child.

On the other hand, Maureen O’Sullivan wasn’t all that taken with the chimps, and they weren’t taken with her. From various things I’ve read and from interviews of O’Sullivan, since the chimps were usually males and they had been trained by male humans, they therefore connected well with the strapping Weissmuller, and later with Johnny Sheffield, who played Boy, but they grew jealous of O’Sullivan when she was too close to Weissmuller in some scenes. O’Sullivan noted in a couple of interviews and articles about a publicity picture taken with Weissmuller, Johnny Sheffield, Cheeta, and O’Sullivan. She said they had to make sure Sheffield separated her from Cheeta and Weissmuller, and that there was a rope or a chain on the chimp’s leg to prevent him from going after her. If you watch the movies, Cheeta will go to Jane, whisper in her ear and even give her a kiss on the cheek, but to my recollection, Weissmuller is not in the scene with them, so I guess the jealousy dissipated when he was not around.

Maureen O’Sullivan left the series in 1942, and MGM, having lost interest in the series, because of declining audiences in Europe due to World War Two, didn’t pursue a new agreement with Burroughs, who signed a new accord with RKO Pictures. This studio also produced six more movies, featuring Weissmuller in the lead. The first two, done in the midst of the war, had no Jane actually present. The storyline was that she was home in England helping the war effort, although she frequently wrote to Tarzan and Boy. Then RKO signed Brenda Joyce to play Jane in the final episodes. Johnny Sheffield also left the series, as it was felt that he was getting too old for the Boy role, so the script said he was off at school. RKO also had a jungle built for the series, complete with tree house. Interestingly, the RKO episodes no longer had Tarzan and his family in contact with the natives tribes in central Africa, but rather with people in areas in and around the Sahara Desert; that is, northern Africa. Why this was, I’ve never known.

‘Til next time....AhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaAhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

*You have to remember, these movies were made in the time of European colonialism, so “the enemy,” if you will, were usually white Europeans trying to exploit the area for personal gain. Americans, having successfully removed themselves from British colonial rule, were certainly not offended by the characterization of white Europeans playing “the bad guy” role. Further, four of the six Weissmuller MGM films were released during the Depression, a time when greed was easily seen as “the enemy.”

Photo is from the 2005 Turner Entertainment/Warner Home Video DVD set release

WORD HISTORY:
Jungle-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, and its meaning has changed greatly from the original meaning. It goes back to Sanskrit ^ "jangala," which meant, "dry wasteland." This gave Hindi/Urdu,^^ "jangal," with the same meaning, but the meaning of which began to evolve to "area overgrown with trees and brush," from the notion of "wasteland." It was borrowed into English in the latter part of the 1700s (British presence in India, which included both Pakistan and Bangladesh, in those times).

^ Sanskrit is an ancient Indo European language, still in use to some degree, especially in India. It is related to English, but much further down the family tree.

^^ Hindi is an Indo European language and one of the main languages of India, while the closely related Urdu is the main language of Pakistan, but with a presence in India also.