Pantry and Ingredient Glossary

Quick, everyday explanations of the flours, spices, chutneys and cupboard staples you will meet in our recipes and skill guides, so nothing on an ingredient list leaves you guessing.

Ajwain (Carom Seeds): Small, strongly scented seeds that taste a bit like thyme. Cooks work them into pastry doughs, such as samosa and kachori casings, to help the digestion of fried food and to give a quiet background warmth.
Amchur (Dried Mango Powder): Dried green mango, ground to a powder, that adds sourness to chaat masala and to fillings where fresh citrus would not work well. Its sourness is fruity, quite different from tamarind or lime.
Atta (Whole Wheat Flour): Whole wheat flour milled fine, the everyday choice for flatbreads and, in a few regional recipes, for puris. Because the bran and germ stay in, it eats denser than maida and tastes faintly nutty.
Besan (Gram Flour): Made by milling skinned, split chickpeas (chana dal) into a fine flour. You will reach for it whenever you make pakora or bhajiya batter, dhokla, khandvi, or crunchy chaat toppings like sev and boondi. Whisk it well with water so no lumps survive, and consider roasting it lightly first if it is going into a steamed batter.
Besan Batter Consistency Terms: The recipes here describe batter thickness in three ways: ribbon consistency, where batter runs off a spoon in a slow, unbroken ribbon; coating consistency, where it leaves a thin film on the back of a spoon; and pouring consistency, where it flows freely, much like heavy cream. These pictures are easier to trust than flour-to-water ratios alone.
Besan ka Sev: Refer to Sev. The longer name simply makes clear that this garnish is made from gram flour and not from the other flours used for similar fried, noodle-like toppings.
Boondi: Tiny fried beads of seasoned gram-flour batter, formed by pushing the batter through a perforated spoon over hot oil. The sweet kind goes into desserts, while the salted kind tops chaat or gets stirred into raita.
Chaat Masala: A tangy, savoury spice mix whose backbone is dried mango powder and black salt, rounded out with roasted cumin, coriander and other spices. Sprinkle it over finished chaat, fruit or roasted snacks; it is not meant to be cooked into a dish.
Chana Dal (Split Chickpeas): Split, skinned chickpeas, not to be confused with whole chickpeas (chole). They appear in some fillings and are sometimes tempered whole in South Indian dishes to add texture and a nutty note.
Curry Leaves: The fragrant leaves of the curry tree, fried briefly in hot oil as part of a tempering in South and West Indian cooking. Use them fresh or dried. They have nothing to do with curry powder.
Dahi (Yogurt): Plain, thick dairy yogurt, whisked smooth and sometimes lightly sweetened or salted before it goes over dahi puri, aloo tikki chaat or papdi chaat. Well-set, full-fat yogurt keeps its body best.
Date-Tamarind Chutney: A cooked, thick chutney made by simmering tamarind with dates (or jaggery) and spices. Its sweet-sour taste answers the heat and tang elsewhere on a chaat plate.
Dhania (Coriander): The word covers two things: coriander seeds, used whole or ground in spice blends, and fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), which garnish dishes and form the base of green chutney.
Dhokla Batter: A besan batter, either fermented or quickly leavened, that is steamed into a spongy cake and then topped with a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves. The gram flour batter guide shows how to handle it correctly.
Garam Masala: A warming blend of spices that typically includes cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper. Stir it in toward the end of cooking, so the aroma stays bright instead of cooking away.
Garlic Chutney (Dry): A coarse, dry chutney of garlic, dried red chillies and often desiccated coconut, pounded and not blended smooth. Best known as the condiment tucked inside a Mumbai vada pav.
Ghee (Clarified Butter): Butter simmered until the milk solids and water separate and are removed, leaving a fat that keeps well, has a high smoke point and smells nutty. Cooks use it for tempering and in some doughs.
Ginger-Garlic Paste: A smooth paste of roughly equal parts fresh ginger and garlic, ground together. It is a base aromatic for marinades, such as the one for chicken tikka, and for certain gravies.
Green Chutney (Coriander-Mint Chutney): An uncooked chutney blended from coriander and mint leaves, green chillies and a souring ingredient like lime or raw mango. It is used in almost every chaat and in many fried snacks.
Gud / Jaggery: A raw sugar made by boiling down sugarcane juice or palm sap. In chutneys and some masalas it gives a deeper, faintly mineral sweetness that refined sugar lacks.
Haldi (Turmeric): Dried turmeric root, ground, adding colour and a gentle earthy bitterness in small amounts. Put it in early in cooking, because added right at the end it can taste raw and chalky.
Hing (Asafoetida): A strong-smelling resin, sold ground and usually mixed with rice flour. Once it has been cooked briefly in hot oil, it softens into a savoury, almost umami fragrance. Add a pinch at the start of a tempering, particularly in dishes made without garlic.
Idli Rava: A coarse, parboiled rice grit milled specifically for idli and dosa batters. It is a different thing from semolina (sooji), which comes from wheat.
Imli (Tamarind): The sour pulp from the tamarind pod, sold as a block, concentrate or paste. Simmered with jaggery and spices, it becomes the sweet-sour tamarind chutney that most chaat depends on.
Jeera (Cumin Seeds): Whole cumin seeds are nearly always the opening move in a tadka. Let them bloom briefly in hot oil or ghee so their aroma comes out before anything else joins the pan.
Kala Namak (Black Salt): A mineral salt with a distinctive sulphurous smell that comes from naturally present compounds. It is central to chaat masala and to spiced chaat water. Use a small pinch at a time and not as an everyday table salt.
Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves): Dried fenugreek leaves. Rub them between your palms to crumble them and add them near the end of cooking, where they give a slightly bitter, hay-like aroma typical of North Indian gravies and some tikka marinades.
Khoya / Mawa: Milk solids left after slowly simmering whole milk down to a dense, slightly grainy paste. It belongs in some festive snacks and sweets and not in everyday chaat.
Kokum: The dried, deep purple rind of a fruit, used as a souring ingredient in parts of Western India. Its sourness is fruitier and less sharp than tamarind, and it occasionally appears in regional chutney variations.
Lal Mirch (Red Chilli Powder): Dried red chillies, ground, for colour and heat. Blends from different regions vary a lot in how hot they are, so the quantities in this library's recipes are a starting point and not a fixed rule.
Maida (Refined Wheat Flour): A fine, pale, low-protein white wheat flour, close in feel to cake flour. Samosa and kachori pastry and bhature dough rely on it for a tender, flaky or puffed result that whole-wheat flour cannot give by itself.
Momos Dough: A plain, unleavened dough of refined flour and water, rolled thin to wrap steamed dumpling fillings. It should be supple enough to pleat without tearing, yet never sticky.
Moong Dal (Split Mung Bean): Small split pulses, sold with or without their green skin. They go into savoury pakoras, certain dhokla variations and lighter snack batters.
Mustard Oil: A sharp, pungent oil pressed from mustard seeds. The traditional way to tame its raw bite is to heat it until the smoking stops before you cook with it. It features in parts of North and East Indian cooking.
Paneer: A fresh cheese made by curdling hot milk with acid and pressing the curds. It does not melt, so you can cube and grill it for paneer tikka or crumble it into stuffed snacks. It needs no ageing or culturing.
Papdi: A small, flat, crisp round of fried dough made with flour, semolina and oil, which forms the base for papdi chaat and sev puri. A good one breaks with a clean snap instead of bending.
Poha (Flattened Rice): Parboiled rice that has been flattened and dried. You never boil it; a quick rinse and a short steam are enough. It is the base of the breakfast dish of the same name and turns up in some chivda mixes too.
Puri (Chaat Shell): In chaat, this means the small hollow ball of fried semolina or wheat dough that puffs up into a crisp shell for pani puri and dahi puri. Don't confuse it with the puffed wheat bread, also called puri, that is served with meals.
Rai / Sarson (Mustard Seeds): Small round seeds, usually black or brown, that crackle when they hit hot oil. In South and West Indian tempering they are a common first ingredient, often paired with curry leaves and urad dal.
Rava / Sooji (Semolina): Coarsely ground durum wheat, used for crisp pani puri shells, upma and instant rava dosa. It comes in fine and coarse grades that cook differently, which is why recipes usually name the one they want.
Rice Flour: Finely milled rice, used in certain dosa and idli batters and for thickening some chutneys or batters. It does not act like wheat flour, so don't treat it as a direct replacement in gluten-based doughs.
Sabudana (Sago / Tapioca Pearls): Little starch pearls made from tapioca root, used for sabudana vada and often eaten on religious fasting days because they contain no grain. Soak them to soften; boiling will spoil the texture.
Sev: Fine, crisp strands made by pressing a seasoned gram-flour batter through a perforated press into hot oil. Eat it as a snack by itself, or scatter it on bhel puri and sev puri for crunch.
Tadka / Tempering: The practice of frying whole spices, and sometimes aromatics, quickly in hot oil or ghee so they release their flavour, then stirring them into a dish that is finished or nearly so. The dedicated technique guide covers it in full.
Urad Dal (Split Black Gram): A dense, starchy pulse. After soaking and grinding, it gives idli and dosa batter its lift and gives medu vada its structure. The whole and split skinned forms behave differently, so don't swap one for the other.