Ingredient Glossary

Brief, everyday explanations for the flours, spices, chutneys and pantry staples that come up again and again in this library's recipes and technique guides.

Ajwain (Carom Seeds): These small, intensely aromatic seeds taste close to thyme and often go into pastry doughs like samosa and kachori casings, both to aid digestion of fried food and to add a background warmth.
Amchur (Dried Mango Powder): Ground from dried green mango, amchur sours chaat masala and fillings where fresh citrus isn't practical, with a fruity sourness that reads differently on the tongue than tamarind or lime.
Atta (Whole Wheat Flour): Everyday flatbreads, and in some regional versions puris too, are made from this finely milled whole wheat flour. More bran and germ survive the milling than in maida, which leaves a denser bite and a slightly nutty flavour behind.
Besan (Gram Flour): Milled from skinned, split chickpeas (chana dal), this flour underlies pakora and bhajiya batters, dhokla, khandvi, and chaat toppings like sev and boondi. Because it clumps easily, it needs thorough whisking with water, and steamed batters often call for it lightly roasted first.
Besan Batter Consistency Terms: Rather than relying on flour-to-water ratios alone, recipes in this library describe batter thickness in three terms: ribbon-consistency (a slow, unbroken ribbon off a spoon), coating-consistency (a thin coat on the back of a spoon), and pouring-consistency (flowing freely, close to heavy cream).
Besan ka Sev: Another name for sev; spelling it out this way makes clear the noodles are made from gram flour specifically, as opposed to other flours used for similar fried, noodle-like garnishes.
Boondi: Pushing seasoned gram-flour batter through a perforated spoon into hot oil produces these small fried droplets. The sweetened version turns up in desserts, while the salted one works as a chaat topping and a mix-in for raita.
Chaat Masala: Dried mango powder and black salt anchor this tangy, savoury spice blend, rounded out with roasted cumin, coriander and other spices. It's sprinkled over finished chaat, fruit and roasted snacks rather than cooked into the dish itself.
Chana Dal (Split Chickpeas): Split and skinned, chana dal is a different thing entirely from whole chickpeas (chole), showing up in some fillings and occasionally tempered whole in South Indian dishes for its texture and nuttiness.
Curry Leaves: Picked from the curry tree, these aromatic leaves fry briefly in hot oil during tempering across South and West Indian cooking, used either fresh or dried, and despite the name, unrelated to curry powder.
Dahi (Yogurt): Whisked smooth and sometimes lightly sweetened or salted, plain thick dairy yogurt gets spooned over dahi puri, aloo tikki chaat and papdi chaat alike, and a full-fat, well-set yogurt holds its texture best of all.
Date-Tamarind Chutney: Tamarind and dates, or jaggery, simmer down with spices into this thick, cooked chutney, which supplies the sweet-sour counterpoint that balances out chaat's heat and tang.
Dhania (Coriander): The word covers two different things: coriander seeds, used whole or ground in spice blends, and fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), used as a garnish and as the backbone of green chutney.
Dhokla Batter: Fermented or quickly leavened, this besan batter steams into a spongy cake before being tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves; the gram flour batter technique guide covers how to handle it correctly.
Garam Masala: Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper, among other spices, typically make up this warming blend, added toward the end of cooking so its aroma stays bright instead of cooking away.
Garlic Chutney (Dry): Garlic, dried red chillies and often desiccated coconut get pounded, not blended smooth, into this coarse, dry chutney, best known as the condiment tucked inside a Mumbai vada pav.
Ghee (Clarified Butter): Simmering butter to separate out its milk solids and water leaves behind this shelf-stable fat, prized for a high smoke point and a nutty aroma, and used both for tempering and in some doughs.
Ginger-Garlic Paste: Ground together in roughly equal parts, fresh ginger and garlic make up this smooth paste, a base aromatic in marinades like those for chicken tikka and in some gravies as well.
Green Chutney (Coriander-Mint Chutney): Coriander and mint leaves, green chillies and a souring agent such as lime or raw mango get blended raw into this chutney, which turns up across nearly every chaat dish and plenty of fried snacks besides.
Gud / Jaggery: Boiled down from sugarcane juice or palm sap rather than refined, this unrefined sugar brings a deeper, slightly mineral sweetness to chutneys and some masalas that refined sugar can't match.
Haldi (Turmeric): Ground from dried turmeric root, haldi goes in sparingly for colour and a mild earthy bitterness, and it goes in early rather than late, since added at the very end it can taste raw and chalky.
Hing (Asafoetida): Sold ground and usually cut with rice flour, this pungent resin mellows into a savoury, almost umami aroma once it hits hot oil briefly, which is why a pinch typically opens a tempering, especially in dishes that skip garlic.
Idli Rava: Milled specifically for idli and dosa batters, this coarse, parboiled rice grit is a separate thing from semolina (sooji), which comes from wheat rather than rice.
Imli (Tamarind): Sold as a block, a concentrate or a paste, the sour pulp inside a tamarind pod gets simmered with jaggery and spices into the sweet-sour tamarind chutney that most chaat depends on.
Jeera (Cumin Seeds): Whole cumin seeds open nearly every tempering (tadka), bloomed briefly in hot oil or ghee to release their aroma before anything else goes into the pan.
Kala Namak (Black Salt): Naturally occurring sulphurous compounds give this mineral salt its distinct aroma, and it sits at the centre of chaat masala and spiced chaat water. Because a little goes a long way, it's used in small pinches rather than as an everyday salt.
Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves): Crumbled between the palms before use, these dried fenugreek leaves go in near the end of cooking for a slightly bitter, hay-like aroma that shows up across North Indian gravies and a few tikka marinades.
Khoya / Mawa: Slow-simmering whole milk down to its solids leaves this dense, slightly grainy paste behind, more a feature of festive snack variations and sweets than everyday chaat.
Kokum: Dried and deep purple, this fruit rind sours dishes across parts of Western India with something fruitier and less sharp than tamarind, occasionally finding its way into regional chutney variations.
Lal Mirch (Red Chilli Powder): Ground dried red chillies supply both colour and heat here, and because regional blends vary so widely in spiciness, quantities given in this library's recipes work better as a starting point than as an absolute measure.
Maida (Refined Wheat Flour): Samosa and kachori pastry, along with bhature dough, rely on this finely milled, low-protein white wheat flour, close in character to cake flour. Its tender, flaky or puffed texture is something whole-wheat flour can't reproduce on its own.
Momos Dough: Just refined flour and water, unleavened and rolled thin, this dough wraps steamed dumpling fillings, and it needs to stay pliable enough to pleat without tearing while never turning sticky.
Moong Dal (Split Mung Bean): These small split pulses, sold both with and without their green skin, go into savoury pakoras, a few dhokla variations and lighter snack batters generally.
Mustard Oil: Pressed from mustard seeds, this pungent, sharp-flavoured oil traditionally gets heated until it stops smoking before use, a step that mellows its raw bite, and it's common across parts of North and East Indian cooking.
Paneer: Curdling hot milk with an acid and pressing the curds produces this fresh, non-melting cheese, cubed and grilled for paneer tikka or crumbled into stuffed snacks, with no ageing or culturing involved at any stage.
Papdi: Flour, semolina and oil combine into this small, flat, crisp disc of fried dough, the base underneath both papdi chaat and sev puri. A good one shatters cleanly under a bite rather than bending.
Poha (Flattened Rice): Rice that's been parboiled, pressed flat, and dried, poha needs no actual boiling to cook, just a rinse and a brief steam, and it forms the base of both the breakfast dish carrying its name and some chivda mixes.
Puri (Chaat Shell): In chaat specifically, this is a small hollow sphere of fried semolina or wheat dough that puffs into a crisp shell for pani puri and dahi puri, not to be confused with the puffed wheat bread that shares the same name at the dinner table.
Rai / Sarson (Mustard Seeds): Small, round and usually black or brown, these seeds pop the moment they hit hot oil, a common opening move in South and West Indian tempering, often paired with curry leaves and urad dal.
Rava / Sooji (Semolina): Crisp pani puri shells, upma, and instant rava dosa all start from this coarsely milled durum wheat. Fine and coarse grades don't behave the same way in a batter, so a recipe will usually say which grade it means.
Rice Flour: Milled finely from rice, this flour turns up in some dosa and idli batter variations and in certain chutney or batter thickening steps, but it behaves nothing like wheat flour and can't simply replace it in a gluten-based dough.
Sabudana (Sago / Tapioca Pearls): Small starch pearls processed from tapioca root, these go into sabudana vada and get eaten widely during religious fasting periods precisely because they contain no grain. Soaking, rather than boiling, is how they hydrate correctly.
Sev: Pushed through a perforated press, seasoned gram-flour batter fries into these thin, crisp noodles, eaten as a snack on their own or scattered as the crunchy topping on bhel puri and sev puri.
Tadka / Tempering: Briefly frying whole spices, and sometimes aromatics, in hot oil or ghee to release their flavour before stirring them into a finished or near-finished dish; the dedicated technique guide covers this in full.
Urad Dal (Split Black Gram): Soaked and ground down, this dense, starchy pulse is what gives idli and dosa batter its characteristic lift and medu vada its structure, and the whole and split, skinned versions behave differently enough that one can't simply stand in for the other.