Ingredient Terms

Quick, no-nonsense definitions for the flours, spices, chutneys and pantry basics that keep coming up in the recipes and technique notes on this site.

Ajwain (Carom Seeds): Small, intensely aromatic seeds with a flavor close to thyme, often kneaded into pastry doughs such as samosa and kachori casings, where they're credited with easing the digestion of anything fried and contributing a warm note in the background.
Amchur (Dried Mango Powder): Green mango, dried and ground to a powder, lends sourness to chaat masala and to fillings in recipes that can't rely on fresh citrus. Its tang reads as more fruity than what tamarind or lime would give.
Atta (Whole Wheat Flour): Finely milled whole wheat, the everyday choice for flatbreads and, in a handful of regional recipes, for puri dough too. Since it keeps more of the bran and germ that maida has stripped away, the result bakes denser with a faint nutty edge.
Besan (Gram Flour): Ground from split, skinned chickpeas known as chana dal, it forms the base of batters for pakora, bhajiya, dhokla and khandvi, plus crunchy toppings for chaat such as sev and boondi. Mixing it lump-free takes patience with the whisk, and some steamed dishes benefit from toasting the flour lightly beforehand.
Besan Batter Consistency Terms: Three descriptive stages appear throughout this library for besan batter thickness: ribbon stage, where batter falls off the spoon in one slow, continuous ribbon; coating stage, where it clings to a spoon's back in a thin, even layer; and pouring stage, where it runs freely, similar to heavy cream. These hold up better as a guide than sticking to one fixed measurement of flour against water.
Besan ka Sev: A more precise name for sev: this tells you the strands are made specifically from chickpea flour, not one of the other flours that occasionally show up in similar fried garnishes.
Boondi: Small fried beads of seasoned gram-flour batter, shaped by pushing the mixture through a perforated spoon directly over hot oil. Sweetened, it becomes a dessert ingredient; salted, it serves as a chaat topping or gets folded into raita.
Chaat Masala: A tangy, savory spice mix anchored by black salt and dried mango powder, built out further with toasted cumin, coriander, and assorted other spices. It's always a finishing dusting on chaat, fruit or roasted snacks, never something added during cooking.
Chana Dal (Split Chickpeas): Chickpeas that have been split and skinned, not to be confused with whole chickpeas (chole), used in some fillings and occasionally tempered whole in South Indian cooking for extra texture and a nutty note.
Curry Leaves: Picked straight from the curry tree, these get a quick fry in hot oil as one of the first moves when tempering a dish in the South Indian or West Indian style. Found fresh or dried, and — despite the name overlap — not related to curry powder at all.
Dahi (Yogurt): Plain, thick dairy yogurt, whisked until smooth and occasionally given a light touch of sugar or salt, then ladled over dishes like dahi puri, papdi chaat, or aloo tikki topped with chaat. A well-set, full-fat yogurt holds its texture better than a thinner one.
Date-Tamarind Chutney: A thick, cooked chutney made by simmering tamarind together with dates (or jaggery) and spices, providing the sweet-sour counterweight that offsets chaat's heat and sourness.
Dhania (Coriander): This word covers both coriander seed, used whole or ground within spice blends, and fresh coriander leaf (cilantro), which works both as a finishing garnish and as the main building block of green chutney.
Dhokla Batter: A besan batter that's either fermented or leavened quickly, steamed until it turns into a soft, airy cake, then topped with a tempering built from mustard seed and curry leaf; see the gram flour batter guide for detailed handling notes.
Garam Masala: A warm spice blend usually built from cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and similar spices, worked in just before cooking finishes, which keeps its fragrance sharp instead of letting it cook away.
Garlic Chutney (Dry): Made from garlic, dry red chillies, and, more often than not, desiccated coconut, pounded into a coarse paste rather than blended smooth — this is the condiment best known for filling a Mumbai vada pav.
Ghee (Clarified Butter): Made by simmering butter until milk solids and water cook away, leaving behind a nutty, shelf-stable fat with a notably high smoke point, put to work in both tempering and a number of doughs.
Ginger-Garlic Paste: Fresh ginger and garlic, blended together in roughly matching amounts into one smooth paste, forming the aromatic starting point behind marinades like chicken tikka, and behind a long list of gravies too.
Green Chutney (Coriander-Mint Chutney): Blended raw from mint and coriander leaves, green chillies, and something sour — lime or raw mango — this chutney shows up across almost the entire chaat lineup, plus a long list of fried snacks on the side.
Gud / Jaggery: An unrefined sugar produced by boiling sugarcane juice or palm sap down to a solid, lending chutneys and certain masalas a deeper, faintly mineral sweetness that refined white sugar can't quite match.
Haldi (Turmeric): Turmeric root, dried and ground, added in modest quantities for color and a gentle earthy bitterness. It's stirred in early in the cooking process, because a late addition tends to taste raw and chalky.
Hing (Asafoetida): A sharp-smelling resin, usually sold pre-ground and blended with rice flour, which mellows into a savory, almost umami aroma after a brief moment in hot oil. It typically goes in first during tempering, especially in garlic-free dishes.
Idli Rava: A coarse rice grit, parboiled first, then ground specifically for use in idli and dosa batter — don't confuse it with wheat-based semolina (sooji).
Imli (Tamarind): The pulp inside tamarind pods, available as a block, a concentrate, or a ready paste, cooked down with jaggery and spices to make the sweet-sour chutney found underneath most chaat.
Jeera (Cumin Seeds): Whole cumin seeds go into the pan before almost anything else when tempering (tadka) starts, releasing their aroma into hot ghee or oil ahead of whatever follows.
Kala Namak (Black Salt): A mineral salt with a noticeable sulphur note from naturally occurring compounds. It goes into both chaat masala and the spiced water chaat recipes call for, measured out by the pinch rather than used the way an everyday salt would be.
Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves): Fenugreek leaves, dried and crumbled between the fingers before use, stirred in late in cooking to give a slightly bitter, hay-scented note typical of North Indian gravies and a few tikka marinades.
Khoya / Mawa: Whole milk cooked down slowly until nothing's left but a dense, slightly grainy mass of milk solids. You'll find it worked into festive versions of certain snacks and various sweets — not something that turns up in ordinary, everyday chaat.
Kokum: This fruit rind, dried to a deep purple, brings sourness to a handful of Western Indian recipes, offering a gentler, more fruit-forward tang than tamarind, and it shows up now and then in regional twists on chutney.
Lal Mirch (Red Chilli Powder): Ground dried red chillies, contributing both color and heat to a dish. Spice levels vary enormously by regional blend, so any amount given in a recipe here should be treated as a starting point, not a strict rule.
Maida (Refined Wheat Flour): A finely milled wheat flour, low in protein and close in behavior to what's sold as cake flour elsewhere. It's the standard choice behind samosa pastry, kachori casings, and bhature dough, giving a tender, flaky or puffed result that whole wheat flour can't match alone.
Momos Dough: Just refined flour and water, kneaded plain with no leavening, then rolled out thin enough to wrap around steamed dumpling filling — pliable enough to pleat without tearing, yet not sticky to handle.
Moong Dal (Split Mung Bean): Small split pulses, sold either with their green skin on or without it, used in savory pakoras, a few dhokla variations, and other light snack batters.
Mustard Oil: A sharp, pungent oil extracted from mustard seeds, traditionally heated past its smoke point before use so its raw bite mellows out, a staple in North and East Indian kitchens.
Paneer: A fresh cheese that won't melt, made by curdling hot milk with an acid and pressing the resulting curds. Cut into cubes for grilling as paneer tikka, or broken apart and tucked into stuffed snacks — no culturing or aging needed.
Papdi: A flat, crisp, fried disc made from a dough of flour, semolina and oil, used as the foundation layer in papdi chaat and sev puri. Done properly, it shatters under a bite instead of bending.
Poha (Flattened Rice): Rice that's parboiled, flattened under pressure, and dried. No boiling is needed — a rinse and a brief steam are enough — and it's the base of both the breakfast dish sharing its name and a number of chivda mixes.
Puri (Chaat Shell): Specific to chaat, this is a small hollow ball made from fried semolina or wheat dough, ballooning into a crisp shell that carries the filling in pani puri and dahi puri alike — a different thing entirely from the puffed bread also called puri at a regular meal.
Rai / Sarson (Mustard Seeds): These small, round seeds, black or brown, crackle the instant they hit hot oil. Almost always the first thing to go into the pan in South Indian and West Indian tempering, often paired with curry leaves and a spoonful of urad dal in the same oil.
Rava / Sooji (Semolina): Coarsely milled durum wheat, key to crisp pani puri shells, to upma, and to instant rava dosa. A fine grind and a coarse one behave quite differently in a given recipe, which is why the grade called for actually matters.
Rice Flour: It shows up in a few dosa and idli batter recipes, and separately as a thickener for certain chutneys or batters; it won't behave like wheat flour, so swapping it into a gluten dough simply doesn't work.
Sabudana (Sago / Tapioca Pearls): Small starch pearls made from tapioca root, central to sabudana vada and a common choice during religious fasts because it contains no grain. It plumps up by soaking rather than by boiling.
Sev: Thin, crisp strands made by forcing seasoned gram-flour batter through a perforated press straight into hot oil. It doubles as a snack on its own and as the crunch layered onto bhel puri and sev puri.
Tadka / Tempering: A quick fry of whole spices and, often, other aromatics — done in hot ghee or oil — meant to release their flavor before they join a dish that's already cooked or nearly so. See the dedicated technique guide for the full method.
Urad Dal (Split Black Gram): This starchy, fairly dense lentil gives idli and dosa batter their rise, and medu vada its body, once it's been soaked and ground. The whole form and the split, skinned form behave differently and shouldn't be swapped for each other.