Ingredient Glossary

Whenever a recipe or lesson in this library mentions an ingredient by name without stopping to explain it, this is the page to check — brief, everyday definitions, nothing technical.

Ajwain (Carom Seeds): Small seeds with an intense, thyme-like flavor, often worked into pastry doughs like samosa and kachori casings, where they're credited with easing digestion of fried food and adding a background warmth.
Amchur (Dried Mango Powder): Dried green mango, ground fine, used to sour chaat masala and various fillings where fresh citrus wouldn't hold up. The sourness it brings is distinctly fruity, different from what tamarind or lime would give.
Atta (Whole Wheat Flour): The everyday flatbread flour, finely milled from whole wheat and used for some regional puri variations as well. More bran and germ survive the milling than in maida, which shows up as a denser bite and a faintly nutty flavour.
Besan (Gram Flour): Ground from skinned, split chickpeas (chana dal), this flour forms the backbone of pakora and bhajiya batters, dhokla, khandvi, and chaat toppings like sev and boondi. It needs a thorough whisking with water to stay lump-free, and steamed batters often call for lightly roasting it first.
Besan Batter Consistency Terms: The way this library describes besan batter thickness: ribbon-consistency flows off a spoon in a slow, unbroken ribbon; coating-consistency leaves a thin coat on the back of a spoon; pouring-consistency runs freely, close to heavy cream. These hold up better than a fixed flour-to-water ratio would.
Besan ka Sev: Another name for sev, specifying that it's made from gram flour rather than the other flours sometimes used for similar fried, noodle-like garnishes.
Boondi: Small fried drops of seasoned gram-flour batter, formed by pushing the batter through a perforated spoon straight into hot oil. The sweetened version lands in desserts, while salted boondi turns up as a chaat topping or stirred into raita.
Chaat Masala: A savory, tangy spice blend built around dried mango powder and black salt, rounded out with roasted cumin, coriander and other spices. It's a finishing sprinkle for chaat, fruit and roasted snacks rather than something cooked into a dish.
Chana Dal (Split Chickpeas): Split, skinned chickpeas — not the same as whole chickpeas, or chole — used in various fillings and occasionally tempered whole in South Indian cooking for a nutty bit of texture.
Curry Leaves: Aromatic leaves from the curry tree, briefly fried as part of a South or West Indian tempering step. Used fresh or dried, and unrelated to curry powder despite the overlapping name.
Dahi (Yogurt): Thick, plain dairy yogurt, whisked smooth and sometimes lightly salted or sweetened before going over dahi puri, aloo tikki chaat or papdi chaat. A well-set, full-fat yogurt holds its texture best under all that topping.
Date-Tamarind Chutney: A cooked, thickened chutney of tamarind and dates (or jaggery) simmered with spices, supplying the sweet-sour counterweight that balances out chaat's heat and tang.
Dhania (Coriander): Covers both coriander seeds, used whole or ground in spice blends, and fresh coriander leaves — cilantro — used as a garnish and as the foundation of green chutney.
Dhokla Batter: A besan batter, either fermented or quickly leavened, steamed into a spongy cake and finished with a mustard-seed-and-curry-leaf tempering; the gram flour batter technique guide covers handling it in detail.
Garam Masala: A warming spice blend typically built from cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and black pepper among others, added near the end of cooking so its aroma stays bright instead of cooking away.
Garlic Chutney (Dry): A coarse, dry chutney of garlic, dried red chillies and often desiccated coconut, pounded rather than blended into a smooth paste — best known as what goes inside a Mumbai vada pav.
Ghee (Clarified Butter): Butter simmered until its milk solids and water separate out and get removed, leaving behind a shelf-stable fat with a high smoke point and a nutty aroma — used for tempering and worked into some doughs.
Ginger-Garlic Paste: Fresh ginger and garlic, ground together in roughly equal parts into a smooth paste, used as a base aromatic in marinades like those for chicken tikka and in various gravies.
Green Chutney (Coriander-Mint Chutney): An uncooked, blended chutney of coriander and mint leaves, green chillies, and a souring agent such as lime or raw mango, used across nearly every chaat dish and plenty of fried snacks besides.
Gud / Jaggery: Unrefined sugar made by reducing sugarcane juice or palm sap, bringing a deeper, slightly mineral sweetness to chutneys and certain masalas that refined sugar can't quite replicate.
Haldi (Turmeric): Dried turmeric root, ground fine and used sparingly for color and a mild earthy bitterness. It goes in early during cooking, since added at the very end it can taste raw and chalky.
Hing (Asafoetida): A pungent resin, usually sold pre-ground and blended with rice flour, that turns savory and almost umami once it briefly hits hot oil. A pinch near the start of tempering is standard, especially in dishes that skip garlic.
Idli Rava: A coarse, parboiled rice grit milled specifically for idli and dosa batters — distinct from semolina (sooji), which comes from wheat rather than rice.
Imli (Tamarind): Sour pulp from the tamarind pod, available as a block, concentrate or paste, simmered down with jaggery and spices into the sweet-sour tamarind chutney that anchors most chaat.
Jeera (Cumin Seeds): Whole cumin seeds are close to a universal opening move in tempering (tadka), bloomed briefly in hot oil or ghee to pull out their aroma before anything else joins the pan.
Kala Namak (Black Salt): A mineral salt carrying a noticeable sulphurous aroma from compounds naturally present in it, essential to chaat masala and spiced chaat water alike. It's potent enough to use in small pinches rather than as a general table salt.
Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves): Dried fenugreek leaves, crumbled between the palms right before use and added late in cooking for a slightly bitter, hay-like aroma common across North Indian gravies and some tikka marinades.
Khoya / Mawa: Whole milk reduced slowly down to its milk solids, left as a dense, slightly grainy paste. It turns up in some festive snack variations and sweets, less so in everyday chaat.
Kokum: A dried, deep-purple fruit rind used as a souring agent in parts of Western India, with a fruitier, gentler sourness than tamarind — occasionally used in regional chutney variations.
Lal Mirch (Red Chilli Powder): Dried red chillies, ground for color as much as heat. Regional blends vary enormously in spiciness, which is why recipes in this library treat quantities as a starting point rather than a fixed rule.
Maida (Refined Wheat Flour): A low-protein, finely milled white wheat flour comparable to cake flour, used in samosa and kachori pastry and for bhature dough. The tender, flaky or puffed results it produces aren't something whole-wheat flour can match on its own.
Momos Dough: An unleavened dough of refined flour and water, rolled thin for wrapping steamed dumpling fillings — pliable enough to pleat without tearing, but not sticky to the touch.
Moong Dal (Split Mung Bean): Small split pulses sold with or without their green skin, used in savory pakoras, some versions of dhokla, and lighter snack batters generally.
Mustard Oil: A sharp, pungent oil pressed from mustard seeds, traditionally heated past its smoke point before use to mellow its raw edge — common across parts of North and East Indian cooking.
Paneer: A fresh cheese that doesn't melt, made by curdling hot milk with an acid and pressing the resulting curds. It shows up cubed and grilled in paneer tikka or crumbled into stuffed snacks, and needs no aging or culturing to get there.
Papdi: A flat, crisp disc of fried dough made from flour, semolina and oil, forming the base layer under papdi chaat and sev puri. A good one shatters when bitten rather than bending.
Poha (Flattened Rice): Rice that's been parboiled, pressed flat and dried, needing nothing more than a rinse and a short steam rather than any boiling. It anchors the breakfast dish sharing its name and turns up in a number of chivda mixes as well.
Puri (Chaat Shell): A small, hollow sphere of fried semolina or wheat dough, puffed into a crisp shell and used for pani puri and dahi puri — not to be confused with the puffed wheat bread of the same name served at regular meals.
Rai / Sarson (Mustard Seeds): Small round seeds, black or brown, that pop the moment they hit hot oil. A standard opening move in South and West Indian tempering, usually alongside curry leaves and urad dal.
Rava / Sooji (Semolina): Durum wheat milled coarsely, forming the base of crisp pani puri shells, upma, and instant rava dosa. Fine and coarse grades don't behave the same way in a recipe, so it's worth checking which one a dish actually calls for.
Rice Flour: Rice milled fine, used in some dosa and idli batter variations and for thickening certain chutneys or batters. It doesn't behave like wheat flour and can't simply substitute for it in gluten-based dough.
Sabudana (Sago / Tapioca Pearls): Starch pearls processed from tapioca root, central to sabudana vada and common during religious fasting periods thanks to being grain-free. Soaking rather than boiling is how these hydrate correctly.
Sev: Gram-flour batter, seasoned and fried, pushed through a perforated press into thin, crisp noodle-like strands. It works both as a snack eaten on its own and as the crunchy topping on bhel puri and sev puri.
Tadka / Tempering: Briefly frying whole spices, and often aromatics too, in hot oil or ghee to pull out their flavor before stirring them into a dish that's finished or nearly there. The dedicated technique guide covers this in full.
Urad Dal (Split Black Gram): A dense, starchy pulse that, once soaked and ground, gives idli and dosa batter its characteristic lift and gives medu vada its structure. The whole and the split, skinned versions don't substitute for each other.