Types of flour
FLOUR
There are many kinds of flour used in Indian cooking. In preparing dishes, one kind of flour
seldom replaces another.
ATTA
Whole wheat flour, commonly used in the north to make unleavened bread like chapati, puri,
parantha. A versatile flour which is rolled, baked, roasted and fried, it lends itself to sweets like halwa, biscuits, chips and savoury snacks like 'papri' and 'gol gappa' popular in the north and east. Little lamps made of atta are used in ceremonies connected with festivals like Karwa Chauth in the north where the wife observes a day's fast for the well being of her husband.
BAJRE KA ATTA
Millet flour, known as the poor man's bread. Coarser than maida (flour) or atta (wheat flour)
but when made into chapatis and garnished with butter has a distinct nutty flavour.
BESAN
Gram flour, made from chickpeas (chana dal), used as a binding agent for Koftas (meatballs
or vegetable balls), in a bratter for fritters and as the base for savoury snacks like Dhokla (steamed dumplings), Bonda (spiced potato curry balls dipped in a batter of besan and deep fried), or Sev fine, fried strands or sweats like ladoos. Besan is also the prime ingredient in homemade facepacks and is used as a face scrub and toner, mixed with malai (cream) and drops of rose water, or simply with water.
COOKING STARCH/CORNFLOUR
Called nishasta, a fine starchy powder milled from maize and wheat used in a classic north
Indian pudding, phirni, and in falooda, the fine vermicelli-like strands that go with Indian ice cream, kulfi.
MAIDA
Refined white flour, used as a thickner for gravies, mixed in batter or made into thin thin
puris called 'loochis' in bengal. European or left-over colonial dishes, especially those that call for white sauce are called 'anda-maida khana' (egg-flour-cuisine) by professional north Indian cooks.
RICE FLOUR
Chaval ka atta in hindi or arisi mavu in tamil. Apinch of it lends crispness to deep fried
vegetables and thickens the more watery dishes of south Indian cuisine like kolambu, gotsu and rasa vangi that are mixed with plain rice. It is made into a thick batter along with urad dal for dosas and idlis. In the north, it is used mainly in a pudding called phirni while across east, central and west India, it is the base of various pancakes, dumplings, fried snacks and sweets. Rice flour is also used in drawing 'kolam's' or alpanas, (mandalas) on the threshhold of traditional homes.
Ingredients
CHEMICALS
ALUM
Also called phitkiri, it is used in making candied white pumpkin (petha) and preserving green
mangoes. A small lump of alum in water makes impurities settle at the bottom.
CHUNA
Ordinary slaked lime, (not the fruit) powdered and used in green mango preserve and in
a popular post-prandial digestive, paan.
CITRIC ACID
'Nimbu ka sat' used for curdling milk to make cheese (paneer) and as a souring agent in sherbets, jellies and sweet chatneys.
CUTTLEBONE
Called samundar jhag (sea foam), it is used in making a typical bengali sweet, rasogulla;
now largely replaced by commertial baking powder.
Flavourings
DATES, DRIED
Used in fruit chatneys. When soaked in water, believed to be 'strengthening' for convalescents
and pregnent women.
ESSENCE
Rose essence or gulab ruh, used in flavouring gulab jamun (a Bengali sweet) and rose sherbet. A
mild, delicate fragrance of desi (Indian) roses. Also sprinkled on guests from silver 'rose-water sprayers' at weddings.
Kewra essence, made from kewra flowers, is used for flavouring sweets in sugar syrup, like petha (candied white pumpkin), ras malai (cream cheese cooked in double cream). Itr kewra, a stronger concentrate than ruh kewra, is used in dry sweets like burfi (milk toffee) and gajar halwa (gratted carrot pudding). Kewra is also used to perfume meat pulaos.
FENUGREEK LEAVES
Called methi or vendiyam, a herb with small, aromatic green leaves, also sold dried (kasoori
methi). Used to flavour chicken and fish and cooked as a classic vegetable dish (subzi) with potatoes (alumethi). Slightly bitter in taste, it is a popular winter green.
RAISINS
Dried grapes, munnacca, kishmish or draksha, used to speckle sweets and pulaos, in chutneys and
preserves. Soaked given to infants as a tonic.
GUR
Gur (vellam in the south) ormolasses or jaggery comes from two sources-sugarcane and date
palm, which is more favoured in eastern India (Bengal and Orisa). Both can be had in liquid and solid form. Unrefined cane sugar is used in chutneys, in sweetened dals and subzis of the west and eaten with pure ghee and rotis or stuffed, mixed with coconut, into dumplings called 'modak', specially made in Ganesh chaturthi because of the elephant's headed God's alleged fondness for this sweet. Jaggery is also crushed and mixed with dried ginger powder(sonth) and ghee and rolled into pills as a post-natal pick-me-up for new mothers. It is said to warm the blood and is used to bind special
winter sweets like gajak and revdi made gingili and jaggery.
MAGAZ CHAR
Four types or kernels, of cucumber, pumpkin, water-melon and sweet-melon used in sweets like burfi and in thandai, a cooling summer drink made with ground almonds and rose petals.
NUTS
Nuts are used as garnish for sweets and pulaos (tahiris), ground into thickeners for gravies
and fried in oil or ghee to flavour porridges and sweets. High protein pea-nuts are popular in the west, in dry chutney powders. Ground almonds are used frequently as gravy thickeners while pistachios figure in puddings like phirni and in burfis. Walnuts are used in chutneys in Kashmir, where
they are commonly grown, while the ubiquitous cashewnut from Kerala is made into a popular burfi and is also a favoured garnish for pulaos and spicy rice dishes like bisi bela huli anna (lit hot lentil tamarind rice) from Karnataka. Almonds are specially sought after as 'brain food' from a belief in their stimulative powder. The best are 'gut-bandhi' badam with more oil (rogni) in them. In many homes almonds are soaked overnight and fed to growing children in the morning as a tonic. Also popular during
Diwali are the slender nuts of the chilgoza pine.
POMEGRANATE SEEDS
Anardana, often used to flavour classic north Indian dishes like kabuli chana (chick peas)
and pakoras (fritters).
POPPY SEEDS
Called khuskhus, from a variety of poppy that does not yield opium. Small white seeds ground
into paste; used as a thickner for some chutneys and gravies. It is used in certain special dishes in Bengal and Orissa. A favourite is 'postor bada' made only of khuskhus seeds.
SANDALWOOD POWDER
Sandal ka burada, chandana podi, used in making sandal sherbet.
SULTANAS
Kishmish, seedless raisins especially popular with children as a garnish for halwa. Walnuts
must be eaten only with raisins, to guard against sour throats.
TAMARIND
Imli, puli, the brown pulpy pod of the tropical tamarind tree.An extract of tamarind is
widely used in south Indian cooking and it is the base for various chutneys, pickles and summer drinks across India.Tamarind is also used to polish brass, silver and copper, to shine pressure cookers and pots and pans.
VARK
Edible silver leaf, made by beating puresilver into superfine, papery sheets, used to decorate
sweets like burfis, halwa and special pulaos(a rice dish). It is also dabbed on paan(betel leaf).
PULSES
Called dal or paruppu, pappu, varan, the edible seeds of leguminous plants rich in protein are
a staple Indian food. Livelihood is refered to as 'dal-roti'. Dal can be powdered and made into batters to from pancakes or fritters, cooked minto puris and seasoned with spices, boiled along with vegetables and taramind water into the fragrant stews of the south or pressure-cooked with rice into nourishing khichdis and pongals, eaten by invalids and infants. Dal and rice is one of the most enduring dishes in India.
Varieties of lentils
Red-lentils, 'masur ki dal'-salmon pink and flat, eaten in north and central India. Split green beans(moong ki dal,pasi paruppu, payar), used in khichdi, pureed or ground into 'bath powders' mixed with sandalwood powder and used instead of soap in south India.
Split black beans(urad ki dal, ulundu) cooked in purees, ground into batter for dosas or used to
stuff kachoris(savoury fried puris).
Bengal gram (Chane ki dal) made into a spicy lentil dish, ground to a powder to make besan, extensively used for batters and cosmetics.
Milk products
GHEE
Clarified butter made by boiling pure, white butter until the clear fat separates. Normally,
the fat soldifies into granules, called 'danedar' (seeded) ghee in the north. If stirred continuously while boiling, the ghee becomes a smoother solid, which is considered less flavourful than danedar ghee. It is 'neyi' in the south, 'thoop' in the west. A dollop of pure ghee (from butter)
is usually added to paranthas , khichdi(a rice and lentil dish), rice and upama(a porridge made from cream of wheat)or halwa. In the Panjab, growing children, pregnant women and new mothers are almost medicinally closed with ghee for building strength.
MALAI/CREAM
The cream that is formed when milk is boiled and cooled. It is used in sweets and Mughlai
gravies. Malai, milk, and butter have legendary importance in Indian tradition devolving from the pastoral Aryans who measured their wealth in cows. Krishna, the most beloved avatar in the hindu pantheon, was a celebrated 'butter theif' as a child(Navneeta chora). A major event in Hindu myth is the churning of the ocean of milk(Kshirasagara Manthana), which yielded amrita, the nectar of immortality. Folk proverbs abound, using metaphors and similes of milk, cream and butter.
YOGHURT
Curds. Variosly called dahi, thayir, doi, masuru, a staple in Indian diet; milk 'set' by
an addition of lactobacilli from old yoghurt. Eaten plain or as raitas or pachadies or hot chutneys with vegetables and fruit added to it; beaten thin with water and seasoned as a summer drink; added by the spoonful and browned in gravies; steamed with sugar and garnished with sultanas and
nuts as a pudding; eaten with rice and rotis. Dahi is virtually a concept in the Indian scheme of things, with ancient mytho-religious resonance deriving from the Krishna cult and early Aryanism; yoghurt was an important milk product for pastoral people and was given relegious sanctity as Krishna's
favourite food along with milk and butter.
Oils
GROUNDNUTS OIL
Called munghpali ka tel or kadale yennai(south), it is used in cooking vegetables and frying
papads (lentil wafers), especially in the west and in parts of central and north India. It does not solidify in the cold and, if it is refined, does not impart any flavour of its own.
MUSTARD OIL
Called sarson ka tel, karwa tel(bitter oil) or kadugu yennai, it is widely used in north
and east India, particularly Bengal and Orissa where almost all cooking is done with mustard oil. When heated to smoking point, it loses some of of its bitter pungency. Used as a preservatives in pickles, for frying fritters and fish or currying vegetanles. Like seasame (til) oil in the south, mustard oil is used for rub-downs and massages in the north . Despite its unpleasant raw smell, it is popular and is said to help improve ciculation in winter.
OLIVE OIL
Zetoon ka tel, extracted from ripe olives, commonly grown in Assam. Not used for regular cooking
in India except for Karachi halwa(a rich cornflour based sweet of north India), since it does not solidify in winter.
SESAME OIL
Also called gingili oil, nalla yennai or til ka tel, it is used in south Indian cooking for
flavouring some vegetables stews or pouring over a spice mixture(steamed rice cakes). Also used in 'avakkai', the pungent mango pickle of Andhra pradesh. The Goans use it in pork vindaloo. Thie oil remains clear in the cold in the south, is a facoured hair and bath oil, especially for massaging
new bourns. It has a distinct nutty flavour. Lamps are lit with til oil to mitigate the malefic influence of the planet saturn or shani.
VEGETABLE OIL
Called vanaspati, it is made from a mixture of oil-based ingredients and solidifies in the
cold like coconut oil. Universally used in cooking.
Spices
AMCHOOR
Lit. mango powder made of sour, dried, raw mangoes, used to flavour gravies and vegetables.
ANISEED/FENNEL
Called sonf or sombu, the seed of the anise plant is used as a flavouring when splutered in hot
oil, added raw to pickles, or powdered and added to curries, used whole in a five spice mixture(panchphoran) unique to Bengal and powdered in Kashmiri cuisine.
Sonf is chewed as a digestive after meals and served, mixed with rock sugar(mishri) as a matter of course in north Indian restaurants and homes to cleanse the palate and freshen the mouth after a meal. A cupful of water in which a teaspoon of sonf hasbeen boiled is a home remedy for digestive complaints in infants.
ASAFOETIDA
A strongly flavoured brown resin from Persia, also called hing or perungayam. Available both
in lumps and granules, it is widely used across India. A common rule of Indian cookery is, if heeng is used in a dish, garlic is not as both have strong flavours. Heeng is also believed to cure flatulence, particularly in infants, and is credited with beneficial digestive properties.
BAYLEAF
Also called tej patta or pattayellai, an aromatis leaf, dried and browned in hot oil to
flavour curries and pulaos(spiced fried rice).Used mainly with garam masala, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon.
BLACK PEPPER
Kali mirch, karu molagu, grown mostly in Kerala hasbeen exported for centuries and was one
of the major attractions for traders-turned-colonists. Peppercorns are the dried berries of the pepper plant, whose heat and pungency make it a popular ingredient in curries, raitas, pachadies and salads. Peppercorns are boiled in milk with a pinch of turmeric powder as a remedy for colds
and sore throats.
CARDAMOM
Elaichi, yalakkai, aromatic fruit of a seed like plant found in India, Srilanka, Jamaica and
Zanzibar. The pods of the 'large' variety have brown skins and the 'small' variety has green skins. Brown cardamoms are hot and used in flavouring curries, vegetables, dals and pulaos. The delicate green variety is used only in some curries. It is also chewed raw as a breath freshner.
CAYENNE PEPPER
The closest term is 'degi' mirch. Of Kashmiri origin , the seeds are discarded. The pods
are dried and sieved to make a rich colouring and flavouring for gravies.
CHILLI, GREEN
Hari mirch, a versatile, common flavouring eaten raw, pickled, spluttered in oil, fried in batter(pakora),used as a garnish, cooked with vegetables, dals and khichdis.
CHILLI, RED
Lal mirch, grown widely in Gujarat and now a common Indian flavouring, said to be introduced
by the Portuguese in the 16th century, from the Americas. Earlier, black pepper, grown mainly in Kerala, was the major fiery flavour.
CINNAMON
Darchini(chinese woodO. Aromatic sticks of the inner bark of a tree grown in SriLanka and
south-East Asia. Used in curries and pulaos. A garam masala(compound spiced mixture) ingredient.
CLOVES
Lavang, the dried stamen of the flower of a tree that grows in Indonesia, Madagascar and
Zanzibar. Used in garam masala and in pulaos and as garnishing for certain dishes. Also used to pin the folded pastry cover of a stuffed sweet called Lavanga Latika. Clove oil soothes tooth and gum achesand often a quick home remedy for relieving toothache is to tuck a clove into the affected corner of the mouth and carefully keep it there for some time to release the oil.
CORIANDER
Dhania, kosmalli, kothmin an aromatic herb, commonly used in three forms, Whole seeds, powdered
seeds and fresh leaves. Whole seeds are roasted and used in a variety of chutney powders and spice mixtures, especially in sambhar, garam masala and panchphoran. Powdered dhania ia a common spice for dals and vegetables and the leaves are ground into chutneys or used as garnish.
CUMMIN, BLACK
Kala Zeera, siyah Zeera, grown in Europe, Mexico and Kashmir. Used whole to flavour curries
and pulaos and in garam masala.
CUMMIN, WHITE
Sufaid Zeera, jeeragam, this variety is commonly used in flavouring curries, dals, vegetables.
It is roasted and powdered to flavour raita, a preparation with yoghurt to which fresh, diced vegetables like tomatoes, cucumber have been added; and as the base for a chutney powder. In summer, a popular cooling drink jaljeera(jeera water) is traditionally served in small teracotta cups(mutkainas)
with a cube of ice and a mint leaf.
CURRY LEAVES
Kari patta, karuveppilai, meetha neem, a common flavouring for vegtables, curries, sambhar(a lentil dish), porridge, and rice in south and west India. Most Indian homes have a pot or tree and use freshly plucked leaves. Also made into wet and dry chutneys.
FENUGREEK SEEDS
Methi seeds, whole, fried or roasted and powdered, are used as 'tarka' or garnishing. Used
commonly in pickles across India and part of a five spice or 'panchphoran' mixture in bengal. Though bitter, the way it is cooked in UP and Rajasthan-particularly the 'bedwi' that is an accompaniment to deep-fried crisp puris-turns it into a great delicacy.
GARAM MASALA
Lit. hot spices. A mixture of spices like cloves, cardamom(large and small) and cinnamon
sticks and bayleaf. Garam masala is used whole or ground into powder orpaste to lend that tangy, spicy flavour to food.
KOKUM
The sour rind of a fruit, garcindia indica. sliced and soaked in water for its extract,
which flavours dals and curries in the south and west. It is also used in a digestive drink. A smoked version(dried over wood smoke) is used in cooking fish in Kerala, where it is called kodampoli.
OREGANO
Ajwain, homam; used in lemon pickles, batters for fried fish, puris and pakoras. For upset
stomachs, a popular home remedy is to lightly pound half a teaspoon of ajwain with some rock salt(kala namak) and swallow the mixture in one gulp, followed by a few quick sips of warm water. This is a cure all for flatulence, dyspepsia and acidity.
MACE
Javitri; the hard shell or skin of the nutmeg seed(jaiphal). This streaky red skin is more
fiery than the gentle taste of nutmeg. It is used in pulaos and meat curries and in garam masala.
MUSTARD
Rai, sarson. Rai is the finer and 'sarson' the larger variety of mustard seeds. Commonly
used in pickles and curries and a popular spice in east, south and west. The crushed yellow seeds are used in a simple pickle with green chillies, salt, termeric and oil.
NIGELLA
Kalonji, the black teardrop-shaped seeds often called 'onion seeds'. Used in pickles, in panchphoran and scattered over tandoori breads like 'naan'.
NUTMEG
Jiphal; kernel of the fruit of the myristic tree. finely powdered on special nutmeg graters,
it is used as a dlavouring for sweets. Jaiphal powder, mixed in a few drops of water, is given to colicky infants and as a 'blood warmer' in winter.
PANCHPHORAN
Bengali five-spice mixture of rai, methi, jeera, kalonji and sonf(mustard, fenugreek seed,
cummin, nigella and anise).
SAFFRON
Kesar, the stigma of the crocus plant that grows in Kashmir(and Spain).Its delicious aroma
and rich yellow colour make it an expensive flavouring, used in kheer(sweetened-milk), in curries and pullaos.
SONTH
Dried ginger and its powder, used in kashmiri food and in a popular sweet-sour taramind
based chutney named sonth. It is also used in soothing teas for cold, fever, congestion of the chest and sore throat.
TURMERIC
Haldi, manjal; the aromatic yellow powdered root of a plant grown in India and the West Indies,
used as a colouring agent in cooking. Used regularly it is a depilatory cosmetic, an antiseptic and a coagulant for wounds. One of its little- known emergency uses is to temporarily plug a leaky radiator in a vehicle. A fistful of haldi floatsdown to the hole(if small) and congeals into an
effective block until proper mechanical help can be found.
Snacks
A whole genre across the Indian board, for eating between meals, while waiting for trains and
buses or just munching in the mid-morning tiffin and afternoon tea.The north specialises in potato-stuffed, fried pastry triangles(samosas) and the south in fried lentil doughnuts(vadas). Chaat and namkeen are general terms for a range of spiced nibbles in the north.
Sweets
Indian sweets are generally based on thickened milk(khoya) and rice or chickpea flour. Cardamom,
almond, raisin, saffron, jaggery, rose-water and a hint of camphor are some of the commonly used garnishings. Bengali confections are particularly favoured across the land, especially sweets which use cottage chese(paneer) or khoya as a base. Popular sweets are rasogullas and gulab jamuns, cottage
cheese and khoya balls soaked in scented sugar syrup. Favourite Indian delicacies include jalebi (feather light , deep fried flour, 'curlicues' soaked in syrup). halwa(semolina pudding), sohan halwa and rich, chewy, nut-embedded sweets.
Techniques
BAGHAAR
Garnishing with oil, variously called tadka, chhonk, phodni, taalichal. Cook-books agree
that this everyday Indian technique is not used anywhere else in the world. Oil or ghee is heated until it is short of smoking hot. Whole spices or chopped ginger/garlic are dropped in, which promptly swell, pop or darken, releasing their 'browned' taste into the oil. This seasoned oil, with all its spices, is poured over cooked vegetables, pulses, salads or curds or else cooked with raw food. Common seasonings: curry leaves, cummin seeds, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, whole dried red chillies, whole cloves,
cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, bayleaves, black peppercorns, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, onion seeds.
BROWNING
The proper browning of gravu sauces known as 'blunoing'. This is a immediately perceivable
difference between the regional foods of north and south India: the north is noted for its splendid , heavy browned gravies; the south, west and east eat lighter dishes.
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