The Pantry Guide
Every shelf staple of Indian and Nepali cooking — what it is, how to cook it, and what to look for when you buy it.
Dal & Beans
- Toor Dal — The dal behind sambar and most everyday North Indian dal dishes: split, skinned pigeon peas that coo…
- Moong Dal — The small yellow dal that cooks faster than anything else on the shelf: split, skinless mung beans t…
- Masoor Dal — The everyday red dal: split, skinned lentils that collapse into a soft purée faster than any other c…
- Chana Dal — Split desi chickpeas: a dense yellow dal that keeps its grain far longer than toor or masoor, which …
- Urad Dal — Both faces of black gram in one bag: the split white grain that ferments with rice into idli and dos…
- Kala Chana — Whole desi chickpeas: smaller, darker and much firmer than the pale kabuli chickpea, with a nuttier …
- Kabuli Chana — The large pale chickpea behind chana masala and chhole: cream-coloured, starchy, and able to turn cr…
- Rajma — Kidney beans in their North Indian and Himalayan role: simmered into a thick onion-tomato gravy and …
Rice & Grains
- Basmati Rice — The long-grain aromatic rice that defines Indian and much Nepali cooking: dry, separate grains with …
- Poha — Flattened rice — paddy steamed and rolled into thin flakes. In India it is the breakfast of a large …
- Puffed Rice — Puffed rice — muri to Bengal, kurmura in Maharashtra — the airy street-food base underneath Kolkata'…
Flour
- Besan — Gram flour — chana dal milled fine — the flour behind pakora batter, besan chilla and besan laddoo. …
- Atta — Whole-wheat flour milled the Indian way — between stone discs that grind the bran fine — and the dai…
- Rava — Semolina — rava or sooji — the wheat middlings that cook into upma in ten minutes and halwa in fifte…
Fat & Oil
- Ghee — Butter cooked until its water boils off and its milk solids toast brown, then strained — a pure butt…
- Mustard Oil — Dark amber, sharply pungent, pressed from mustard seed — the cooking fat of Bengal, much of Nepal an…
Sweetener
- Jaggery — Unrefined cane or palm sugar — gur — set without spinning the molasses out, so it keeps the dark min…
Pickle & Chutney
- Mango Achar — Raw green mango preserved the achar way: salted, packed in spice and covered in oil, then matured in…
- Mango Chutney — Sweet preserved mango: raw fruit grated with sugar and spice until it sets jam-like. This is the fam…
Other
- Tamarind — The sour spine of South Indian cooking: the sticky dark pulp of the tamarind pod, behind sambar's ta…
- Ginger Garlic Paste — The two-ingredient base paste that starts most restaurant and home curry cooking: fresh ginger and g…
- Coconut — Coconut in its shelf forms: desiccated, milk and the fresh nut, doing different jobs in South Indian…
- Papad — Thin lentil-flour discs, rolled and sun-dried, cooked in seconds at the table — the crackle that clo…
23 guides and growing.