The Pantry

Every ingredient in the atlas — what it is, what it is called, and where on the map it belongs.

• Ajwain carom seed
  Tiny seeds with a thyme-like punch — a little transforms breads and fried snacks.
• Almond badam
  Blanched and ground, it thickens and enriches a Mughal gravy; slivered, it crowns a sweet.
• Amchur dry mango powder
  Dried unripe mango, ground — a souring agent that adds tartness without any liquid.
• Amla Indian gooseberry
  Indian gooseberry — fiercely sour, exceptionally high in vitamin C, used dried for tang and colour.
• Anardana dried pomegranate seed
  Dried pomegranate seeds — a tangy, fruity souring agent for chana, chutneys and stuffed breads.
• Asafoetida hing
  A pinch of dried resin, raw and acrid, that turns savoury and allium-like the moment it hits hot fat.
• Aubergine baingan · begun
  Glossy purple begun — grilled to smoke for bharta, or fried and simmered.

• Banana blossom mocha · banana flower
  The purple flower-bud of the banana plant — fibrous, faintly astringent, cooked down into ghonto.
• Basmati rice
  Long-grain aromatic rice from the Himalayan foothills — aged for scent, prized for biryani.
• Bathua chenopodium greens
  A winter leafy green — mild and earthy, cooked down into saag, raita and parathas.
• Black cardamom badi elaichi · kali elaichi
  Smoke-dried pods, resinous and camphorous — a savoury spice, not a sweet one.
• Black peppercorn kali mirch · gol morich
  The original heat — Malabar's 'king of spices,' pungent warmth before chillies arrived.
• Black salt kala namak
  Sulphurous pink-grey rock salt, faintly eggy — the signature note of chaat.

• Cashew kaju
  Ground to a paste it makes a gravy luxuriously smooth and pale — the richest thickener.
• Chaat masala
  The tangy, sulphurous street-food seasoning — amchur and black salt at its heart.
• Chana dal split chickpea lentil
  Split Bengal gram — nutty and firm, holding its shape in dals, stuffings, and sweets.
• Chanachur Bengali savoury mix
  Bengal's savoury fried snack mix — the eastern cousin of Bombay mix, over muri or by the handful.
• Chickpea chana · chhola
  The nutty pulse of chana and chhola — whole, split, or ground, in curries and street food.
• Chironji charoli
  Small almond-like kernels — the quiet nutty richness in a Mughal sweet or gravy.
• Cinnamon dalchini
  Warm, sweet bark — most South Asian cooking uses the stronger cassia, not true cinnamon.
• Clove laung · lobongo
  Dried flower buds, intensely warm and numbing — a few perfume a whole pot.
• Coconut nariyal · narkel
  Fresh, grated, or dried — the rich, sweet body of coastal and Bengali cooking.
• Coconut milk
  Pressed from grated coconut flesh — the rich, sweet liquid body of a coastal curry.
• Coriander seed dhania
  Round, citrusy seeds — the mild, warm bulk of a ground masala.
• Cumin jeera · jira
  Earthy, warm seeds — whole in a tempering, ground in a masala, toasted for depth.

• Dried red chilli sukhi lal mirch
  Sun-dried whole chillies — smoky, deeper heat, cracked into hot oil or ground to powder.

• Elephant apple ou tenga · chalta
  Ou tenga — a large, hard, sour fruit that sours the fish curries of Assam and the delta fringe.

• Fennel seed saunf · mouri
  Sweet, licorice-scented seeds — a spice, a mouth-freshener, and a digestive in one.
• Fenugreek seed methi dana
  Hard amber seeds, bitter and maple-scented — tempered whole or ground into blends and pickles.
• Fresh coriander dhania patta · cilantro
  Bright green fresh herb, citrusy and clean — the near-universal finishing scatter.

• Garam masala
  A warm-spice blend, ground and added late — no single recipe, a hundred household versions.
• Garlic lasan · rosun
  Pungent cloves crushed into the base of a gravy — sweetens and deepens as it cooks.
• Ghee clarified butter
  Butter cooked until the milk solids brown and are strained away — nutty, high-smoke, long-keeping.
• Ginger adrak · ada
  Fresh pungent root, warm and citrusy — half the base paste, and a note of its own.
• Ginger-garlic paste
  Ginger and garlic ground together — the two-in-one base paste of countless gravies.
• Gram flour besan
  Ground chickpea flour — the batter of a pakora, the body of a sweet, a thickener besides.
• Green cardamom elaichi · choti elaichi
  Perfumed green pods that scent a Mughal korma and a Bengali payesh alike — whole or as seed.
• Green chilli hari mirch · kancha lanka
  Fresh green heat, slit into a dish — a New World fruit now central to the plate.
• Green pea matar
  Sweet green peas — winter's pop of sweetness in pulaos, gravies, and stuffings.

• Hilsa ilish
  The oily, bony river fish Bengal waits all year for — the centrepiece of the delta.

• Indian bay leaf tej patta
  Indian bay — a cassia-family leaf, warmer and more cinnamon-like than the Mediterranean kind.

• Jaggery gur
  Unrefined cane sugar — deep, molasses-rich sweetness quite unlike white sugar.

• Kachri wild melon tenderiser
  A wild desert melon, dried and ground — a natural meat tenderiser with a tangy, sour edge.
• Kashmiri chilli powder
  Deep red, mild heat, high colour — used as much for its glow as its warmth.
• Kasundi Bengali mustard sauce
  Bengal’s fermented mustard sauce — sharp enough to sting the nose, like a subcontinental wasabi.
• Kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
  Dried fenugreek leaves, crushed to a maple-hay scent — the finishing note of a Mughal gravy.
• Kewra kewda · pandanus water
  Distilled screwpine flower — a drop perfumes a biryani; a spoon ruins it.
• Khoya mawa · reduced milk solids
  Whole milk simmered down to soft solids — the rich, quiet base under a great many sweets.
• Kidney bean rajma
  Red kidney beans — a New World bean now the heart of a Punjabi comfort dish.
• Koi fish climbing perch
  Climbing perch — a small, prized Bengali fish with firm flesh, cooked as tel koi.

• Mace javitri
  The lacy red aril around nutmeg — warmer and subtler than the seed it wraps.
• Malai clotted cream top
  The clotted cream skin from simmered milk — richness for lassi, sweets and gravies.
• Masoor dal red lentil
  Red lentils — the quickest-cooking dal, everyday and forgiving.
• Meetha attar sweet ittar
  Sweet edible perfume — a drop or two scents an Awadhi biryani or sweet; a floral note, used by the drop.
• Melon seed magaz
  Pale seeds ground into a paste — a subtle thickener for rich pale gravies.
• Mint pudina
  Cool, bright herb — the green of a chutney, a raita, and a biryani's fresh lift.
• Moong dal mung lentil
  Mung lentils — light and easily digested, from everyday dal to sweet payesh.
• Mustard greens sarson ka saag
  Peppery mustard leaf — cooked down long into the north's beloved sarson ka saag.
• Mustard oil sarson ka tel · shorshe'r tel
  Pungent golden oil heated to smoking, then cooled — the defining fat of the River Delta.
• Mustard seed rai · shorshe
  Tiny pungent seeds — nutty when popped in oil, fierce when ground with water.

• Nigella kalonji · kalo jeere
  Matte-black seeds with an oniony, faintly bitter bite — on the bread and in the tempering.
• Nolen gur date palm jaggery · khejur gur
  Winter-only date-palm sap sugar, smoky and caramel — the reason Bengali sweets taste of a season.
• Nutmeg jaiphal
  The warm, sweet seed twinned with mace — grated fresh in a breath, never by the spoon.

• Okra bhindi · dherosh
  Green ridged pods, faintly mucilaginous — cut and cooked dry to a tender bite.
• Onion pyaz · peyaj
  The base of half the subcontinent's gravies — sweated, browned, or fried to a sweet brown crisp.

• Panch phoron the Bengali five-seed
  Five whole seeds — mustard, fenugreek, nigella, cumin, fennel — bloomed in hot oil, never ground.
• Paneer Indian fresh cheese
  Fresh, non-melting acid-set cheese — mild and firm, made to soak up whatever it meets.
• Papdi
  Crisp fried dough discs — the crunchy base and scoop of papdi chaat.
• Pearl barley jau
  Hulled, polished barley — the chewy grain thickening haleem and hearty dishes.
• Pistachio pista
  Green, faintly sweet nuts — slivered over sweets and rice for colour and richness.
• Potato aloo · alu
  New World tuber, absorbed utterly — aloo, from the everyday to the festive.
• Puffed rice muri · mudi
  Light, airy puffed grains — the base of jhalmuri and bhel, muri by the handful.

• Raisin kishmish
  Dried grapes, sweet and plump — scattered through pilaf and sweets for bursts of sugar.
• Rohu rui
  Rui — the everyday freshwater carp at the centre of the Bengali fish-and-rice table.
• Rose water gulab jal
  Distilled rose petals — a floral perfume for sweets and drinks, powerful by the drop.

• Saffron kesar · zafran
  The hand-picked crimson stigmas of a crocus — the costliest spice on earth, used in threads.
• Semolina sooji · suji
  Coarse wheat, toasted golden — the grain of upma, halwa, and a crisp coating.
• Sev
  Crisp fried gram-flour noodles — the crunchy scatter that finishes a chaat.
• Shahi jeera black cumin · caraway
  Dark, slender 'royal cumin' — sweeter and more complex than ordinary cumin, for Mughal dishes.
• Shatkora Assam citrus
  The knobbly Sylheti citrus whose thick rind gives beef curries their sour, bitter perfume.
• Silver leaf varak
  Edible beaten silver, laid on sweets for celebration — decorative, tasteless, and worth a label check.
• Spinach palak
  Tender greens cooked down to saag — the base of palak dishes and winter greens.

• Tamarind imli · tetul
  Sticky sour pod-pulp — the subcontinent’s great souring agent, tart with a dark-fruit depth.
• Tomato tamatar
  New World fruit, now the tang and body of countless gravies — cooked down, not shortcut.
• Turmeric haldi · holud · manjal · pasupu
  The boiled, dried, ground rhizome that colours half the world — earthy backbone, not a showpiece.
• Tutti-frutti candied papaya
  Candied raw papaya, dyed and diced — the colourful sweet bits in zarda, breads and ice cream.

• Urad dal black gram
  Black gram — creamy and glossy, the body of dal makhani and the base of papads and batters.

• Vermicelli seviyan
  Fine wheat noodles, toasted — the strands of sheer khurma and Bengali payesh.

• White pepper safed mirch
  The same berry, ripened and hulled — milder, earthier, used where black specks aren't wanted.
• White poppy seed posto · khus khus
  White poppy seeds, ground to a nutty paste — the body of Bengal’s posto dishes.

• Yellow split pea matar dal
  Yellow split peas — a sturdy pulse, the base of the curried-pea street dish ghugni.
• Yogurt dahi · doi
  Set curd — cooling on the plate, tenderising in a marinade, sweetened into Bengali mishti doi.