Glossary

American: yogurt
Tamil: thayir
Telugu: perugu
Hindi: dahi

A custardlike food with a tart flavor, prepared from milk curdled by bacteria, especially Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

Tamil: tuvaram paruppu
Telugu : Kandhi pappu
Hindi: tuvar dal/ arhar dal

These lentils are yellow and sold split into two round halves. In some parts of India, yellow lentils are slightly oiled to increase shelf-life, more so when the lentils are exported. Therefore Indian shops outside India usually stock the oily variety of yellow lentil. They are very easy to digest and have a pleasant, subtle, nutty flavour. In India, the unoiled lentils are preferred, so if you do buy oily yellow lentils, soak them in hot water for a while and throw away the resulting cloudy water.