Water chestnut. The corm of a type of a water grass or sedge. They are used in Thai and Chinese cookery to add crunch and are also used to make desserts and drinks elsewhere in South East Asia. They are available fresh or tinned and can be used raw or cooked. They retain their shape well during cooking.
Cottage cheese made from curdled bottled milk, like a cross between Ricotta and tofu. It can be fried and curried.
Papaya. There is great discussion about the difference between papaya and paw paw or papaw. Essentially, they are all the same thing. It just depends where you are. The size of a large avocado, it has soft-textured, fragrant, apricot-coloured flesh with small black seeds which must be stripped out. It is a great breakfast fruit. If you have an unripe papaya which you wish to ripen overnight, pierce it with a sharp knife several times. It should be cut lengthways as this facilitates the removal of the seeds.
Deep-fried wheat flour bread made from flour, salt and water, interlaced with butter and cooked in a tandoor or on a griddle, from the north of India.
