Custard apple. Sitaphal. A tropical fruit which comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. When buying choose very soft fruits indeed. The skin of all of them is green or purplish-green and scaly, almost fir-cone patterned, in appearance. Inside, the flesh is creamy in colour and consistency, but has to be sucked from the shiny black seeds. The flesh has a sweet-sour flavour, sometimes slightly custardy and larger ones have the luscious and complex taste of banana, mango and vanilla. They are often made into fritters, or sliced and steeped in wine. The custard apples include cherimoyas, sweet sops, sour sops and atemoyas.
Vermicelli. Thin, fried, string-like preparation made from gram flour. At "eeds" this is often as part of a celebratory breakfast dish called senvaya in which it is cooked in syrup until the liquid evaporates, becoming sweet and slightly crunchy.
Vermicelli. Thin, fried, string-like preparation made from gram flour. At "eeds" this is often as part of a celebratory breakfast dish called senvaya in which it is cooked in syrup until the liquid evaporates, becoming sweet and slightly crunchy.
Jaggery or gur. Palm sugar, obtained from the sap of, usually, the date or Palmyra palm. It is used extensively in Indian cooking and has a flavour reminiscent of Demerara sugar (US: light brown (granulated) sugar). Palm sugar is the better quality of the two.
Safflower. A thistle-like plant which is a major producer of a high polyunsaturated, flavourless, colourless oil which is good for deep frying and in salad dressings. The flowers are reddish-orange and the styles are sometimes sold as saffron.
