Salt

White rock salt, sendha namak or lahori namak, is mined salt used in place of ordinary salt during Hindu fasts such as Navratri and Ekadashi, when many families avoid regular table salt. It has a clean, mild taste and is also used in some pickles and sweets. Black salt, kala namak, is rock salt fired at high heat with plant material, which gives it its dark colour and sulphurous, egg-like aroma, and ground it turns pinkish grey.

Use rock salt for vrat recipes such as sabudana khichdi, kuttu puri and fasting aloo, and anywhere a mild salt is wanted. Use black salt for chaat, fruit chaat, raita, jaljeera, nimbu pani and pani puri water, and in tofu scrambles for an eggy note. The two are not interchangeable: black salt is used by the pinch for flavour, rock salt by the spoon for seasoning.

Rock and black salt are sold both as crystals and as powder, and crystals grind easily in a mortar or a clean spice grinder. Keep them sealed and dry, since black salt in particular clumps in humid weather. See seasonings for ready blends, chaat masala for the mix built on black salt, sabudana for fasting dishes, and the rest of our salt and seasonings.