Pantry Staples

Annam Canned Boiled Chick Peas are white chickpeas already cooked and packed in brine, so there is no overnight soak and no pressure cooker. They are soft enough to eat straight from the tin and firm enough to hold their shape in a gravy.

Best for

• Quick chole and chickpea curry on a weeknight
• Chana chaat with onion, tomato and lemon
• Salads, wraps and hummus

Using it

Drain and rinse them well under cold water first, which takes the brine taste off. For a curry, add them to the finished onion and tomato masala and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes rather than the usual half hour, since they only need to take up flavour. Crush a few against the pan to thicken the gravy. Season at the end, as the brine already carries salt.

Pack and storage

400g tin. Once opened, transfer any unused chickpeas to a covered container and keep refrigerated.

Burger Pickles with Herbs 370ml

Organic Diced Tomatoes 400g

Kühne Honey Pickles 370g

Leicht & Cross Vital Crispbread 125g

Leicht & Cross Rye Crispbread 125g

Wasa Sandwich Pizza Crispbread 111g

Priya Mango Avakaya Pickle is the Andhra mango pickle: raw mango cut in pieces and cured in mustard, chilli powder and oil. This is the version made without garlic, for kitchens that keep garlic out. The taste is hot, salty and sour all at once, with the mustard coming through clearly behind the chilli.

Best for

• Hot rice with a spoon of ghee
• Curd rice
• Dosa, idli and chapati

Serving

Avakaya is meant to be eaten in small quantities, so serve a modest spoonful at the side of the plate rather than mixing it through the whole meal. Always use a dry spoon and press the pieces back down afterwards so the oil covers the pickle again, because anything sitting above the oil line is what spoils first. If the oil has thickened in a cold kitchen, let the jar stand at room temperature for a while before serving.

Pack and storage

300g jar. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Neals Mix Dal is a blend of lentils in one 500g pack — the everyday shortcut for a panchmel or mixed dal, where several pulses cook together into something rounder than any single dal on its own.

Mixed dal gives you both textures at once: the softer lentils break down and thicken the pot, while the firmer ones hold their shape, so the dal has body without needing to be pureed. Finish it the usual way — a tadka of ghee or oil with cumin, dried chilli, garlic and hing poured over at the end.

Rinse until the water runs clear and soak for 20–30 minutes before cooking to even out the cooking times. Store sealed in a cool, dry place.

Barilla Rigatoni, 500g — the short, wide tube with straight-cut ends and deep ridges running along the outside.

Rigatoni is built for heavy sauces. The ridges hold what a smooth pasta would shed, and the wide bore traps sauce inside the tube as well as around it, so it is the shape to use for ragù and bolognese, for sausage and cream sauces, for amatriciana, and for baked pasta al forno where it keeps its shape under cheese and time in the oven.

Cook in plenty of well-salted boiling water to al dente, drain a minute early if it is going into the oven, and keep a ladle of the cooking water to loosen the sauce. Store the pack sealed in a cool, dry cupboard.

Daawat Basmati Extra Long in the 5 kg green bag is the long-grain line Daawat is best known for. The grains are matured before packing, so they cook dry and separate and stretch noticeably in the pot rather than swelling and going soft.

The green bag is the Extra Long grade. It is a different grain from Daawat's Rozana and Super lines, which sit at different lengths and price points — worth knowing if you have cooked with those before and are expecting the same result.

Best for

• Biryani, where length and separation are the whole point
• Pulao and ghee rice
• Everyday steamed rice with dal, sambar or curry

How to cook it

Rinse two or three times until the water runs clear, then soak for 20 to 30 minutes — extra-long grains need the soak to cook evenly. Use about 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice, bring to the boil, cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes off the heat.

Pack and storage

5 kg green bag. Store somewhere cool and dry, sealed after opening.

Annam Horse Gram is the small, hard, flat brown pulse known as kollu in Tamil and ulavalu in Telugu, eaten across the southern states. It is much firmer than any lentil, with a dry, earthy taste, and it needs longer cooking than its size suggests.

Best for

• Kollu rasam and horse gram sundal
• Kollu paruppu and thogayal ground with coconut
• Ulava charu and slow-cooked gravies

How to cook it

Soak it for at least eight hours, or overnight, in plenty of water. Drain, then pressure cook one cup with three to four cups of fresh water for eight to ten whistles, as it stays stubborn well past the point most pulses give way. Keep the dark cooking water, which is the base of kollu rasam. Salt only once the grains crush easily.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Annam Red Parboiled (Matta) Rice is the bold, reddish-brown rice of Kerala, parboiled before milling with part of the red bran left on the grain. It has a distinctly earthy taste and a firm, chewy bite, and it is the rice that Kerala meals are actually built around rather than a substitute for white rice.

Best for

• Kerala meals with fish curry, sambar or thoran
• Kanji, the rice gruel eaten with pickle and pappadam
• Puttu and other ground rice preparations

How to cook it

It takes far longer than ordinary rice. Rinse, soak for an hour, then boil in plenty of water in an open pot for thirty-five to forty-five minutes until the grains are soft but still have bite, and drain. In a pressure cooker use one cup to three cups of water for five to six whistles. Keep the starchy drained water for kanji.

Pack and storage

5Kg bag. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Red Kidney Beans (Rajma) are large dark red dried beans with a firm skin and a soft, floury inside. They are the bean for rajma — they hold their shape through a long simmer while the gravy thickens around them.

Best for

• Rajma masala with rice
• Chilli and bean stews
• Salads, and thick soups

How to cook it

Soak overnight, or at least eight hours, and discard the soaking water. Dried kidney beans must be boiled hard — bring them to a rolling boil for at least ten minutes before the heat comes down. Then pressure cook for 6 to 8 whistles, or simmer for about 90 minutes, until a bean squashes to a paste. Mash a spoonful into the gravy to thicken it.

Pack and storage

1 kg. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

TRS Black Eye Beans (Lobiya) are small cream-coloured dried beans with a black spot where they were attached to the pod. They cook faster than most dried beans and keep a creamy centre with a mild, almost savoury taste.

Best for

• Lobiya masala and black eye bean curry
• Sundal, and coconut stir-fries
• Soups, stews and bean salads

How to cook it

Rinse and pick over. They do not strictly need an overnight soak — two to four hours is plenty, and at a push you can cook them unsoaked. Pressure cook with about 3 parts water to 1 part beans for 3 to 4 whistles, or simmer for 40 to 50 minutes until tender. Salt only at the end, or the skins stay tough.

Pack and storage

500 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Priya Idli Karam is the dry spice powder eaten with idli and dosa across Andhra and Telangana, ground from lentils and red chillies with salt. It is coarse, pungent and properly hot, and it is served dry at the table with oil or ghee added on the plate rather than cooked into a dish.

Best for

• Idli and dosa with a spoon of sesame oil
• Upma and pesarattu
• Hot rice with ghee

Using it

Put a teaspoon on the plate, mix it with sesame oil or ghee to a loose paste, and dip the idli or dosa into it; mixing at the table is what keeps the powder dry in the jar. It can also be sprinkled over a dosa on the tawa before folding, or stirred into hot rice with ghee. Use a dry spoon, as any moisture will cake the powder.

Pack and storage

100g pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Heer Extra Long Basmati Rice is prized for its exceptional length, delicate fragrance, and fluffy texture when cooked. Ideal for biryanis, pilafs, and everyday meals.

Schani Alphonso Mango Slices are premium quality preserved slices of the king of mangoes. Sweet, fragrant, and intensely flavoured, ideal for desserts, milkshakes, and snacking.

TRS Tapioca (Sabudana) are small hard white pearls made from cassava starch. Dry they are chalky and rattle in the packet; soaked properly they swell into soft, translucent beads that stay separate rather than clumping.

Best for

• Sabudana khichdi
• Sabudana vada
• Sabudana kheer, and fasting or vrat meals

How to cook it

Rinse in a sieve until the water runs clear, then soak in just enough water to sit level with the pearls — not more — for four to five hours or overnight. Done right, a pearl crushes to powder between finger and thumb with no hard white centre. Too much water and it turns to glue. Drain fully and fluff with a fork before cooking.

Pack and storage

500 g. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.

Daawat Basmati Extra Long in the 20 kg green bag, supplied with an extra 2 kg included — 22 kg in total. This is the bulk pack for households that cook rice most days, and for restaurants and caterers who want one grain they can rely on across the menu.

The grains are matured before packing, so they cook dry and separate and stretch noticeably rather than softening. The green bag is the Extra Long grade, a different grain from Daawat's Rozana and Super lines.

Best for

• Biryani in quantity, where every grain needs to stay separate
• Restaurant and catering service
• Households cooking rice daily who would rather buy once a season

How to cook it

Rinse until the water runs clear, then soak for 20 to 30 minutes. Use about 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice. Bring to the boil, cover, cook on low for 10 to 12 minutes, then rest for 5 minutes before fluffing.

Pack and storage

20 kg plus 2 kg free. Store in a cool, dry place. For a bag this size, decant what you need into a smaller sealed container and keep the main bag closed.

India Gate Seeraga Samba Rice is a fragrant small-grain rice variety from Tamil Nadu, named for its resemblance to cumin (seeragam). It has a distinctive earthy aroma and is prized for Ambur biryani and South Indian rice dishes.

• Small-grain aromatic variety unique to Tamil Nadu
• Traditional rice for Ambur biryani
  

India Gate Jeerakasala Rice is a fragrant short-grain rice from Kerala, also known as Kaima or Jeerakashala. Its aromatic profile and tender texture make it the traditional choice for Kerala biryani and ghee rice.

• Aromatic short-grain Kerala rice
• Perfect for Kerala biryani and ghee rice
  

India Gate Premium Basmati Rice is aged before milling, and that ageing is what gives it the long, slender grain and the clean aroma that lifts as soon as the pot comes to steam. The grains cook dry and separate and roughly double in length, so they hold their shape in a biryani instead of collapsing into the masala.

This is the Premium line — India Gate's everyday aged basmati, and the one most households cook with week to week rather than saving for special occasions.

Best for

• Biryani and pulao, where separate grains matter
• Jeera rice and plain steamed rice alongside dal or curry
• Fried rice, and any dish where the rice gets reheated

How to cook it

Rinse until the water runs clear, then soak for 20 to 30 minutes. Use about 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice. Bring to the boil, cover, and cook on a low heat for 10 to 12 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

Pack and storage

5 kg bag. Keep in a cool, dry place and reseal after opening.

Udhaiyam Green Mung Beans are whole green gram — small olive-green beans with the skin intact. They cook softer than most whole pulses while still holding their shape, and have a mild, faintly sweet, grassy flavour that takes a tempering well.

Best for

• Sprouting for salads and sundal
• Whole green gram curry and pachai payaru
• Soups, stews and thick dal finished with coconut

How to cook it

Soak six to eight hours, or overnight, before cooking. Pressure cook one cup with two and a half cups of water for four to five whistles — the beans should give under a spoon without collapsing. To sprout them, soak eight hours, drain thoroughly, then leave them tied in a damp cloth somewhere warm for a day or two, rinsing once a day. Finish cooked beans with mustard seeds, curry leaves and grated coconut.

Pack and storage

1kg pack. Store in a cool, dry place, sealed after opening.