Rock Salt (Sendha Namak)

Rock salt goes by many names on packets and in kitchens — sendha namak, saindhava lavana, pink rock salt — and all of them mean the same mined, unrefined crystal. It is the only salt of the phalahari (fasting) kitchen: on Ekadashi and Navratri days the food is cooked with rock salt, never plain salt.

The family’s rule of thumb: rock salt and black salt are sometimes used interchangeably, because both are chosen to impart flavour, not only saltiness. Rock salt reads gentler and faintly mineral; it finishes chaats, raitas and buttermilk as much as it cooks sabudana.

Saindhava also carries weight in the ayurvedic tradition as the salt of choice — considered lightest of the salts and agreeable to the eyes, which is why classical texts single it out among lavana varieties.