Punjabi recipes

The food most people picture when they think of Indian restaurants, and it is genuinely rich. Brown the onions properly and be generous with the fat; half-measures produce pale, thin versions.

Almost every gravy here starts the same way: onions browned slowly for ten or twelve minutes, then ginger-garlic, then tomatoes cooked until the oil separates and rises. That base takes twenty minutes and decides the whole dish.

The breads are half the point. Parathas, kulchas and missi roti all belong here, and several are easier than they look.