Because once you take a whole eggplant, put it directly over a flame and let its skin blister and blacken until the flesh underneath practically collapses, it becomes an entirely different vegetable.

The eggplant turns soft and almost creamy. The fire gives it this deep smokiness. Then you cook it with plenty of onion, tomato, garlic and green chili, sharpen everything with amchoor (dried mango powder), and finish it with fresh coriander and ginger.

It is smoky, spicy, tangy and wonderfully rustic Punjabi staple.

And, as with a lot of the food in this series, it doesn’t require very much to make it good. What matters is how you cook it.

The full video is up on YouTube — the written recipe is below.

A quick word on the baingan

What to buy. For bharta you want the big globe variety… the fat purple-black ones. Not the slim Japanese ones, not the little round ones you’d use for bharwa.

Pick it up. It should feel light for its size. A heavy eggplant is a seedy, watery eggplant, and seeds are where the bitterness lives. The skin should be tight and glossy, and the green calyx at the top should look fresh rather than dried out. If you press it gently with your thumb and the dent stays, it’s old.

Two large ones, or three medium, gets you enough flesh for four people.

Three things that actually decide how this turns out

One — char it hard.

The eggplant needs to go directly onto an open flame and stay there until the skin is completely black, blistered, splitting, and the whole thing has collapsed in on itself. Not “nicely grilled.” Not “some nice color.” Black.

The instinct is to keep turning it, keep checking. Don’t. Let it sit on one side long enough to actually build char before you rotate it. Every time you move it early, you’re interrupting the thing you’re trying to create.

Rub the skin with mustard oil (or any oil with high smoke point) first… it helps the skin blister and lift away cleanly later. And poke a few slits in it for the steam to escape while cooking.

You’ll know it’s done when it looks genuinely ruined. Deflated, weeping a bit, the flesh soft all the way to the center when you push a knife in.

Two — peel it, don’t wash it.

Once they’re cool enough to handle, peeling is the fiddly part, and there’s one rule that matters more than technique: do not rinse the eggplant under the tap.

I know it’s tempting. Your hands are black, there are flecks of skin stuck everywhere, and running water would solve it in three seconds. But that black is smoke, and smoke is water-soluble.

Instead, keep a bowl of water next to your board for your fingers. Peel, dunk your hands, wipe, keep going. Scoop the flesh straight onto the chopping board.

And if a few charred bits stay stuck to the flesh, leave them. That’s flavor, not a mistake. Nobody has ever complained about a black speck in their bharta.

Three — some texture, maybe?

There are also different schools of thought when it comes to the consistency of Baingan Bharta.

Mine is decidedly on the chunkier side.

I don’t want the onions completely melted into the sauce. I don’t want to cook the tomatoes until they disappear. And I roughly chop the roasted eggplant rather than turning everything into one perfectly smooth mash.

I like being able to see a bit of tomato here, a little eggplant there, some green peas and pieces of browned garlic.

My version is also fairly onion-heavy, which is intentional. Two full cups of onion might seem like a lot when you first put them into the pan, but once they soften and pick up a little color, they become the base that holds everything together.

And then there are the peas.

I realize peas in Baingan Bharta might be controversial depending on which household you grew up in. They are entirely optional.

But I love them.

Those little sweet pops against the smoky eggplant and chili are one of my favorite parts of the dish, so mine nearly always has a cup of peas thrown in towards the end. Skip them if that is not your thing.

No gas flame? Here’s what to do instead

Open flame is the gold standard and nothing quite replaces it. But most of these get you 80% of the way there, which is a perfectly good place to be on a Tuesday.

Oven and then broil. Rub with oil, slit, and put it in a hot oven, I would do 475F, for a good 30 minutes - turn twice in between so it cooks evenly. Then turn on your broiler, and move the eggplants on the top rack, flip often, for maybe 10-20 minutes or until they are blackened and blistered all over.

Grill. Charcoal is arguably better than a stovetop burner but a gas grill will work too. Straight onto the grate, lid down, turn occasionally.

The dhungar rescue. If you’ve gone the oven route and want the smoke back: once the bharta is finished, set a small steel bowl in the middle of the pan, drop in a piece of red-hot charcoal, pour half a teaspoon of ghee over it, and cover the pan immediately. Two minutes, lid on. Then remove the bowl and stir.

Ingredients

Serves 4.

For the eggplant

• 2 large eggplants (or 3 medium)

• 1–2 tsp mustard oil, for rubbing

Base

• 2 tbsp oil

• 1 tbsp ghee

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 5–6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

• 2 green chilies, finely chopped

• 2 cups chopped onion (about 1 large)

• 1 tsp salt

• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped (about 1½ cups)

• 1 cup green peas (optional)

• 2 tsp amchoor

• More salt, to taste

Spices

• 1 tbsp coriander powder

• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder

• 1 tsp red chili powder

• ½ tsp turmeric

To finish

• ½ tsp garam masala

• Fresh dhaniya, chopped, lots of it

• Fresh ginger, julienned

To serve

• Roti, and a simple salad

Method

1. Prep the eggplants. Wash and dry them well. Rub the skin all over with a little mustard oil, then poke four or five slits into each one with the tip of a knife.

2. Char them. Set them directly onto a medium-high open flame. Leave them alone for several minutes at a time so the skin can genuinely blacken before you rotate. Keep turning until every side is charred and the whole eggplant has gone soft and slumped — 20 to 25 minutes depending on size.

Take them off, cover and set them aside to cool.

3. Start the base. While they cool, heat 2 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp ghee in a wide pan on medium. Add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle.

4. Garlic and chilies. Add the sliced garlic. Keep the heat moderate her. Cook it slowly to golden brown. Just as it starts taking color, add the chopped green chilies and let them roast in the oil for a few seconds.

5. Bhuno the onions. Add the 2 cups of chopped onion and 1 tsp salt.

Cook, stirring, until they turn golden. We’re not chasing deep caramelization here.

6. Add the spices. Lower the heat. Add the coriander powder, roasted cumin powder, red chili powder and turmeric. Cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring, so the raw edge cooks off without the spices catching.

7. Add the tomatoes. In go the chopped tomatoes. Cook only until they soften and start releasing their juice. While they’re going, move on to the eggplants.

8. Peel and chop the eggplants. Peel the charred skin away carefully, keeping a bowl of water beside you to rinse your fingers between passes. Scoop it onto a chopping board, and rough-chop and mash it with your knife — horizontal cuts, then vertical — until it’s broken down but still textured.

9. Bring it together. Add the chopped eggplant to the pan along with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp amchoor. If you’re using peas, add them now.

10. Bhuno hard. Turn the heat up and bhuno aggressively for about 5 minutes, scraping and folding rather than stirring gently. This is where the water cooks off and the smoke, the masala and the tomato stop being three separate things. The bharta will tighten and darken and start pulling away from the sides of the pan.

11. Finish. Add ½ tsp garam masala. Take it off the heat. Garnish generously with fresh dhaniya and a good pile of ginger juliennes.

To serve

Roti. Hot, straight off the tawa, with a little ghee.

On leftovers. Bharta keeps well for three days and reheats beautifully. It also makes an outstanding sandwich filling, which is not traditional in any way.

This is such a simple dish. Two ingredients, some spices, and a flame. I hope it finds a place at your table.

Week 7 of the Punjabi Food Series. New recipe every Monday.

I don’t want my rajma to be particularly fancy. I don’t need twenty spices. I don’t want to turn it into restaurant food.

I want the beans to be extremely soft, the gravy thick enough to cling to the rice, the tomatoes properly cooked down, and that unmistakable rajma flavor that comes from giving a handful of very ordinary ingredients enough time.

So for Week 6 of my Punjabi Food Series, we’re making a nutritional Sunday lunch hiding inside one of the greatest comfort foods of all time.

The full video is up on YouTube — the written recipe is below.

Three things that actually decide how this turns out

One — soak the beans

Soak your beans for a good 10-12 hours. I know it’s a faff, and I know it means deciding on Saturday that you want rajma on Sunday. But soaked beans cook evenly all the way to the center, and they’re considerably easier on your stomach. Soaking pulls out a good chunk of the oligosaccharides that make beans, well, beans. Drain that soaking water and start fresh.

Two — bhuno twice.

There are two browning stages here.

The onions first. Golden brown, not translucent, not softened, not “a bit colored.” You want real color, because that color is the flavor. Salt them early to help them along, and drop the heat the moment they start to turn, because they’ll go from golden to burnt faster than you can find the spoon.

Then the tomato masala. Add the puree, turn the heat up, and cook it until you see oil bubbling up around the edges of the pan. This is a visual signal that the water has cooked off and the fat has separated back out, which means the masala is done and the raw tomato edge is gone.

Three — mash the beans, gently.

Once the beans go back in and the pot comes to a boil, take your ladle and press some of the beans against the side of the pan. Not all of them — you want whole beans in the finished dish. Just a ladleful here and there.

The starch that comes out of those crushed beans is what turns the cooking liquid into gravy. It’s why rajma has that thick, glossy, faintly creamy texture.

Do not drain your bean water… that cloudy, starchy liquid is the base of the whole gravy.

Can I use canned beans?

Yes. You’ll need 3–4 cans for this recipe, drained and rinsed, plus about 3 cups of water to make up the gravy.

They won’t break down quite as generously, so mash a little more aggressively than you would with dried, and give the final simmer the full 25-30 minutes to let the starch do its work.

And while we’re on substitutions… black beans work beautifully here. Same masala, same method, and the result is somewhere between rajma and something you’d want in a taco. A bit of an Indian-Mexican crossover, and one that has never once been unpopular at my table.

Ingredients

Serves 4–6.

For the beans

• 2 cups dried rajma (red kidney beans), soaked overnight and drained

• 6 cups water, for pressure cooking

Fresh spice mix

• 1½ tbsp coriander seeds

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 green cardamom pods

Tomato mix

• 3 large tomatoes

• 5–6 cloves garlic

• 2 inches ginger

• A handful of coriander stems

Masala

• 2 tbsp oil

• 2 tbsp ghee

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• ½ large red onion, finely chopped

• 1 tsp salt, plus 1 tsp more later

• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder

• 1–2 tsp tomato paste

• 2 green chilies, sliced

To finish

• 1 big pinch roasted kasuri methi

• 1 tsp garam masala

• Fresh cilantro, chopped

To serve

• Steamed rice, boondi raita, sliced onion rounds

Method

1. Soak. Wash the rajma well and soak overnight in plenty of water. They’ll roughly double in size, so give them room. Drain and discard the soaking water.

2. Pressure cook. Add the drained beans to your pressure cooker with 6 cups of fresh water. Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes and let the pressure release naturally.

Check one before you move on. It should crush flat with no resistance. If it doesn’t, cook it longer.

3. Make the spice mix. While the beans cook, put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds and green cardamom in a small dry pan over low heat. Toast gently until fragrant. A minute or two, no more. Tip them out and let them cool completely before grinding to a fine powder.

You can absolutely skip this and use pre-ground coriander, cumin and a pinch of cardamom powder. It’ll still be very good. But freshly roasted and ground is cleaner and brighter, and in a recipe with this few ingredients you notice it.

4. Blend the tomato mix. Into a blender: the tomatoes, garlic, ginger and coriander stems. Blend to a smooth puree and set aside.

5. Start the masala. Heat the oil and ghee together in a heavy pan on low-medium. Add the cumin seeds. You want them to sizzle and turn a shade darker.

6. Bhuno the onions. Add the chopped onion and 1 tsp salt straight away. Cook on medium, stirring often, until properly golden brown. This takes time. As soon as they start taking color, lower the heat and let them reach a deep golden color.

7. Add the spices. In goes your fresh spice mix and the Kashmiri red chili powder. Roast for about 2 minutes, stirring.

8. Bhuno the tomato masala. Add the tomato puree and the tomato paste. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture darkens, tightens, and you see oil bubbling up around the sides of the pan. This, also, takes time.

9. Add the beans. Tip in the cooked rajma along with all of its cooking water. Add the second teaspoon of salt and the sliced green chilies if you want the heat and that bright citrusy lift they bring. Stir gently and bring to a boil on high.

10. Mash. While it’s boiling, use your ladle to press some of the beans against the side of the pan. Just a little bit.

11. Simmer. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 25–30 minutes. This is where it actually becomes rajma. The gravy thickens, the color deepens, and the flavors stop tasting like separate things.

You’ll know it’s done when the gravy is thick and glossy and coats the back of a spoon.

12. Finish. Take a big pinch of roasted kasuri methi, crush it between your palms over the pot, and stir it in. Add the garam masala.

Finish with fresh cilantro.

Serve it with boondi raita, sliced onions and rice/roti.

Week 6 of the Punjabi Food Series. New recipe every Monday.

It’s a marinade recipe. The chicken is just the thing we happen to be putting it on today. This same marinade goes on paneer, on thick slabs of broccoli, on onions and peppers, on prawns, on cauliflower… anything you were going to throw on a grill anyway.

And while I’m usually the first person to tell you that Punjabi cooking does not need to be complicated, this is one recipe where I think a few extra steps are entirely worth it. There are plenty of one-bowl tandoori chicken recipes out there. This is not one of them.

We’re marinating the chicken twice. We’re toasting whole spices. We’re smoking mustard oil and, right at the end, giving the finished chicken a proper dhungar (smoke) with hot charcoal and ghee.

None of these steps is particularly difficult. But together, they make the difference between chicken that simply tastes spiced and chicken where the flavor has really worked its way into the meat.

The full video is up on YouTube — the written recipe is below.

Four things that actually decide how this turns out

One - two marinades, and cut deep.

The first marinade is lemon, ginger, garlic, salt, chili and this is there to tenderize. Acid and salt open the meat up and season it from the inside. The second one has yogurt, roasted spices, garam masala, ghee is there to build flavor and cling to the surface.

Bone-in chicken pieces are traditional here, leg-thigh quarters ideally, and they need deep cuts. Four or five slashes per piece, right down to the bone. Then get your hands in and push the marinade into those cuts.

Two - thick, not runny.

Your second marinade should be the consistency of a thick paste. If you can pour it, it’s too thin.

A runny marinade slides off the moment the chicken hits the grate, drips into the fire, and steams the meat instead of roasting it.

To achieve this, strain your yogurt. Even thick Greek yogurt has water to give up, so hang it in muslin for an hour.

Three - the smoke goes in twice.

This is the part I love.

First, we smoke the mustard oil. Heat it until it just starts to shimmer and smoke, then take it off immediately and let it cool completely. Raw mustard oil is sharp and pungent, heating it burns that off and leaves behind something deep and earthy. That flavor, more than any single spice, is what your brain reads as tandoori.

Then at the very end, after the chicken comes off the grill, we do a dhungar. Hot coal, a spoon of ghee, lid on, five minutes. The butter and ghee you basted with aren’t only there for juiciness… fat is what smoke sticks to. Baste properly and the dhungar has something to grab onto.

Lift that lid after five minutes and I promise you’ll stop what you’re doing.

Four - give it time

Allow the marinade to work. Eight hours minimum. Twenty-four is better.

I know. Nobody wants to read that. The salt and acid need hours to work through a bone-in piece, and the yogurt needs time to set onto the surface so it doesn’t slide off in the heat.

Marinate it on Saturday morning. Grill it on Sunday evening. Plan the weekend around it :)

Ingredients

Serves 3

Chicken

• 3 bone-in leg-thigh quarters, skin removed (boneless thighs work too — they’ll cook faster)

First marinade

• Juice of ½ lemon

• 2 inches ginger, freshly grated

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tbsp Kashmiri red chili powder

Second marinade — whole spices to roast

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 1 tsp coriander seeds

• 1 black cardamom

• 1 inch cinnamon

• 2 cloves

• A big pinch of kasuri methi

Second marinade — everything else

• 100-125 g hung yogurt or thick Greek yogurt, strained

• 1 tbsp Kashmiri red chili powder

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp honey or brown sugar

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tbsp melted ghee

• 1-1.5 tbsp mustard oil, smoked and cooled

For grilling and finishing

• Butter or ghee, melted, for basting

• 1 piece natural lump charcoal

• A few cloves and green elaichi

• 1 tsp ghee, for the dhungar

• Chaat masala, to finish

To serve

• Sliced onion rings, lemon wedges, hari chutney

Method

1. Make the first marinade. In a large bowl, combine the lemon juice, grated ginger, minced garlic, salt and Kashmiri chili powder. Mix well.

2. Slash the chicken. Make 4–5 deep slits in each piece, cutting all the way down to the bone. Add the chicken to the bowl.

3. Work it in. Hands in. Push the marinade into every slit. Massage for a couple of minutes until each piece is properly coated inside and out. Leave it to sit while you make the second marinade.

4. Smoke the mustard oil. Heat 1-1.5 tbsp mustard oil in a small pan until it shimmers and just begins to smoke. Take it off the heat immediately and set aside to cool completely.

5. Roast the whole spices. In a small dry pan on low, gently toast the cumin, coriander, black cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and kasuri methi until fragrant - 2-3 minutes. Transfer to your spice grinder and let them cool completely before grinding. Pre-ground spices will work here, but whole and freshly roasted gives you something noticeably cleaner and brighter.

6. Build the second marinade. In a bowl, combine the strained yogurt, Kashmiri chili powder, garam masala, honey or brown sugar, salt, melted ghee, and the cooled mustard oil. Mix hard, a fbig flat spoon helps, until completely smooth.

8. Grind and add the spices. Grind your cooled roasted spices to a fine powder and tip them straight into the marinade. Mix through.

9. Second marinade onto the chicken. Add it to the chicken and massage it in properly… same as before, into the slits, not just over the top. The better you work it in now, the better it stays put on the grill.

10. Rest. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, up to 24.

11. Bring it out. Take the chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature while the grill heats… about 30 minutes.

12. Heat the grill. Get the grate to around 450°F. Oil the grates lightly and make absolutely sure they’re hot before anything goes on.

13. Grill. Chicken on, lid closed. Medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Then turn the heat up to high, flip, and go another 5 minutes.

14. Get the coal going. While the chicken cooks, heat a piece of lump charcoal until it’s glowing red, white & ashy.

15. Baste and finish. Drop the heat back down. Baste generously with melted butter or ghee, flip one last time, baste the other side. Cook another 5 minutes, or until it’s done — for bone-in dark meat I take it to around 165-170°F.

16. Dhungar (smoke). Transfer the chicken to a large bowl. Set a small steel/metal bowl in the middle with a few cloves and elaichi in it. Drop in the hot coal, spoon over a little ghee, and the second it starts smoking — cover the bowl tightly with a plate or baking sheet.

4-5 minutes only.

17. Finish. Lift the lid, take out the katori, and sprinkle everything with chaat masala.

Serving

Onion rings, lemon wedges, hari chutney, and something cold to drink.

No grill? A screaming hot oven will get you most of the way there. 500°F, chicken on a rack over a tray so the air circulates underneath, roughly 25–30 minutes, flipping and basting halfway, then 2–3 minutes under the broiler for char. Do the dhungar once you take it out of the oven.

Leftovers are excellent, but they’re also the beginning of something else entirely. Hold that thought.

This isn’t street-style tandoori chicken. This is the sit-down, white-tablecloth, posh Punjabi restaurant version. Except now you know how to make it :)

And then there is Dal Makhani, where the most important ingredient is probably patience.

At home, we usually make Maah ki Dal more often, a simpler, lighter, more everyday version of this black urad dal. It is also the kind of dal I associate with langars in Punjab and Delhi. Gurdwaras often serve versions of slow-cooked black urad dal, sometimes combined with chana dal, made in enormous pots and cooked until completely soft and comforting. There is usually far less richness, no need for cream, and none of the restaurant-style finishing.

But the connection is very clear to me. Both begin with the same humble black dal and rely on time more than anything else.

Dal Makhani is simply more dressed-up - more ghee, more tomato, butter, a little cream, and a bit more ceremony. Which is why I think people get intimidated by it. They see the dal at a restaurant, glossy and dark and impossibly smooth, and assume there’s a long secret list of things going into it. There isn’t. Look at the ingredients below — it’s genuinely the shortest list in this whole series. There’s no onion. There’s no garlic. There’s barely any spices.

I’m serving the Dal Makhani with a flaky Laccha Parantha, its many layers generously brushed with ghee.

So clear your evening. We are not rushing this one.

Full video is up on YouTube — written recipe below.

Few more things to call out

One — wash the dal properly.

Black urad is not like other dals. It comes coated in a fine, loose black sediment, and if you just rinse it twice under the tap and call it done, all of that goes into your pot. You’ll spend the boil skimming grey scum off the top and the finished dal will taste faintly muddy.

So scrub it. Rub it between your palms, or whisk it hard in the bowl, drain, repeat. Three, four, five times, until the water finally runs something close to clear. It takes time but its an important step.

Two — bhuno the tomatoes until the ghee separates.

You want the tomato puree cooking down in ghee until the fat splits out of the masala — pooling on top, or bubbling up along the edges of the pan.

It means the water has cooked off, the raw tomato is gone, and the masala is ready to take the dal. If you add the dal before that happens, you’ll taste it — there’s a sharp, acidic edge.

Three — soak long, simmer long.

The dal has to soak for as long as possible 10-24 hours, pressure cook or simply boil hard and then sit on the lowest possible flame for an hour while it slowly turns from a thin brown soup into something you could serve on a spoon. While the dal simmers, you can take your ladle and mash a little of it against the side of the pot every so often. That’s where the creaminess is coming from: starch, released slowly, stirred back in. By the end you should be able to drag a spoon through it and have the line hold for a second.

Cream doesn’t make Dal Makhani makhani. Time does. We use a lot of tomato and a lot of ginger in this dal, and that little bit of cream is there to round off the acidity.

Dal Makhani

Serves 6–8 Soak: 10–12 hours · Pressure cook: 30 mins · Simmer: about 1 hour

Ingredients

The dal

• 2 cups (400 g) kali sabut urad dal (whole black urad)

• 3 tbsp rajma

• 8 cups water

• 2 black cardamom pods

• 1 stick cinnamon

• 1 tsp salt

The tadka

• 3 tbsp ghee

• 3 inches ginger, grated

• 2-3 tsp Kashmiri lal mirch

• 4 large tomatoes, blended to a smooth puree (~600-700 ml)

• 1 tbsp tomato paste

• 2 tsp salt

To finish

• 1 heaped tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp kasuri methi, lightly toasted

• 2-3 tbsp butter

• 1.5-3 tbsp cream

Method

1. Wash the dal. Put the urad dal in a wide bowl and cover with water. Scrub it between your palms or whisk it vigorously, then drain. Repeat three or four times until the water runs clear.

2. Soak. Cover the dal and rajma with plenty of fresh water and leave to soak for at least 10–12 hours, can go up to 245 hrs. Drain & wash before adding to Instant Pot.

3. Pressure cook. Add the drained dal and rajma to the Instant Pot with 8 cups water, the salt, black cardamom and the cinnamon stick. Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes with natural release. The whole spices are there to perfume the dal gently — they come out later.

4. Start the tadka. While the dal cooks, heat the ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add the grated ginger and cook for about a minute, until it’s fragrant.

5. Add the chili. Lower the heat and stir in the Kashmiri lal mirch. Keep the flame low here so it doesn’t catch.

6. Bhuno the tomatoes. Add the tomato puree and tomato paste. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring every so often, until the ghee separates from the masala — floating on top or bubbling along the sides of the pan.

7. Bring the dal in. Fish out the black cardamom and cinnamon from the cooked dal, skim off any scum, then pour the dal and all of its water into the tadka. Add the salt and stir well.

8. Boil hard. Turn the heat up and let it boil for 10–15 minutes. You will need to keep stirring the dal to prevent it from sticking to your pot. As it boils, use the back of your ladle to mash some of the dal against the side of the pot, just a little bit.

9. Simmer low and slow. Drop the heat and let the dal simmer, covered, for anywhere between 45–60 minutes. Stir now and then. Around the 30-minute mark you’ll see it start to thicken; by the end it should be glossy and velvety. You can take the dal off the heat when it reaches the consistency you desire or keep simmering until it does.

10. Finish it. Stir in the garam masala. Crush the toasted kasuri methi between your palms and add it in. Then the butter, then the cream. Taste for salt.

A few notes

Toast the kasuri methi. Just a few seconds in a dry pan, until it smells nutty. Raw kasuri methi carries a slightly bitter edge; warming it softens that and turns it sweeter and much more aromatic.

It will keep thickening as it sits. This is normal — the starch keeps setting up as it cools. Loosen it with hot water, never cold. Cold water seizes the fat and dulls the whole thing.

It’s better the next day. This is great dish to make a day ahead if you’re serving it to people.

Serve it in a warm bowl. A knob of butter on top, a little more crushed kasuri methi, and a light drizzle of whipped cream over the surface. Hot laccha paratha on the side.

Week 5 lands next Monday. See you then. 🌶️

And I think a lot of you are the same. Kadhi is one of those dishes that almost nobody orders at a restaurant… because why would you, when it’s the thing you or someone in your family makes on a slow afternoon.

This one is a bit of a mixed-marriage recipe. My family is Punjabi from Delhi, my in-laws are from Rajasthan, and both households make kadhi pretty similarly. What I’m giving you here is a thick, deeply tempered kadhi with soft onion pakode dropped in at the end.

The whole thing is really just two ingredients doing the heavy lifting: good, finely-ground besan (gram flour, made from ground chana dal, or split brown chickpeas) and dahi (yogurt), preferably that’s gone a little sour. That’s it. It’s light on the stomach, it’s naturally gluten-free, and if you use Greek yogurt like I do, it quietly turns into a high-protein lunch.

The full video is up on YouTube — the written recipe is below.

Three things that help your Kadhi!

One — sour yogurt. Sourness is what gives kadhi its tang and keeps a besan-heavy dish from tasting flat and pasty. If your yogurt is fresh and sweet, leave it out on the counter for a few hours, or overnight if your kitchen is cold. Old dahi sitting sadly at the back of the fridge also works :)

Two — low heat when the dahi goes in. This is the only step where kadhi can genuinely go wrong. Yogurt splits when it meets high heat, and once it’s split there’s no coming back. So bring the flame right down before the besan-dahi mixture goes into the kadhai, and keep whisking until it reaches boiling point. The besan is actually helping you here… it stabilizes the yogurt but the whisking is still non-negotiable.

Three — time. Kadhi cannot be rushed. You need anywhere between 20-30 minutes of slow simmering (this is not accounting for the time the kadhi takes to come to a boil), stirring every few minutes, until it goes from thin and pale to thick and glossy and a shade darker.

And here’s the golden rule for the perfect pakode - soft on the inside, crunchy outside: beat the batter. Properly, by hand, until it lightens in color. You’re whipping air into it, and that air is what gives you soft, fluffy pakode.

Ingredients

Serves 4–5

Kadhi base

• 250g yogurt (about 1 cup), preferably slightly sour, I used full-fat Greek Yogurt

• 40g besan (¼–½ cup)

• 1 tsp haldi

• 1 tsp salt

• 200ml water for whisking + 1 liter water, kept aside

Pakode

• 1.5 cups besan (just under 150g)

• 140 - 150 ml water

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp ajwain

• 1 tsp garam masala

• ½ tsp red chilli powder

• Big pinch kasuri methi

• 1.25 - 1.5 cups thinly sliced onion (half a large red onion), cut short not long

• ¼ cup chopped dhaniya

• 1 tsp hot oil, plus oil for deep frying

Kadhi tadka

• 2–3 tbsp oil, left over from frying the pakode

• 1 tsp jeera

• 1 tsp coriander seeds

• ½ tsp each rai, methi seeds, ajwain, saunf

• 1 cup finely chopped onion (half a large red onion)

• 10–12 curry patta, chopped

• 3 inches ginger, finely chopped

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 1–2 green chillies, finely chopped

• 1 tsp salt

Final tadka

• 2 tsp ghee

• 3 dried red chillies

• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

• Chopped dhaniya, to garnish

Method

1. Make the kadhi base first. Whisk the yogurt with the besan, haldi, salt and 200ml water until it’s completely lump-free. Set it aside. Measure out the remaining liter of water and keep that aside too - you’ll need to add this water pretty quickly once the base goes in.

2. Make the pakoda batter. In a bowl, mix the besan, salt, ajwain, red chilli powder, garam masala, kasuri methi and 140-150ml water into a thick paste. Now beat it — by hand or with a flat spoon — for a good 5 minutes, until the mixture visibly lightens in color and feels airier.

3. Fry the pakode. Heat your oil. Only once it’s hot, fold the sliced onions, chopped dhaniya and 1 tsp of the hot oil into the batter — adding the onions early makes them release water and loosen the batter. Drop small dollops into the oil with a spoon or by hand, and fry until golden. Drain and set aside.

4. Start the tadka. Pour off the frying oil, leaving 2–3 tbsp in the kadhai. Make sure the oil is not scorching hot otherwise your seeds will burn in a flash. Add the jeera, coriander seeds, saunf, ajwain, rai and methi seeds. The ajwain and saunf are there for digestion, and the rest give you those little pockets of crunch you keep finding in a bite.

5. Onions and curry patta. Once the seeds are sizzling, add the chopped onion, curry patta and salt. Cook until the onions just start catching color.

6. Ginger, garlic, chilli. Add all three now. Don’t blend the ginger into a paste for this dish — finely chopped is what you want, so you get little bursts of heat and freshness when you bite into it. Lower the heat and cook for 2–3 minutes more.

7. Add the dahi mixture — heat low. With the flame low, pour in the besan-yogurt mixture and whisk continuously. Then use the reserved water to swirl out the yogurt bowl and get every last bit of the base into the kadhai, and add the rest of it in.

8. Boil, then simmer. Turn the heat up high and bring it to a boil, whisking every so often. Once it’s boiling, drop it to a low simmer and let it go for another 20-30 minutes, stirring in between, until it’s thick and glossy.

A thing worth knowing: besan keeps absorbing water as it cooks and as it cools. So pull it off the heat looking slightly thinner than where you want it to land. If it gets too thick at any point, just add hot water and carry on cooking.

9. Add the pakode. In the last 10 minutes, drop the pakode in so they soak up the kadhi and go soft.

10. Final tadka. Heat the ghee in a small pan, add the dried red chillies. Once the chillies start sizzling, take it off the flame and the Kashmiri red chilli powder, and pour it over the kadhi. Finish with chopped dhaniya.

Serve it hot over rice, with sliced onions and a papad on the side. And if there’s any left, put it in the fridge — kadhi is one of the very few things that is really better the next day, once the pakode have given up entirely and gone completely soft.

Week 4 lands next Monday. See you then. 🌶️

They are dark, intensely spiced and coated in a thick, glossy gravy that clings to every chickpea. They taste like the cholle you hope to find at a really good spot in Delhi or Amritsar.

They also go by several names: Pindi cholle, Chikkad cholle. Whatever you call them, the defining feature is what they do not contain. There is no onion, tomato or garlic here. All the flavor comes from a freshly roasted spice blend, good-quality ghee and the chickpea cooking water.

Full video is up on YouTube — but the written recipe is below.

My mom has three golden rules for that distinct black color.

One — only dark spices. No haldi. No bright red chili powder. Everything that goes into the blend is dark to begin with: black peppercorns, black cardamom, cloves, anardana, black salt.

Two — cook it in a black iron kadhai. The iron deepens the color as the cholle cook. And for my girlies, you’re getting a little extra iron in the bargain.

Three — add the cooking water back in stages. Not all at once. Half a cup, let it cook off, then again. This is what makes the spices cling to the chickpeas instead of floating around in a thin gravy and it builds something thick, dark and glossy by the end.

Serve with bhature or kulche, sliced onions, green chillies and a sharp chutney on the side.

Pindi Cholle

Serves 4–6

For the chickpeas

• 2 cups dry chickpeas (kabuli chana)

• 6 cups water

• 1 tsp salt

For the spice blend — roast and grind

• 2 tsp cumin seeds

• 1 tsp black peppercorns

• 1 tbsp coriander seeds

• 2 black cardamom pods

• 8 green cardamom pods

• 4 cloves

• 2 dried red chillies

Add to the ground blend — do not roast

• 2 tsp garam masala

• 3 tsp anardana powder

• 2 tsp amchoor

• 2 tsp black salt

For cooking

• 3 tbsp ghee

• Reserved chickpea cooking water

For the tadka

• 2 tbsp ghee

• 2-inch piece of ginger, julienned

• 2–3 green chillies, slit

• 1 tsp shah jeera

To serve

• Chopped dhaniya

• Sliced onions, green chillies, chutney

• Bhature or kulche

Method

1. Soak and boil the chickpeas. Soak the chickpeas for 8–10 hours in plenty of water — they drink it up and plump as they soak, so be generous. Drain, then add them to your Instant Pot with 6 cups of fresh water and 1 tsp salt. High pressure, 16 minutes, natural release.

Using canned chickpeas? You’ll need 3 to 4 tins. They won’t be as soft and creamy, but here’s a hack — boil them on the stove for 20 to 25 minutes first. That gets you much closer to the right texture.

2. Make the spice blend. While the cholle boil, set a pan on low-medium heat and add the cumin, peppercorns, coriander seeds, black and green cardamom, cloves and dried red chillies. Roast lightly until fragrant.

Let them cool completely, then grind to a fine powder. Stir in the garam masala, anardana, amchoor and black salt. Set aside.

3. Drain, but save the water. Open the Instant Pot and skim off any scum from the top. Drain the chickpeas — but keep the cooking water. It’s the base of your gravy.

4. Bhuno the masala. Heat 3 tbsp ghee in a black iron kadhai. Once it’s hot but not scorching — you don’t want to burn the spices — add the spice blend and bhuno for 2 to 3 minutes. Let it bloom in the ghee and release its oils.

5. Coat the chickpeas. Add the drained chickpeas and bhuno them dry with the masala for another 2 to 3 minutes, until every chickpea is properly coated.

6. Build the gravy in stages. Add the reserved cooking water half a cup at a time. Let it cook off, then add again. Do this three times. Then add about 2 to 2.5 cups of the reserved water and let everything simmer for 10 minutes. You can smash the chickpeas, just a little bit using your spatula, this will help thicken the gravy. That’s your final gravy — thick, dark and glossy.

7. Finish with a tadka. In the last 2 minutes, heat 2 tbsp ghee in a small pan and add the shah jeera, julienned ginger and slit green chillies. Pour it over the cholle.

8. Serve. Top with chopped dhaniya and serve hot with bhature or kulche, sliced onions, green chillies and chutney.

That’s it — proper Dilli-style, Amritsar-style cholle. One bite and I’m back in Delhi.

Week 3 lands next Monday. See you then. 🌶️

Because I’ve noticed it never gets top billing. Palak Paneer gets the restaurant orders. Shahi Paneer gets the shaadi menus. And then there is Matar Paneer - peas for freshness, paneer for richness, one simple onion-tomato gravy holding it all together. No cream, no spice mix, no drama.

So it felt right to open the Punjabi Food Series with Matar Paneer. The video is live now — watch it here — and this is the kind of dish the whole series is built around: everyday Punjabi food, made the way it’s actually made at home.

One technique before we start, because you’re going to hear me say it all series long: bhuno.

Bhunnai is probably the most important technique in Punjabi cooking. It means cooking on medium-high heat, with active stirring, coaxing the flavor out slowly until the oil separates — you’ll see it float to the top or bubble along the sides of the masala. We bhuno onions, we bhuno tomatoes, we bhuno meat. It’s the difference between a gravy that tastes flat and one that tastes like someone’s mummy made it.

The other non-negotiable: brown your onions patiently. Don’t stop at translucent. You want a real golden shade — that’s what brings the deep, complex sweetness you cannot get from any other ingredient.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 2 tbsp ghee + 2 tbsp neutral oil

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 1–1.25 cups chopped onion (about ½ a large red onion)

• 1 tsp salt (for the onions)

• 6 garlic cloves, minced

• 2-inch piece of ginger, grated

• 2 large tomatoes, pureed (or 3 medium)

• 1 tsp tomato paste

• 1.5 tbsp coriander powder

• ½ tsp haldi

• 1–2 tsp red chili powder (adjust to your taste and the potency of your chili powder)

• 1 cup water (to deglaze)

• 1–1.5 cups green peas (frozen work great)

• 200 ml water (about ¾ cup — more or less depending on how thick you like your gravy)

• 1 tsp salt (for the gravy)

• 1–2 green chilies, slit (optional)

• 10–14 oz paneer, cut into cubes (one standard pack from the Indian store)

• 2 pinches of kasuri methi

• ½ tsp garam masala

• Fresh dhaniya, chopped, for garnish

Method

1. Soak the paneer. Place the cubed paneer in hot water to soften while you cook. If you’re using fresh homemade paneer, skip this.

2. Temper the cumin. Heat the ghee and oil in a heavy pot. Once hot, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle.

3. Brown the onions — patiently. Add the chopped onions with 1 tsp salt (this helps them sweat faster). Sauté on medium heat until they turn a deep golden color. Don’t stop at translucent — this step is where the flavor lives.

4. Add ginger and garlic. Once the onions are just starting to brown, add the grated ginger and minced garlic. Let them roast alongside the onions for about a minute.

5. Bhuno the tomatoes. Add the pureed tomatoes and tomato paste. Now cook the masala properly — bhuno on medium-high heat with active stirring until the oil separates and floats to the top or bubbles along the sides.

6. Roast the ground spices. Lower the heat and add the coriander powder, haldi, and red chili powder. Stir for a minute or two, keeping the heat low so the spices don’t burn.

7. Add the peas. Deglaze with 1 cup of water, add the green peas, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the peas are cooked through.

8. Build the gravy. Add the 200 ml water, 1 tsp salt, and the slit green chilies. Stir, then add the drained paneer. Don’t stir too much after the paneer goes in — let it come to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

9. Finish with the final layer of spices. We started with whole cumin tempered in fat, then the ground spices — now the finishing spices. Crush the kasuri methi lightly between your palms and sprinkle it in, along with the garam masala. Give it a gentle mix. If you want to impress, stir in 2 tbsp of heavy cream here.

10. Serve. Top with fresh dhaniya. I’m serving mine with fresh roti and a simple salad.

This is week one of the Punjabi Food Series — a new recipe every Monday for eight weeks, across YouTube, Instagram, and right here. If you love organizing recipes, I use ReciMe. You can support my channel by signing up with my creator code: MONADARLING.

I recently picked up Masala Mandi, which is a detailed guide on Indian spice blends, from Bahrisons in Delhi, and it has 32 different recipes just for garam masala. Thirty-two. For one spice blend.

So this is not the garam masala. It is my garam masala.

I built this blend mainly to make Punjabi food hit harder. It is cumin-forward, because cumin gives that earthy, warm backbone I want in dishes like chole, rajma, dal, keema, and rich sabzis… with two kinds of jeera: regular cumin for the earthy backbone, and shah jeera, its smaller, smokier cousin, for depth. And I leave out the coriander. Most blends use sabut dhania as a soft, rounding base; I skip it on purpose because I want this one bold and concentrated, not mellow.

Alongside the cumin, I use deeper, more resinous spices like black cardamom, mace, and nutmeg. Then I bring in the classic warm spices used across Indian cooking… green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper for heat plus a little star anise for a sweet, licorice-like lift.

The result is intense. This is not a masala you casually throw in by the spoonful. For most dishes serving 4 to 6 people, half tsp to 1 tsp is enough. Use it at the end of cooking, or close to the end, so the aroma stays alive. A little goes a long way.

My Punjabi Garam Masala

• Cumin seeds — 60g (½ cup)

• Shah jeera — 25g (¼ cup)

• Black peppercorns — 30g (¼ cup)

• Cloves — 16g (shy 1/4 cup)

• Black cardamom (badi elaichi), whole — 12 pods

• Green cardamom (choti elaichi), whole — 16g (⅙ cup)

• Mace (javitri) — 7g

• Cinnamon (dalchini) — 15g

• Star anise (chakra phool) — 2 whole

• Nutmeg (jaiphal) — 1/2, grated at the end

Method: Slow-roast all the whole spices (except Nutmeg) in a heavy pan over low heat, stirring, until fragrant - about 4-5 minutes. Let them cool completely, then grind to a fine powder. Store in an airtight jar, away from light and heat.

But for something that lands this close to biryani — warm, aromatic, deeply golden onions, juicy chicken nestled into spiced basmati — 45 minutes is a steal. This is the one I reach for on the weeknights when the biryani craving hits hard but the thought of layering and dum and babysitting three different pots makes me want to lie down on the kitchen floor.

One pan. One trip to the oven. That’s the whole thing.

The magic really comes down to two moves. First, get your onions deeply golden — don’t rush them. That slow browning is where all the flavor lives, so give it the full 10–15 minutes. Second, let the rice steam right on top of the seared, spiced chicken so every grain soaks up those drippings. That’s it. That’s the trick.

Serve it with the five-minute raita at the bottom and dinner is sorted.

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups basmati rice, washed and soaked

• 4–5 chicken thighs

• 4 tbsp oil/ghee, divided

• 2 tsp salt, divided

• 1 tbsp biryani masala, garam masala or your favorite spice blend

• ½ large red onion, thinly sliced

• 5 garlic cloves, sliced

• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder

• Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

• Handful of fresh cilantro

• Juice of ½ lemon

• 2 cups water

Method

1. Wash and soak your rice while you work on the other steps.

2. Preheat oven to 375F/190C.

3. Season the chicken thighs with 1 tsp salt and the spice blend on both sides.

4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and sear the chicken until lightly golden on both sides. Remove and set aside.

5. In the same pan, add 2 more tbsp of oil and cook the onions with a pinch of salt until deeply golden, about 10–15 minutes. Don’t rush this part — golden onions are the whole point.

6. Just when the onions begin to brown, add the garlic and cook for 1–2 minutes.

7. Add the tomatoes and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the chopped cilantro, the cumin powder, and the remaining 1 tsp salt.

8. Pour in the water, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the drained rice and stir gently.

9. Once the liquid comes to a boil, nestle the chicken back into the pan. Add the lemon juice.

10. Cover the pan tightly with a lid or foil. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the rice is cooked and the chicken is cooked through.

11. Rest for 5 minutes and garnish with more fresh cilantro. Take out the chicken thighs, slice ‘em, and lightly fluff up the rice with a fork before serving.

Quick Raita

Mix together:

• 3–4 heaped tbsp Greek yogurt

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder

• Chopped cucumber, onion, mint/cilantro, and green chili

That’s dinner/lunch sorted. ✨

I could have guessed the answer before she said it.

Strawberry cake.

There is something deeply correct about a little girl asking for strawberry cake. Pink, soft, sweet, dramatic in the most harmless way. The only issue is that most strawberry cakes and cupcakes you buy from a store get their strawberry-ness from food color, artificial flavor, or both. I did not want that. I wanted a cake that actually tasted like strawberries, not a cake that simply looked like strawberries had been involved in the decision-making process.

So I went down the strawberry cake research hole.

The problem with strawberries is that they are full of water. Delicious, fragrant, sweet-tart water. If you just blend a bunch of fresh strawberries and dump them into cake batter, you might get a hint of flavor, but you also get too much liquid. And too much water in cake batter means a sadder crumb: dense, gluey, heavy in the wrong way.

This cake is dense in the right way. Soft, plush, tender, and loaded with strawberry flavor in three forms.

First, we make a strawberry reduction. This is the step you do not skip. You cook down fresh or frozen strawberries until most of the water evaporates and you are left with a thick, jammy, intensely flavored puree. Sweet, tart, concentrated strawberry. This is where the deep strawberry flavor comes from.

Second, we add freeze-dried strawberry powder to the cake batter. Freeze-dried fruit works on the same principle: the water has been removed, so what is left is pure concentrated flavor. It gives the cake more strawberry without loosening the batter.

Third, we add another full pack of freeze-dried strawberry powder to the frosting. My frosting is a cream cheese frosting made with fresh cream instead of butter, so it stays lighter and softer. The strawberry powder turns it into something that tastes like strawberries and cream, but with real intensity. If you want a milder strawberry flavor and a softer pink hue, use half the pack in the frosting instead.

One more thing: I used sour cream in the batter because that's what I had. Greek yogurt works just as well. Room temp on both, please — cold dairy tightens the batter.

Strawberry Reduction

Ingredients

2 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen

Method

1. Add the strawberries to a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, and mash them as they soften.

2. Keep cooking until the berries reduce to about 1/2 cup of thick puree. This takes around 30 to 40 minutes. You are cooking off the water and concentrating the sweet-tart strawberry flavor.

3. Cool completely before using in the cake batter.

Cake Batter

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups / 180g cake flour
Or use 158g all-purpose flour + 22g cornstarch

3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 cup / 1 oz / 28g freeze-dried strawberries, blended to a powder
130g granulated sugar
6 tbsp / 85g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp / 28g neutral oil
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1/2 cup / 120g full-fat sour cream, room temperature (you can substitute full-fat Greek yogurt)
1/2 cup cooled strawberry reduction
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice

Method

1. Make sure the egg whites and sour cream, or Greek yogurt, are at room temperature before you begin.

2. Preheat the oven to 325°F / 163°C. Grease a 9x9 inch square pan and line the bottom with parchment.

3. In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and freeze-dried strawberry powder. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, oil, and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

5. Add the egg whites one at a time, beating for about 20 seconds after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and white vinegar.

6. Add the sour cream and mix until just incorporated. Scrape the bowl well.

7. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in two additions, alternating with the cooled strawberry reduction. Mix only until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.

8. The batter will be thick and slightly pink.

9. Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the center springs back lightly when pressed and a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

10. Cool completely in the pan on a rack before frosting.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup / 1 oz / 28g freeze-dried strawberries, blended to a powder
Use half if you want a milder strawberry flavor
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cold heavy cream
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Whip the cold heavy cream separately to soft peaks.

2. In another bowl, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth.

3. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese base.

4. Fold in the strawberry powder at the end. The frosting should be light, creamy, and intensely strawberry.

5. If the frosting feels too soft, chill it briefly before using.

6. Spread the frosting generously over the cooled cake, either directly in the pan or after removing the cake onto a board.

7. Top with fresh sliced strawberries.

8. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before slicing. The frosting sets beautifully when chilled, and the cake cuts much cleaner.

Notes

• The strawberry reduction needs to be completely cool before it goes into the batter. Warm puree will mess with the texture.

• Do not overmix once the flour goes in. This is how you keep the cake plush instead of tough.

• Use one full pack of freeze-dried strawberries in the frosting if you want big strawberry flavor. Use half if you want it softer and more subtle.

• This cake is best served chilled or cool-room-temp, especially once the frosting has had time to set.

This one is a staple in Pakistani homes: lamb/mutton cooked down in a spiced onion-tomato base. My reason for making it is, admittedly, a little unserious. Like half the internet, I got swept up in the Dhurandhar craze and got completely pulled into Ranveer Singh's performance as Hamza Ali Mazari. Days after watching the movie, I was still humming the songs and at some point I started wondering… what would Hamza actually be eating on a regular weeknight in Pakistan? That’s how I landed on this classic: Aloo Gosht.

The version I’m sharing is a rustic, Punjabi take, which means it leans hard on the technique that makes Punjabi food sing - bhuno-ing, the slow sautéing in oil that happens at multiple stages of the cook.

It begins with onions cooked patiently in oil over medium heat. Not just until golden, but until they cross into that deep caramelized brown territory where they become rich, sweet, and almost meaty in flavor themselves. Next, you bhuno the meat. My favorite cut here is lamb or mutton shoulder, but bone-in curry cut or shoulder chops work beautifully too — we’re braising low and slow until the meat is fall-apart tender, so the cut just needs to reward patience.

And before someone asks: no, you cannot skip the potatoes.

Sure, they’re carbs. But you wouldn’t pull the potatoes out of an aloo paratha or order steak frites without the frites. The potatoes soak up the gravy, soften at the edges, and somehow become the most fought-over thing in the pot.

Serve it with a simple cucumber-onion-tomato-lemon salad and plain boiled rice or a fresh roti. That’s the whole meal.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp oil

• 1 large onion, thinly sliced

• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt

• 1 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 large tomatoes, chopped

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 5 cloves garlic, minced

• 2-inch piece ginger, grated

• 2 lbs boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 1 to 1.5-inch cubes

• 1 tbsp coriander powder

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp red chili powder

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 2 tsp salt, divided

• 2 cups water

• 2 large potatoes, peeled and quartered

• 2 to 3 green chilies, slit

• Cilantro, for garnish

Method

1. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the sliced onions and cook slowly, stirring often, until deeply browned and caramelized. This should take around 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Remove the onions and let them cool slightly. Blend them with the yogurt until smooth and set aside.

3. In the same pan, add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Add in the garlic and ginger. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the raw smell disappears.

4. Add the lamb along with 1 tsp salt. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the meat begins to brown around the edges.

5. Lower the heat and add the coriander, garam masala, red chili powder, and turmeric. Bhunno the spices for 2 to 3 minutes on low heat.

6. Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring regularly, until the tomatoes begin to break down.

7. Pour in the blended onion-yogurt mixture and continue cooking on low to medium heat, stirring frequently, until the masala thickens and the oil starts separating from the sides. This can take 10 to 15 minutes, but it’s the step that gives the curry its depth.

8. Add the water and bring everything to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

9. Add the potatoes and green chilies, cover again, and cook for another 10 to 12 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

10. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Finish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with rice or roti.

The idea

Two of my favorite things, smashed together. The dough is a classic Japanese milk bread… built on a tangzhong so the crumb stays cloud-soft for days. The filling is a compound butter inspired by hari chutney, the bright green cilantro chutney that gets spooned over everything from chaat to kathi rolls.

A few tweaks to make it work as a butter rather than a sauce: I dropped the lime juice (too much water… it would weep into the dough) and used lemon zest instead for the citrus lift. I also added parmesan, which isn’t traditional in hari chutney at all, but bread loves umami and the parmesan gives the butter just enough savory depth to stand up to all that enriched dough.

What’s a tangzhong?

It’s a tiny cooked paste of flour and milk that you stir into the dough. Heating the flour with liquid gelatinizes the starches, which lets the dough hold onto significantly more water than it otherwise could. The result: a softer, fluffier crumb, and bread that stays tender for days rather than going stale overnight. It’s the secret behind that pull-apart Japanese bakery texture.

Ingredients

Tangzhong

• 10g bread flour

• 50g whole milk

Dough

• 75g whole milk, fridge-cold

• ½ egg (whisk 1 whole egg, save the rest for egg wash)

• 175g bread flour

• 15g caster sugar

• 2.5g instant dry yeast (½ tsp + ¼ tsp)

• 2g fine salt

• 15g soft butter

• 15g neutral oil (avocado or refined olive)

Hari Chutney Compound Butter

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1 green chili

• 1 bunch cilantro (about 45g)

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• ¼ cup grated parmesan

• ½ tsp salt

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 80g unsalted butter, softened

To finish

• Flaky sea salt

Method

1. Tangzhong. Whisk the flour and milk in a small saucepan off the heat. Move to medium heat and whisk constantly until thickened to a pudding-like paste, about a minute. Scrape into the bowl of your stand mixer.

2. Mix. Pour the cold milk over the tangzhong, add the half egg, then scale the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt on top. Mix on medium for 5–7 minutes until sticky but cohesive. With the mixer running, add the butter a teaspoon at a time, then slowly drizzle in the oil. Keep mixing 6–8 minutes more until you hit the windowpane stage — a small piece should stretch thin and translucent without tearing. If you’re not there, rest 5 minutes and mix again.

3. First proof. Shape into a round on the bench, using friction to build a smooth, taut surface. Either proof in a covered bowl for ~1 hour until doubled, or press flat onto a tray and cold-proof overnight (easier to laminate). If you proofed at room temp, freeze the flattened dough 20–30 minutes before shaping — you want it cold.

4. Compound butter. Blitz the garlic, chili, cilantro, cumin, parmesan, and salt in a small food processor until crumbly. Add the soft butter and lemon zest, pulse until vivid green and spreadable.

5. Shape. Roll the cold dough into a rectangle, roughly 25 x 15cm and ½cm thick. Spread the compound butter to the edges. Fold like a letter: left third in, right third over. Cut crosswise into 6–7 strips. Stretch each strip, twist from both ends, then coil into a knot, tucking the end underneath. Place on a lined tray with space between.

6. Second proof. Cover and proof 1-1.5 hour (depends on the temperature of your space), until puffy… a gentle poke should spring back slowly. Brush with egg wash.

7. Bake. 350°F for 10–11 minutes, just to lightly golden. Don’t overbake — these should stay tender.

8. Finish. Cool briefly on the tray, sprinkle with flaky salt, eat warm.

Notes

• Storage: Best day-one. Keeps 2–3 days in an airtight container; re-warm 10 seconds in the microwave or a few minutes in a low oven.

• Heat: One chili is a gentle hum. Two for more kick, or deseed for milder.

• Make-ahead: The compound butter keeps a week in the fridge and freezes for a month. Worth doubling… it’s great on roasted veg, eggs, or toast.

We don’t want trade, no tariffs. We just wanna sit in a nice AC room and eat our many mango varieties in peace.

Alphonso might be the star, but my personal favorite is Kesar. Sweet, fragrant, perfectly balanced. Dasheri is another underrated one, small and unassuming but packed with flavor.

This tart is my ode to all of that.

It turned out beautifully balanced. A short, buttery base. A smooth, cooling custard. And a sharp, punchy mango curd layer that ties everything together. But honestly, the biggest flex might just be how it looks when you slice into it. Clean, distinct layers. Almost like a cake.

This isn’t the quickest dessert, but it’s 100% worth the effort.

We start with the tart base. No rolling involved, which is great, but you’ll need a bit of patience (and some hand strength) to press it evenly into the pan. It gets pricked, chilled, baked, and cooled while we move on to the custard.

The custard is classic. Egg yolks and sugar, tempered with hot cream to create something silky and smooth. Strain it, pour it into the tart shell, bake until there’s a gentle wobble in the center, then let it cool again.

And then comes the mango layer.

I used canned Indian Kesar mango pulp. And I’m going to be very clear here. Fresh mangoes in the US don’t come close. This is a completely one-sided battle. Canned Indian mango pulp is the only way to get that deep, real mango flavor. If you do have access to fresh Indian mangoes, you can make a few small tweaks and still get great results (see note below the mango curd recipe).

We cook it gently with lime juice and egg yolks over a double boiler until it thickens slightly. Strain, pour over the custard, and bake just until set.

That’s it. No more oven after that. Thankfully.

Once fully chilled, I top it with fresh mango cubes and a bit of lime zest. And it’s ready. Slice it, serve it, admire it a little.

This one’s a favorite. And I’m quite proud of it.

Makes one 9-inch tart

Tart base

• 85 g butter, room temperature

• 2 tbsp sugar

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 cup flour

• 1 big pinch salt

1. In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or by hand with a whisk), mix the butter and sugar on low speed for about 1 minute.

2. Add the egg yolk and mix until incorporated. Set the whisk aside if using one.

3. Add the flour and salt. Mix on low for 30 seconds, then bring it together by hand into a homogenous dough. Do not over-mix or over-knead.

4. Transfer the dough to your tart pan. Use your hands and thumbs to press it evenly into the base and up the sides. If a spot gets thin, pinch some dough from a thicker area and massage it in. Trim any excess with a sharp knife.

5. Pierce the base all over with a fork. Freeze for 1 hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for around 20 minutes, until lightly golden. If the dough puffs up at any point, gently press it back down.

Custard

• 300 ml double cream

• 50 g sugar (¼ cup)

• Pinch of salt

• 1 whole egg

• 1 egg yolk

1. Reduce the oven to 300°F.

2. In a saucepan, heat the cream, sugar, and salt until just simmering.

3. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the whole egg and yolk together. Whisking constantly, slowly pour about a third of the hot cream into the eggs to temper. Then pour in the rest and whisk until combined.

4. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a jug, then pour into the cooled tart shell. Pop any air bubbles with a spoon.

5. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until just set with a slight wobble in the center. Set aside to cool while you make the curd.

Mango curd

• 1 cup canned Alphonso or Kesar mango pulp (see note if using fresh mangoes)

• 4 tbsp lime juice

• 2 tbsp sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 2 egg yolks

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Heat oven to 325°F.

2. Set a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler). Add the mango pulp, lime juice, sugar, salt, and yolks.

3. Stir continuously with a rubber spatula until the mixture starts to thicken — about 8–10 minutes.

4. Stir in the butter until melted and smooth. Strain through a sieve.

5. Pour the curd over the cooled custard layer. Bake until the curd is just set 15–20 minutes, look for a wobble at the center of the tart.

6. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until well chilled.

Note: If using fresh Indian mangoes, pick 3–4 very soft ones and puree them. You’ll need to increase the egg yolks to 3, since fresh puree has higher water content. This also means a slightly longer cooking time on the double boiler & in the oven. Lastly, double the sugar, as canned mango pulp is significantly sweeter.

To finish

Top with fresh mango cubes and a generous grating of lime zest just before serving.

This tart is one of those dishes that looks like you really tried. And you did, it’s not a weeknight throw-together but it’s also more forgiving than it looks, and the payoff is genuinely worth it. Creamy, cheesy, with roasted cauliflower and a crust that’s more brioche than shortbread. That last part matters. It makes the whole thing feel more substantial, more rounded. Less “I made a tart” and more “I made a tart.”

The peri peri here works really well. It cuts through the richness and gives the whole thing a nice lift. But this is not a one-note recipe. You can take this in multiple directions. Achari masala would be excellent. Sambar powder works better than you think. Pav bhaji masala is an easy win.

And then there’s the tomato chutney. If you love that sweet-spicy-sticky situation alongside your food, this one’s for you. It’s less the savory, chunky South Indian style and more of a jammy, glossy condiment that you’ll want to put on everything. Make it.

Tomato Chutney

Makes enough for the tart with some left over

• 3 fresh ripe tomatoes

• 2–3 tbsp brown sugar

• 1–2 tsp hot chili flakes

• 1 tsp ground cumin (optional)

• 1–2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• Salt to taste

Method

Blend the tomatoes and pour into a pan. Add the sugar, chilli flakes, cumin, vinegar, and salt. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the water has evaporated and the chutney is thick and sticky. Taste and adjust more sugar, more vinegar, more heat.

Roasted Cauliflower

• 1 medium-large head of cauliflower, broken into florets

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 2 tbsp spice blend (peri peri, achari, sambar: your call)

• Salt & pepper

Method

Toss everything together and spread on a baking tray. Roast at 400°F for 20–30 minutes until golden at the edges. Set aside.

Tart Bread Base

• 105 g bread flour

• 30 g milk

• ½ egg

• 30 g butter, cubed & softened

• ½ tbsp instant yeast (5 g)

• ½ tsp salt

Method

Combine all ingredients and mix to a homogenous dough. Knead for 7–9 minutes until smooth and slightly bouncy. Cover and let it proof while you make the sauce.

Peri Peri Sauce

• 3 tbsp butter

• ¼ cup flour

• 3 tsp spice blend

• 1 cup milk

• 1 cup grated cheese, divided (cheddar, emmental, or gruyere - all good)

• Salt & pepper

Method

Melt butter on low heat. Add the spice blend and let it bloom for a minute until fragrant. Increase to medium heat, add flour, and whisk continuously for about a minute until it smells nutty. Slowly pour in the milk, whisking as you go, and cook for 5–6 minutes until thick. Take off the heat, season with salt and pepper, and stir in three quarters of the grated cheese. Set aside.

Assembly

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-inch tart ring with parchment. A 10 or 12-inch works too, you’ll just roll the base out a bit thinner.

Roll the dough to about ¼ inch thickness and lay it over the tart ring. Press it in firmly along the sides.

Scatter the remaining cheese across the base. Spread half the sauce, followed by the roasted cauliflower and then the remaining sauce. Trim any overhang with a small knife.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until deeply golden. Cool for 10 minutes before unmolding and slicing.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley, chives, or cilantro. Serve with the tomato chutney on the side or on top.

Coffee cake, for all its charm, can sometimes feel one-note. Sweet, soft, done. I kept thinking about chikki while making this. That deep, toasty nuttiness from sesame and jaggery, the kind that lingers. It felt like a natural direction to take this in.

So this cake sits somewhere in between. You still get that classic tender crumb and warm cinnamon notes, but the sesame streusel adds a roasted, almost earthy depth that cuts through the sweetness in the best way. It’s familiar, but not quite.

Give it a try with your next cup of coffee or chai 🙂

Streusel

• 75 g dark brown sugar (about 6 tbsp)

• 25 g sugar (about 2 tbsp)

• 1 cup flour

• 1 tbsp cornstarch

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp ground cardamom

• 1 tsp salt

• 4 tbsp roasted white sesame seeds, lightly crushed

• 100 g butter, cold and cubed (about 7 tbsp)

Cake

• 3/4 cup cream

• 2 tsp white vinegar

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup (145 g) granulated sugar

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 170 g butter, room temperature (about 12 tbsp)

• 2 eggs, room temperature

Filling

• 2 tbsp dark brown sugar

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Streusel

1. Dry roast the sesame seeds on low heat until golden and fragrant. Let them cool.

2. Pulse the sesame seeds in a food processor to a coarse powder. Add all the dry streusel ingredients (except butter) and pulse to combine.

3. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture looks crumbly and pebbly.

4. If it feels too dry, add 1–2 tbsp cold water, just enough to bring it together into small clumps.

5. Spread loosely on a tray and refrigerate while you make the cake.

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line and butter a 9x9 inch pan.

2. Mix cream and vinegar. Set aside for a few minutes to curdle slightly.

3. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs.

4. Add all the dry ingredients to a stand mixer bowl - flour, cornflour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a bowl. Use the paddle attachment and run it on low so everything is mixed thru.

5. Add the softened butter, cream mixture and beat on low.

6. Add vanilla and continue mixing on low.

7. Add the whisked egg in two additions, mixing well after each until you get a thick, smooth batter.

Assemble

1. Spread about two-thirds of the batter into the pan.

2. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon filling evenly on top.

3. Dollop the remaining batter over and gently spread.

Bake

1. Bake for 30 minutes until the cake is just set at the edges.

2. Remove, quickly scatter the chilled streusel on top (focus more on edges).

3. Return to the oven and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake, maybe with a few crumbs.

4. Cool completely before enjoying.

Zucchini, though, has been a hard nut to crack. My attempts at a typical Punjabi sabzi with pyaaz, tamatar, lasun, hari mirch with chopped zucchini — led to a soggy, sorry dish. It felt like it killed the spirit of this delicate vegetable entirely.

I was so excited when I found a zucchini recipe in Asma Khan’s cookbook Ammu — a book I love deeply. Reading it, I could already visualize kalonji complementing lightly sautéed zucchini beautifully. And yet, attempt after attempt left me underwhelmed.

This is not the zucchini’s fault. I’ve had real success pairing it with burrata, homemade romesco, various chimichurris, or simply grilling it until it gets that gorgeous char. But the itch of finding a truly satisfying Indian preparation remained.

That was until the obvious hit me: Zucchini belongs to the same family as Lauki (Bottle Gourd). Ghiya, dudhi, sorakkai, sorakaya, sorekayi, lau… a vegetable so deeply woven into Indian cooking.

And so: a = b = c. If lauki can make koftas, so can zucchini.

I know many people have a complicated relationship with lauki ka sabzi, but koftas? Yaar, koftas are something else entirely. Crispy straight out of the oil, and once you dunk them into a tomato gravy… which doesn’t even need to be heavy or rich… the centers become impossibly pillowy and moist. Pair with roti or rice, saath mein pyaaz and achaar… maza hi mazaa!!

Try it out. Some vegetables just need the right disguise.

Plated here in a beautiful, hand made bowl from Khanoom, Jaipur.

Zucchini Koftas (makes ~24–25 koftas)

6–7 medium zucchini
1 cup besan
1.5–2 tsp salt
½ tsp ajwain (optional)
4-inch piece ginger, finely grated
6–7 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
½ tsp garam masala
A small splash of water, only if needed
Oil for deep frying

Grate the zucchini and place it in a kitchen towel set over a colander. Mix in the salt and let it sit for 15 minutes. This helps draw out excess water.

Gather the towel and squeeze the zucchini well over a bowl. Keep this water, you’ll use it later in the gravy.

Transfer the squeezed zucchini to a bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and mix. The mixture should hold together when pressed. Avoid adding too much water.

Shape into small balls. Keep them slightly smaller than you think, they expand a bit in the gravy.

Heat oil in a wok. Test with a small bit of batter, it should sizzle and rise to the surface.

Fry the koftas in batches, without overcrowding. Move them gently so they brown evenly. Fry until golden, then drain on paper towels.

Curry

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1-inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp black pepper, lightly crushed
1 cup chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1-inch ginger, grated
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 ripe tomatoes, pureed
1 tsp tomato paste (optional)
1 tbsp coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric
2 tsp amchoor (or juice of 1 lemon)
Reserved zucchini water
100–200 ml additional water
½ tsp garam masala
½ cup chopped cilantro
Salt, to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the whole spices and let them sizzle.

Add onions with salt and cook slowly until they turn a deep golden brown. Don’t rush this step.

Add ginger and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Then add the tomatoes and tomato paste, if using.

Cook this mixture patiently until the oil starts to separate at the edges. This bhunai stage is key to building flavor.

Lower the heat, add the ground spices, and cook briefly.

Add the reserved zucchini water and additional water. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add the koftas, adjust salt, and let them simmer in the gravy for another 15 minutes.

Finish with garam masala and fresh cilantro.

Serve warm with roti or rice.

There are more almond cake recipes on the internet than there are stars in the sky. So I’ll give you two phrases: rich, tender marshmallowy texture, and every single component belongs together like salt and caramel.

On the texture

This isn’t a one-bowl situation. But what you get in return is a texture that’s borderline addictive. Chewy, slightly marshmallowy, almost mochi-like in the center with a delicate crust outside.

The secret is two-fold: you’re using both oil and butter (fat from two angles), and you’re folding in whipped egg whites at the end. The whites give it lift and that bouncy, cloud-like chew. Don’t skip this step. Don’t rush it. Fold gently, in three batches, and be patient.

On the fruit

An almond cake on its own is good. With fruit, it becomes something you remember. It needs that contrast. Something juicy, slightly sharp, a little messy.

I went with cherries because they’re in season, but this is flexible. Blueberries, plums, apricots, even kumquats if you want something brighter. The key is to roast them long enough that they collapse into themselves and turn syrupy. Berries will get there fast. Cherries will take their time.

The crème fraîche situation

I whipped crème fraîche with a tablespoon of icing sugar and called it a sauce, but really it’s the glue that holds everything together. The mild tang cuts through the sweetness of the cake and the fruit in exactly the right way. It’s not as rich as whipped cream, not as sharp as yogurt - it’s somehow perfectly in between. Don’t skip it. It’s what takes this from “really good cake” to “okay what just happened.”

When to make this

Summer - this is peak cherry and stone fruit season. Make it for a Sunday lunch that bleeds into the afternoon.

For hosting - this cake is genuinely ideal for a dinner party situation. It looks beautiful without much decoration, and it slices cleanly. You can roast the cherries the day before and reheat them gently. The cake itself keeps well overnight, arguably the texture is even better the next day.

A picnic - transport the cake whole, pack the roasted fruit in a jar, and bring the crème fraîche in a small container. Assemble on-site. People will think you’re incredibly together as a person.

Ingredients

Cake

• 80g softened butter

• 80g neutral oil (avocado works great)

• 160g sugar

• 125g almond flour

• 3 eggs, yolks and whites separated

• ¼ tsp almond extract

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 80g all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

Roasted Cherries

• 12–15 cherries, pitted

• 1 tbsp cornstarch

• 1 tbsp sugar

• Good pinch of salt

• Zest of 1 lemon

• ½ cup water

To serve

• Crème fraîche, whipped with 1 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8-inch round cake pan.

2. Cream the butter, oil, and sugar together for about a minute until well combined.

3. Add egg yolks, almond extract, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

4. Add almond flour and beat lightly to combine.

5. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir until just mixed, don’t overwork it.

6. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold into the batter in three batches, gently. You want to keep all that air you just built.

7. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 30–35 minutes, until golden, springy to the touch, and a toothpick comes out clean.

For the cherries: Toss pitted cherries with cornstarch, sugar, salt, lemon zest, and water. Roast at 350°F until broken down and syrupy, about 40–45 minutes. Add a splash more water halfway through if they look dry.

Serve the cake at room temperature, with a big dollop of crème fraîche and roasted cherries spooned generously over the top or alongside.

Today I’m sharing a cake that I absolutely loved making. I baked this for my husband’s birthday this year because nothing makes me happier than putting together a beautiful cake that feels worthy of a celebration.

Some of my previous celebration cakes, while delicious, have leaned into the denser, more American style. Think vanilla or yellow butter cake layers: incredibly sturdy, but heavy on the stomach. I've long relied on Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMB) as my go-to frosting base, and honestly? Once you nail SMB, you'll fully understand its magic. It’s smooth, stable, and incredibly versatile and maybe still my best option for frosting a tall cake.

And after so many years in the US, I’m genuinely thrilled to see Asian-style cakes having their moment. Soft sponge cakes, chiffon being the most classic, paired with fresh fruit and light, pillowy whipped cream frostings. These are the cakes I grew up on. The ones we used to pick up from Golden Loaf Bakery in Sharjah (in the UAE, where I grew up) every birthday. Light, delicate, and somehow still indulgent.

And so, as I get older, I find myself craving lighter things. The drift toward chiffon felt natural.

But here's the thing: the real star of this cake isn't the layers. It's the frosting.

It is a pillowy whipped mocha frosting that hits you with deep chocolate and strong coffee all at once. I got more than what I used to layer and frost the cake and let me tell you… I gave away slices of the cake without hesitation but I couldn’t let anyone take a spoon of the extra-frosting because it was so so special. If there's one thing you take away from this entire recipe, let it be this frosting.

The cake itself is a light chocolate chiffon. The chocolate flavor is intentionally subtle, leaving just enough room for the coffee and hazelnut to shine through. Before assembly, I brushed each layer generously with a coffee syrup, which the cake absorbed beautifully. And because hazelnut + coffee + chocolate are absolute best friends, there's also a layer of crunchy hazelnut praline tucked into every single slice.

This one’s a full project but every single component is worth it.

For ingredients, DeLallo's espresso powder is my pick for that deep, intense coffee flavor - it balances beautifully against mostly sweet milk chocolate with just a touch of dark. And for chocolate, I always reach for Valrhona, which you can find at Whole Foods.

Enjoy, darling.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

• Cake flour: 170 g (see note below)

• Dutch-process cocoa: 32 g

• Sugar: 175 g total (divide 105 g and 70 g)

• Baking powder: 2¼ tsp

• Salt: 1/4 tsp

• Egg yolks: 4 large

• Neutral oil: ½ cup + 1 tbsp (135 ml)

• Milk or water: ½ cup + 2 tbsp (150 ml)

• Vanilla extract: 1½ tsp

• Egg whites: 5 large

1. Heat oven: 325°F / 165°C. Line bottoms of three 9-inch pans with parchment. Do not grease the sides (this helps chiffon rise evenly)

2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk yolks, 105 g sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla.Combine wet + dry until smooth and glossy.

3. Beat egg whites until foamy.

4. Gradually add ½ cup sugar, beating to soft–medium peaks (tip should bend slightly - do not overbeat).

5. Fold ⅓ of meringue into batter to loosen. Gently fold in the rest in 2 additions.

6. Divide batter evenly between the 3 pans

7. Bake 20-25 minutes, until it springs back lightly and toothpick comes out clean

8. Let cool upright for 10 minutes, run a thin knife around edges. Turn out and cool completely

Note on cake flour - I usually make cake flour by mixing all purpose flour with corn starch. For this recipe, it will be 150g of all-purpose flour with 20g of cornstarch.

Whipped Mocha Frosting

• 200 g milk chocolate, 50 g dark choco - chop em up

• Good pinch of salt

• 3 tbsp espresso powder (i used DeLallo espresso powder)

• 1 cup heavy cream for ganache

• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled

1. Heat 1 cup heavy cream until just about to simmer. Add to a bowl of chopped chocolate.

2. Let chocolate melt for 5 mins and whisk it all together. Add salt, espresso powder and whisk again.

3. Add the 2 cups of chilled heavy cream and mix it in lightly.

4. Cover and chill completely - it would probably take around 4 hours. I chilled it overnight.

5. Next day, whip frosting till medium-stiff peaks.

Hazelnut Praline Crunch

• ¾ cup whole hazelnuts

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 3 tbsp water

• ½ tsp flaky salt

1. Roast hazelnuts for 10-12 minutes in 350°F / 175°C oven, until fragrant. Cool completely

2. In a heavy saucepan, cook sugar + water over medium heat - Do not stir once dissolved.

3. Cook until deep amber

4. Add hazelnuts and salt to the caramel. Stir quickly to coat

5. Immediately spread thin on parchment paper

6. Let cool completely until hard

7. Break the praline slab into large pieces by hand

8. Pulse in a food processor 1 second at a time

9. Stop when texture resembles coarse sand.

Coffee syrup

• Mix ¼ cup sugar with ¼ cup hot water and 1 tbsp espresso powder. Stir till sugar has dissolved.

Ganache

• 40 g cream

• 40 g dark chocolate

1. Heat cream in a saucepan until just simmering.

2. Mix hot cream in 40 g chopped dark chocolate. Cover for 2-3 minutes and mix till combined.

3. Let the ganache cool until it's spreadable but no longer steaming/too hot to melt right through your frosting.

Assembly

Place your first cake layer on a board or plate and brush generously with coffee syrup. Smear on a good layer of frosting, then sprinkle over the hazelnut praline. Add another layer of frosting on top to fully seal the praline in. Repeat with the remaining layers. Once stacked, frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Chill for a few hours until set. Just before serving, top with ganache and an extra sprinkle of hazelnut praline.