Salmon and Avocado Salad was not something I grew up eating, but it has quietly become one of my most-cooked weeknight meals over the last few years. My husband thinks …

Mangalore Spicy Drumsticks came into my life through a colleague from Udupi who brought a tiffin box of this to office one afternoon, warm inside its steel container, smelling of …

Qorma Shahi entered my regular cooking rotation because my brother-in-law asked for it before a family dinner and I had never actually made it before. I said yes, obviously, and …

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry is one of those recipes I kept circling back to during a particular patch of winter a few years ago, when I was craving something with …

There is a particular kind of evening everyone knows. The kind where the day has gone sideways, the traffic took an hour longer than it should have, and by the …

Malaysian Chicken Satay Skewers started as a craving I could not quite shake after eating a plate of them at a small Malaysian stall during a trip years ago. That …

Papeta ma Gosh is the recipe my neighbour Ruksana asked me to write down after she tasted it at a small gathering I hosted last winter. She kept saying there …

Ginger Cookies were not something I planned to make regularly. My nephew had come to stay for a week, and somewhere around day three he mentioned, very casually, that he …

Chicken and Sweet Corn Fried Rice came into my regular rotation because my husband started requesting it every time we had leftover rice sitting in the fridge. He is not …

Dry Fish Pickle came into my regular rotation because of a specific and persistent request from my husband, who grew up eating something similar at his aunt’s table in Kerala. …

Coriander Chicken Curry was one of the first dishes I got badly wrong before I got it right. The first time I made it, I added the green paste too …

Peshwari Naan is one of those recipes I kept coming back to just because I could not stop thinking about the filling. There is something about that coarse grind of …

Mushroom Salna came into my cooking life through an argument. My neighbour insists that a proper salna has to be made with a freshly ground coconut-based paste and nothing else. …

Paneer Capsicum Masala was the dish that taught me not to skip the grinding step. The first time I made it, I was rushing and just stirred the onion-tomato mixture …

Cashew Pulao earns its place in my weekly rotation for one straightforward reason: it comes together on a busy evening when I have rice soaking and very little else planned. …

Baked Bean Salad came into my life through a mild but persistent argument. A colleague insisted that the only thing you do with canned baked beans is heat them up …

Koozh Vadam had been on my list for two summers before I finally made it. I kept thinking about the sound they make when you deep fry them — that …

Chicken Marsala entered my regular cooking life because my husband kept ordering it whenever we went to a certain Italian-style restaurant in the city, and after the fourth or fifth …

Jahangiri Paneer Labaabdar came to me through a cooking workshop I attended years ago at a small culinary school in Delhi, the kind of place where the instructor actually cooked …

Stuffed Savoury Bitter Gourd earns its place in my kitchen for a very practical reason: I almost always have bitter gourd sitting in the fridge longer than I planned, and …

Gobi 65 is one of those recipes I kept coming back to not because of any particular occasion, but because of a craving I could never quite shake after having …