Indian — the bloomed spice, the yogurt, the sealed lid
North Indian cooking, at home, runs on three moves: the tadka (the spice bloomed in the hot ghee, at the start or at the end), the yogurt (the ferment that softens the meat and carries the acid), and the sealed lid (the steam that finishes the rice through the meat). The sauce underneath is the reduce, the stock underneath is the lentil, and the ghee on top is the tadka. The chana masala reads the tadka at the start, and the dal makhani reads it at the end — the long slow braise, and the tadka on top, and that's the whole flavor logic of the section.
How to read these pages
- Each plate carries its own sauce — the stock underneath, the tadka on top, the ghee the cream. The yogurt does the marinade, and the tadka does the flavor — the two sauces are the stock and the bloom.
- The rice underneath in the biryani is the body, and the sealed lid is the steam that finishes it through the meat — the stock of the chicken does the sauce work, and the tadka on top is the ghee and the bloom of the flavor.
- The dough of the naan is the thin, high-hydration dough, and the heat is the tandoor on a home pan — the blisters on the top are the sign of the heat doing the browning.
In this section
The lentils, the yogurt
- dal-makhani — the long slow braise, the tadka on top
- chana-masala — the tadka at the start, the tomato reduce
The rice, the sealed lid
- biryani — the half-done rice, the steam through the meat
The street side, the pastry
- samosa — the dough, the deep-fry, the bloomed filling
- naan — the thin dough, the high heat, the blisters
The dessert
- phirni — the set rice milk, the cardamom on top
Where to read next
The tadka & blooming page is the section's flavor article — the thirty seconds that do the flavor, at the start of the chana masala or the end of the dal makhani. The stock & dashi page does the same for the dal makhani's body — the lentil doing the sauce work, over the long slow braise.