Punjabi Chana Masala

Rinse Chickpeas and leave them to soak overnight in plenty of cold water — they should double in size and split easily between your thumbnail and finger.

⚠ Tip: If you forgot, a quick soak in boiling water for an hour works, but the overnight soak gives a creamier chickpea.

Drain the chickpeas and put them in a deep pot with fresh water to cover by a few inches. Add Black tea, Bicarbonate of soda and Indian bay leaves. Boil hard for 10 min, then lower to a simmer and cook until a chickpea crushes effortlessly against the side of the pot, another 30 min or so. Keep the cooking liquid.

⚠ Tip: The tea bag is the dhaba trick: it stains the chickpeas that dark, almost-black colour. Skip it and the chole look pale and taste milder.

Finely chop Onions. Purée Tomatoes in a blender or grate them coarsely. Slit Green chillies down the side, leaving the stem on.

Heat 4 tbsp Ghee in a heavy pot over medium heat. When it shimmers, drop in Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds, Black cardamom pods, Cloves and Cinnamon sticks. Stir for 30 sec: the cumin should crackle and smell nutty, the cardamom and clove should open up. Do not let anything blacken.

⚠ Tip: Whole spices in hot fat is where the dish begins. If the cumin goes dark brown, tip it out and start again — scorched cumin turns the whole pot bitter.

Add the onion and a good pinch of salt. Fry over medium heat, stirring often, for 10 min until deeply golden and jammy — the colour of light caramel, not pale blond. This is the backbone of the gravy; rush it and the chole taste thin.

Stir in 2 tbsp Ginger-garlic paste and the slit Green chillies. Fry for 1 min until the raw smell of the garlic disappears and the paste darkens slightly.

Pour in the tomato purée with Red chilli powder, Ground turmeric, Ground coriander and Roasted ground cumin. Cook over medium heat for 15 min, stirring and scraping, until the mixture darkens to a deep brick colour and the fat beads and separates at the edges of the masala. That visible slick of ghee is your cue.

⚠ Tip: This bhuna stage is everything in Punjabi cooking: you are frying out the water so the spices taste roasted, not raw. If it starts catching, splash in a little water rather than turning the heat down.

Add the chickpeas with a couple of ladles of their cooking liquid — enough to make a thick, spoon-coating gravy. Bring to a simmer and cook for 20 min, mashing a handful of chickpeas against the side of the pot with your spoon to thicken the sauce. Add more liquid if it tightens too far.

⚠ Tip: Mashing some of the chickpeas is what makes dhaba chole cling to bread instead of running off it.

Stir in Amchur, crushed Dried fenugreek leaves and Garam masala. Simmer for another 3 min, then taste: it should lead with tang, follow with spice, and sit rich underneath. Adjust salt and add a squeeze from Lemons only if the sourness is short.

⚠ Tip: Amchur is the Punjabi sourness — dried green mango, sharper and fruitier than lemon. Add lemon only after tasting, or the gravy goes flat and citric.

Cut Ginger into fine matchsticks and chop Coriander.

Shower the chole with the raw ginger slivers — they stay sharp on top of the hot gravy — and scatter over the coriander. Serve with poori or bhatura, or plain rice if that is what you have.

⚠ Tip: Don't skip the raw ginger. It is what makes the bowl smell like a dhaba as it hits the table.