India

India is less a single cuisine than a subcontinent of them, where every state cooks differently, coconut-rich curries in the south, tandoor breads and rich gravies in the north, vegetarian thalis in the west. A vast spice vocabulary and deep vegetarian traditions make it one of the world's most varied tables.

Almost every savoury Indian pot passes through a tempering: whole spices dropped into hot fat until mustard seeds pop and curry leaves crackle, then either built on or poured over the finished dish. It is tadka in the north and chaunk, baghaar or oggarane elsewhere, and the spice box that lives beside the stove exists so it can be done in seconds.

A grain line runs across the country, rice through the south and east, wheat rotis through the north and west, and the cooking fat shifts with it: coconut oil and curry leaves in the south, mustard oil in the east, ghee and dairy-thickened gravies in the north. Chilli is a relative newcomer to all of them, carried in by Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century.

Thick flattened rice rinsed soft, then tossed in a mustard-seed, cumin and curry-leaf tempering with onion, green chilli, turmeric and crunchy peanuts, finished with lemon, coriander and fresh coconut.