Chicken karahi, the roadside kind, in a home pan

Home karahi does not taste like the dhaba's because of cream. It is because at home the flame is kept low and the spices go in ground.

The dhaba does the opposite: fire high, spices whole, and no onion at all.

This serves three to four.

What you need

• 1 kg chicken, in small pieces
• 4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• Half a cup of oil
• Ginger, cut into matchsticks, for the top
• Green chillies, salt

The spices:

• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Half tsp black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp kasuri methi

Method

1. Get the oil properly hot. This is the whole principle of a karahi — on a low flame the chicken releases its water and starts to boil instead of fry.

1. Ginger-garlic for 30 seconds, then the chicken. Keep it moving over a high flame until the colour changes.

1. Add the tomatoes and do not cover the pan. Let them break down on their own, stirring as they go.

1. When the oil separates, add the crushed coriander, cumin, pepper, chilli flakes and salt. Whole spices belong here, not at the start.

1. Five more minutes on a high flame. Add no water at all — the sauce comes from the tomatoes.

1. Turn off the heat. Crush the kasuri methi between your palms as you scatter it over, add the ginger matchsticks and green chillies, and cover for two minutes.

The two things that actually matter

Whole spices go in late. Ground spice burns in hot oil almost at once. Whole spice takes time, and that time is exactly when it gives up its aroma.

Rub the kasuri methi. Dropped in whole, the leaves just float. Rubbing is what releases the smell that makes a karahi taste like a karahi.

Why whole spice is worth buying whole

A karahi is the one dish that shows you the difference immediately, because the spices go in late and barely cook. Ground coriander that has been sitting in a packet for a year gives you nothing at that stage. Whole seeds crushed a minute before you cook give you the whole thing.

There is a second reason, and it is the one we care about more: whole spice cannot be adulterated the way ground spice can. Nobody can put husk in a coriander seed. That is why we would rather sell you the seed and let you crush it.

And the kasuri methi is worth checking too. It should smell strongly when you rub it between your palms. If it smells of nothing, it is old, and no amount of it will fix the dish.

If you want to try any of this, everything above is on our shop page, and every spice comes in 50g.