Dhansak — India

Dhansak is an Indian dish that combines chicken or mutton with a thick mixture of lentils and vegetables, cooked down until the lentils soften into a coarse purée around the meat. It comes from the Parsi community of Gujarat, and is generally served with caramelised rice, cooked briefly with a little sugar before boiling, and topped with crisp fried onions. Several lentils and vegetables, commonly pumpkin and eggplant among others, are boiled together and mashed, while the meat is browned separately with onion, garlic, ginger and a spice blend often called dhansak masala, then the two are combined and simmered until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened. The dish later became part of Anglo-Indian cooking during the British presence in India, and a version of it is now a familiar curry-house dish in the United Kingdom, generally prepared a little sweeter and milder there than in home kitchens in Gujarat. It is usually reserved for a hearty, one-pot family meal rather than an everyday quick dinner, and leftovers are often considered to taste even better the following day once the flavours have settled.