Browse Techniques

Poetic Jiangnan dessert of lotus root sections stuffed with glutinous rice and steamed for hours until the rice-filled cavities become dense and the lotus turns deep amber in osmanthus-rock sugar syrup. Served sliced in cross-section to reveal the beautiful rice-filled chambers. Celebration of lotus as the quintessential Jiangnan ingredient.

A thick, roux-based, tomato-rich fish stew with deep red colour and a flavour that balances the sweetness of tomato, the depth of roux, the heat of cayenne, and the clean, firm flesh of whole fish fillets or steaks simmered directly in the sauce. Unlike gumbo, where proteins may vary wildly, courtbouillon is specifically a fish dish. Unlike étouffée, which is butter-rich and light, courtbouillon is tomato-rich and substantial. The finished stew should have enough body to serve over rice without pooling.

The low and no alcohol (NOLO) beverage category has undergone a transformation from an afterthought to a sophisticated standalone category in the 2020s. The drivers are demographic (younger generations drinking less), health-conscious (Dry January, sober-curious, pregnancy, medication), religious (Islamic non-drinking traditions representing 1.8 billion people globally), and practical (designated drivers, lunchtime business meetings). The global NOLO market is projected to exceed $30 billion by 2025. The pairing challenge for NOLO beverages is the same as for wine: acidity, bitterness, sweetness, texture, and aroma must all be calibrated to the food. The best NOLO beverages — Seedlip, Lyre's, Crodino, Aecorn, Pentire — achieve this calibration with remarkable sophistication.

A massive one-pot boil: water seasoned aggressively with Old Bay (the Chesapeake seasoning that has become the Low Country standard as well), lemon halves, bay leaves, and additional cayenne. Potatoes go in first (they take longest), followed by corn (broken into 3-inch pieces), then sausage (smoked, cut into chunks), then shrimp (head-on, shell-on) in the last 3-5 minutes. Everything is drained and dumped directly onto a covered table. No plates. Hands, paper towels, and melted butter with lemon for dipping.

A spiced fresh pork sausage from the Picerno area of Basilicata — ground pork shoulder, fat, wild fennel seed, peperoncino, garlic and red wine stuffed into natural casings. It is among Italy's oldest documented sausages (the Roman 'lucanica' mentioned by Apicius and Cicero is believed to have originated from Basilicata). Grilled over charcoal or fried in a pan, it is eaten as a secondo or crumbled into sauces.

Lucanica (or Lucanicae) is perhaps the oldest named sausage in Western food literature: documented by Roman writers Marcus Terentius Varro and Apicius as a Lucanian (Basilicatan) invention brought to Rome by Lucanian slaves. The sausage that has carried this name for 2,000 years is a coarsely ground pork sausage seasoned with black pepper, fennel seeds, and dried peperoncino, stuffed in natural casings and either cured (for slicing) or used fresh (for grilling or frying). It is the direct ancestor of the Calabrian and Campanian luganega.

Mantova's signature freshwater fish preparation: pike (luccio) from the Mincio lakes and rivers braised in a sweet-sour agrodolce sauce of white wine, white wine vinegar, onions, sultanas, pine nuts, capers, and anchovies, then served cold the next day when the sauce has set to a trembling jelly around the fish. A preparation of extraordinary historical depth — the sweet-sour-savoury combination is characteristic of medieval courtly cooking of the Gonzaga court.

The fundamental distinction between Lucknowi (Awadhi) and Hyderabadi biryani is the relationship between the rice and the meat. Hyderabadi biryani layers separately cooked rice over separately cooked meat; Lucknowi biryani uses the 'yakhni' (یخنی — bone stock) technique where the rice is cooked in the meat's own bone broth rather than plain water, creating a fragrant, flavour-infused rice from the first cook. Hyderabadi biryani achieves flavour integration through the dum stage; Lucknowi biryani achieves it by having the rice carry the meat's flavour from the beginning. The result: Hyderabadi biryani has more distinct rice and meat layers; Lucknowi is more integrated and subtler.

Lombardia's defining fresh pork sausage — a continuous coiled rope of fine-ground pork (70% lean shoulder, 30% fatback) seasoned with white wine, Parmigiano, salt, and white pepper only. Unlike southern sausages which use fennel or chilli, luganega's restraint is its signature — the cheese and wine provide all the aromatic complexity. Used fresh in risotto, grilled whole, or braised with cabbage.

Piedmont's snail preparation — distinct from the French escargots de Bourgogne in using Helix pomatia snails from the Piedmontese hillsides and dressing them with salsa verde (parsley, garlic, anchovy, capers) rather than butter. The snails are purged, poached, removed from shells, then returned and covered with the salsa verde. Baked briefly to heat through. The combination of the rich, earthy snail with the sharp, herb-anchovy sauce is the Piedmontese answer to the French butter-Burgundy preparation — lighter, more acidic, and with the anchovy dimension absent from the French version.

Snails (Helix pomatia, harvested from the Langhe and Monferrato vineyards) prepared in the Piemontese style: purged, blanched, removed from their shells, simmered in wine with aromatic vegetables, then returned to the shell with a compound butter of Piemontese mountain herbs — wild thyme, savory, rosemary, parsley — and aged Barolo garlic. Baked until the butter melts through. Piedmont's version predates the French bourguignonne but is less well-known internationally.

Rome's snail preparation for the Ferragosto festival (15 August): snails (lumachine di vigna, vineyard snails) purged for a week on bran, then braised in a dense sauce of tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, chilli, and fresh mint (mentuccia romana) — the mint being the most distinctive Lazio flavour element that distinguishes Roman snail cookery from all other Italian traditions. Eaten with bread to mop the sauce, standing in the street during the Ferragosto feast. The snail meat must be removed with a toothpick and the sauce is the primary pleasure.

Basilicata's wild snail preparation with lard and rosemary — a mountain dish where land snails (lumaconi or Helix pomatia) are purged, briefly poached, then braised in rendered lard with rosemary, garlic, and a splash of wine. The dish is rustic and deeply flavoured — the lard's richness contrasts with the earthy, slightly mineral snail, and the rosemary provides the dominant aromatic. Served with bread to mop up the sauce. A preparation that disappears further from towns; still found in rural Basilicata farmhouses.

Tuscany's stewed snails — Helix pomatia or Helix aspersa purged and blanched, then stewed for 2 hours in a soffritto of lard (lardo di Colonnata for the Lunigiana version), garlic, tomato, wine, and rosemary. Snails are not a rustic afterthought in Tuscan cooking — they are a delicacy of the late summer and autumn, eaten as a secondo with bread. The lardo provides both cooking fat and flavour; when it renders into the tomato-wine braise, the combination of pork fat and snail juices produces an extraordinary unified sauce.

Sea snails (lumache di mare — murex or land snail equivalent from coastal Campania) braised in a simple tomato and basil sauce — a traditional Neapolitan street food typically eaten on feast days. The snails are purged, washed, and simmered in a light tomato sauce with garlic and fresh basil until the meat pulls easily with a pin or toothpick. The simplicity of the sauce is deliberate — the snail's briny, mineral flavour is the point, and a heavy sauce would obscure it. Served in deep bowls with bread and a toothpick.

Sardinian land snails (cioggias — Helix aspersa or Helix pomatia collected in spring) cooked in olive oil with garlic, parsley, tomato, and chilli — a traditional Barbagia-region preparation eaten in spring when snails are at their best after seasonal rain. The snails are purged for 48 hours on bread and herbs, washed, and cooked shell-side down in a clay pot with abundant olive oil. The sauce reduces into the shells, and the snail meat is extracted and eaten with the garlic-parsley-tomato oil. This is elemental Sardinian pastoral food.

Small spiral egg pasta ('little snails') unique to the Urbino area of the Marche: a compact pasta dough cut into small discs and shaped around a thin wooden rod to create a spiral tube, then sauced with a butter-based sauce of prosciutto di Carpegna (the local Pesaro-Urbino cured ham) and a generous scraping of nutmeg. One of the most refined pasta shapes in central Italy, associated with the ducal Renaissance court of Urbino where elaborate pasta forms were fashionable.

Lumpia Shanghai is the Filipino version of the Chinese spring roll — thin rice paper or wheat flour wrappers filled with a mixture of ground pork, shrimp, carrots, water chestnuts, and aromatics, rolled into tight cylinders and deep-fried until shatteringly crisp. The name 'Shanghai' acknowledges the Chinese origin of the technique, brought to the Philippines by Fujian Chinese immigrants (the Hokkien community, known as Tsinoys) who have been present in the Philippine archipelago for centuries. The Filipino version is thinner and more tightly rolled than Chinese spring rolls, with a higher surface-area-to-filling ratio that maximises crunch. The filling should be densely packed and completely free of moisture before rolling — any wet filling causes the wrapper to steam from the inside and soften.

UAE and Gulf Arab sweet dumplings — small, deep-fried yeasted dough balls drizzled with date syrup (dibs tamr) and sesame seeds — are one of the most ancient sweets in the Arabian Gulf, sold by street vendors at Ramadan iftar markets and eaten as a ceremonial first bite after the fast. The dough is a simple yeasted mixture with a long room-temperature fermentation (2–3 hours) that develops slight sourness and an open, light crumb. When dropped into hot oil, the dough balls puff rapidly and turn a deep golden-brown; they should be hollow in the centre with a light, crisp exterior that absorbs the date syrup without becoming soggy. The date syrup (dibs) is drizzled generously immediately before serving — the warmth of the fresh-fried dumplings is essential for the syrup to flow and penetrate.

Lyre's Non-Alcoholic Spirits, founded in Australia in 2019 by Mark Livings, has built the world's most comprehensive non-alcoholic spirits portfolio — with over 13 expressions that directly mirror the specific flavour profiles of iconic alcoholic spirits categories: American Malt (bourbon-style), Dark Cane Spirit (rum-style), Dry London Spirit (gin-style), Italian Orange (Aperol-style), Bitter Orange (Campari-style), and more. Using a combination of natural flavours, botanicals, and proprietary emulsification technology, Lyre's produces non-alcoholic spirits with colour, aroma, and flavour complexity specifically engineered to enable classic cocktail recipes to be recreated without alcohol — a Lyre's Espresso Martini (American Malt + Coffee Liqueur alternate) performs structurally and flavouristically the way a real Espresso Martini does. Lyre's rapid expansion (available in 55+ countries) and investment by prominent spirits industry figures validates that consumers will pay premium prices for non-alcoholic spirits that deliver genuine complexity. The portfolio is specifically designed for bartenders who need to execute a full cocktail menu for non-drinking guests without creating a separate, inferior experience.

A rich, thick peanut-based stew of Mande origin from Mali and Senegal — beef or lamb simmered in a tomato-onion base, enriched with groundnut paste that creates a deeply flavoured, rust-coloured sauce thickened to the consistency of a hearty gravy. Maafe's key distinction from Nigerian groundnut soup is its treatment of the peanut paste: the paste is fried in the initial oil alongside tomato, creating a paste-fry at the beginning rather than being added to simmering broth. This frying of the peanut-tomato combination produces Maillard compounds that give maafe a deeper, toastier flavour than the simpler addition method. Sweet potato, carrot, and cassava are simmered in the stew alongside the protein, their starches further thickening the sauce.

Maakouda are fried Solanum tuberosum potato cakes seasoned with Coriandrum sativum fresh coriander, Petroselinum crispum flat-leaf parsley, Allium sativum, ground cumin, sweet paprika, and sea-mineral-salt, bound with Gallus gallus domesticus whole egg, shaped into flat discs approximately 8cm in diameter and 2cm thick, and shallow-fried in neutral-frying-oil until deeply golden on both sides. The potato is boiled, peeled, and mashed — then mixed with the herbs, spice, egg binder, and optionally a tablespoon of Triticum aestivum plain-flour for extra cohesion. The mixture is handled as little as possible after adding the egg to prevent the potato from becoming gluey. Each fritter is shaped by hand and pressed gently flat before entering the hot oil. The exterior crust is the objective: maakouda are eaten for the contrast between the crunchy exterior and the fluffy, herb-fragrant potato interior.

A semolina-based shortbread dough rested overnight to hydrate fully, formed into thin shells around a filling of dates, walnuts, or pistachios, shaped in a decorative mould, and baked until just coloured. The dough should be barely baked — pale, with the slightest gold at the base.

Ma (間, literally 'gap/space/pause/between') is a fundamental Japanese aesthetic concept with profound implications for food culture — the deliberate use of negative space, timing, and interval as active elements in any art form, including cuisine. In Japanese cooking and dining: ma describes the pause between courses in kaiseki (the interval is not emptiness but a space for appreciation and anticipation); the negative space on a sashimi or kaiseki plate (an over-filled plate violates the principle of ma); the interval between the visual presentation of food and the moment of eating (the pre-taste appreciation window); the timing of when to place a dish before a guest (too early creates 'dead time'; too late breaks the flow). Ma is often contrasted with the Western tendency toward 'fullness' — full plates, continuous conversation, constant stimulation — whereas Japanese aesthetic actively cultivates emptiness as essential to the complete experience.

A round, extremely hard-shelled nut containing a cream-coloured kernel with the highest fat content of any nut (approximately 75% fat, predominantly monounsaturated oleic acid — the same heart-healthy fat as olive oil). The flavour is rich, buttery, subtly sweet, with a creamy texture that no other nut matches.

A meringue-based confection made with almond flour, icing sugar, and aged egg whites (Italian or French meringue method), piped into rounds, dried to form a skin before baking, baked to develop the characteristic foot (pied), and filled with ganache, buttercream, or jam. Every stage is interdependent — a failure at any point produces a different defect.

Abruzzo's hand-shaped pasta with a white pork ragù — the same ferretto (metal rod) technique used in Calabria appears in Abruzzo where the local name and preparation differ. Maccheroni al ferretto are shorter here (6–8cm) and dressed with a bianco (white, no tomato) pork shoulder ragù with white wine, rosemary, and sage. The absence of tomato in the ragù highlights the natural sweetness of the pork and allows the pasta's semolina character to be the primary flavour vehicle.

Sicily's pistachio pasta — penne or rigatoni dressed with a sauce of Bronte DOP pistachios, cream, Pecorino, and black pepper. The Pistacchio di Bronte DOP (grown on the volcanic slopes of Etna) is vibrantly green, intensely flavoured, and resinous in a way that generic pistachios never replicate. The sauce is made by grinding blanched Bronte pistachios into a rough paste, then melting this paste into cream and cheese — producing a bright green, intensely savoury pasta sauce.

The Fermo province's extraordinary pasta — maccheroncini di Campofilone (an IGP-protected pasta made with 10 egg yolks per kilo of flour, producing golden, thread-fine strands 0.3mm wide) dressed with a white rabbit ragù. The pasta's extraordinary egg richness means it needs only 2 minutes of cooking time and serves as a canvas that amplifies rather than competes with its sauce. The rabbit ragù is white (no tomato): rabbit joints braised with white wine, shallot, rosemary, and sage until the meat falls off and is shredded back into the reduced braising juices.

Maccheroncini di Campofilone are the extraordinary fine-thread egg pasta of Campofilone (Fermo province, Marche) — rolled to extreme thinness and cut to spaghetti-like width, but made with a very high egg content (8-12 egg yolks per 1kg flour, depending on tradition) and no water whatsoever. The high yolk content produces a pasta of brilliant yellow colour and extraordinary richness, so thin it cooks in 30-60 seconds and has a melting texture unlike any other pasta. It is IGP protected. The traditional sauce is ragù all'abruzzese or simply butter and truffle. The pasta's delicacy requires an equally delicate sauce — nothing heavy, nothing that will obscure the egg pasta's character.

Maccheroni al ferretto (also called fusilli al ferretto) are the handmade spiral pasta of Basilicata and Calabria, shaped by rolling pasta dough around a thin metal rod (ferretto — a knitting needle or thin iron wire) and then sliding it off to leave a long, hollow spiral. In Basilicata, the canonical pairing is ragù di castrato (mutton or lamb ragù), slow-braised for 3-4 hours with tomato, wine, and peperoncino — the pasta's hollow provides the cavity in which the ragù lodges. The combination of the semolina spiral and the dense Lucan lamb ragù is one of the most complete pasta preparations of the southern Apennine tradition.

Handmade rod-rolled pasta from Basilicata — maccheroni al ferretto (rolled on the same iron rod as Calabrian fusilli, but shorter and thicker) — tossed with rendered guanciale and sweet green peppers (cruschi-style, but fresh) cooked in the guanciale fat. This is a non-tomato pasta that showcases Basilicata's dependence on pork fat and peppers as the primary sauce components. The guanciale renders its fat, the green pepper sweetness absorbs into the fat, and the pasta is tossed with this minimal, deeply flavoured combination.

Hand-rolled pasta extruded over a metal rod (ferretto) to create a long hollow tube with a rough, porous surface — the traditional pasta format of Calabria. Sauced with 'nduja dissolved into a soffritto of olive oil and tomato until the fat blooms into a vivid orange-red sauce, then finished with shaved Provolone del Monaco. The pasta's hollow interior captures the molten 'nduja, creating pools of intense heat and pork fat inside each tube.

The fundamental Abruzzese pasta: long, hollow tubes (bucatino-shaped but wider) formed by rolling a small pasta cylinder around a thin iron rod (ferretto) and sliding it off, leaving a tunnel through the centre. The ragù is a long-cooked mixed meat ragù (pork, lamb, and beef) with peperoncino, tomato, and red wine — the holy trinity of Abruzzese meat sauces. The hollow pasta captures the sauce inside as well as out. Every grandmother in Abruzzo makes maccheroni al ferretto differently, but the ferretto (knitting-needle sized iron pin) is universal.

Calabria's handmade pasta coiled around a knitting needle (ferro) and served with kid goat ragù — a combination from Calabria's pastoral tradition where goat was the common meat of the mountains. The pasta's hollow core traps the sauce; the kid goat ragù is slow-braised with tomato, chilli, and wild herbs (lemon thyme, bay, wild fennel). Kid goat has a delicate, slightly gamey flavour distinct from lamb — more mineral, less fatty. Served with aged Calabrese Pecorino, not Parmigiano.

Square-section spaghetti cut on the 'chitarra' (guitar) — a wooden frame strung with parallel steel wires — dressed with a slow-cooked lamb ragù fragrant with tomato, sweet pepper, rosemary and saffron. The chitarra gives the pasta a rough, porous surface that grips the chunky ragù better than smooth factory pasta. The lamb ragù is a direct link to the pastoral traditions of the Gran Sasso and Maiella highlands.

Abruzzo's defining pasta format: square-section spaghetti formed by pressing fresh egg dough through the strings of a wooden 'chitarra' (guitar), creating a surface texture unlike any other pasta — the strings cut rather than extrude, producing a rough, toothsome square cross-section that grips sauce with extraordinary efficiency. The canonical sauce: lamb ragù (shoulder and rib) slow-cooked with peperoncino, tomato, white wine, and olive oil for 3+ hours. Every Abruzzese family owns a chitarra; the pasta cannot be made without it.

The chitarra is a wooden frame strung with steel wires — like a guitar — used to cut fresh egg pasta. A sheet of pasta is rolled to the thickness of the wire spacing (about 2-3mm), draped over the strings, and pressed through with a rolling pin until the wires cut the pasta into square-section spaghetti-like strands. The chitarra is the defining pasta tool of Abruzzo and produces a pasta unlike any other: square in cross-section (not round), with a rough surface that grips sauce tenaciously, and a springy, chewy texture from the cutting action.

Maccheroni alla molisana is the everyday pasta of Molise — a sauce made with rendered pancetta (or guanciale), crushed tomato, peperoncino, garlic, and finished with abundant grated Pecorino Molisano. The pasta is short and ridged (rigatoni, mezze maniche, or local pasta al ferretto) to hold the tomato-pork sauce. The preparation is deceptively simple and depends entirely on the quality of the pancetta (ideally the Molisani version, scented with rosemary and black pepper), the freshness of the Pecorino, and the intensity of the tomato (preserves, estratto, or very ripe fresh in summer). It is the Molisani equivalent of amatriciana — the same principle, slightly different execution.

Molise's Sunday ragù — pork ribs, sausages, and meatballs braised for 4+ hours in an initial soffritto base with wine and San Marzano tomatoes. The meat is served separately as a secondo after the pasta course, following the traditional Sunday lunch sequence where ragù serves as both sauce and protein vehicle. The long braise transforms the pork collagen into gelatin that enriches the tomato sauce with a body and sweetness no quick sauce can replicate.

The Roman 'fake sauce' (sugo finto) — a meatless tomato sauce made with a very slow-cooked soffritto of onion, carrot, celery and herbs in olive oil, to which San Marzano tomatoes are added and cooked until concentrated. Called 'finto' (fake) because it looks and tastes like a meat ragù but contains none — it was the Friday sauce of Roman Catholic Rome, eaten during Lenten abstinence from meat.

A simple Molisan hand-rolled pasta dressed with a raw walnut sauce — one of Italy's oldest pasta preparations. Walnuts are pounded in a mortar with garlic, stale bread soaked in milk, marjoram and olive oil to form a rough, creamy paste. Tossed hot with freshly cooked maccheroni al ferretto — thick, hollow pasta rolled on a knitting needle — then finished with pecorino.

Puglia's dried broad bean purée served with sautéed bitter chicory — one of the most ancient preparations of the Mezzogiorno, documented from Greek-colonial Puglia. Dried peeled broad beans are soaked and boiled slowly until they dissolve completely into a thick, earthy purée. The chicory (cicoria di campo) is blanched and sautéed in olive oil and garlic. The two are served separately on the plate — the white-yellow purée against the dark green chicory — to be mixed as the diner eats. The entire flavour depends on the olive oil poured over both: at minimum 4 tablespoons of the best Pugliese DOP.

Calabrian purée of dried split fava beans (similar to the Pugliese fave e cicoria but with Calabrian character) — a thick, almost porridge-like fava purée enriched with olive oil and served with pan-wilted wild chicory (cicoria selvatica di Calabria) passed in olive oil with chilli. The Calabrian version diverges from the Pugliese in the use of more aggressive chilli heat in the cicoria and the addition of 'nduja (optional but traditional in the Vibo Valentia area) stirred into the fave purée for a spicy, deeply flavoured alternative. Also called 'macco' — the term for a broken-down bean purée.

The Calabrian version of the fava purée soup: dried, split fava beans dissolved in water with wild fennel fronds until they become a thick, intensely flavoured purée, served with a drizzle of new-pressed olive oil and toasted bread. The Calabrian macco differs from the Sicilian by the inclusion of more wild fennel (the dominant flavour) and sometimes a piece of guanciale cooked in the pot from the beginning. It is made specifically for the feast of San Giuseppe (19 March) and for Lent — fava beans being among the few proteins available in the pre-Easter mountain calendar.

Sicilian broad bean purée (maccu) — the ancient ancestor of the Pugliese fave e cicoria, made here with dried split fave cooked to complete breakdown with wild fennel and olive oil, and served either as a warm soup or cooled and set in a mould to be sliced and fried the following day (maccu fritto). The addition of wild fennel (finocchietto selvatico) distinguishes the Sicilian maccu from the Pugliese version — fennel is not a background note but a primary flavour. The soup version is served with olive oil and croutons; the set version, sliced and fried until golden, is eaten as an antipasto.

Maccu is a purée of dried, split fava beans cooked until dissolved — the ancient Sicilian dish offered to St. Joseph on 19 March and eaten by the poor during periods of scarcity. In its most elemental form: dried fava beans (skin on or peeled), simmered in water with wild fennel fronds and a little olive oil until they dissolve into a thick, earthy purée. Served with a drizzle of olive oil and sometimes pasta broken into the pot. The maccu di San Giuseppe is also associated with the tradition of the Tavola di San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph's table) where food is shared publicly with the poor.

Machaca is sun-dried, pounded, and shredded beef — a Northern Mexican preservation technique that produces intensely flavoured dried beef. It is rehydrated by cooking with scrambled eggs, tomato, chile, and onion to create machaca con huevo, the canonical northern Mexican breakfast. The beef is pounded while drying to separate the fibres, then sun-dried until jerky-like, shredded finely. Commercial machaca is available but homemade using ranchera or chuck is preferred.

The national dish of Bahrain and Kuwait — fragrant one-pot rice cooked in a spiced broth of lamb or chicken with a distinctive baharat blend, dried limes (loomi), rose water, and saffron, producing a golden, aromatic rice that is more complex than a simple pilaf but less soupy than a biryani. Machbous is structurally related to Persian polo and Yemeni mandi but its seasoning is specifically Gulf: baharat (a blend including black pepper, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and dried lime powder) applied directly to the meat, which is browned before being braised in the spiced broth that becomes the cooking liquid for the rice. The rice absorbs every layered flavour during its single steam-cooking.

Machher jhol (মাছের ঝোল, 'fish curry') is the defining Bengali fish preparation — a light, aromatic turmeric-golden broth with the specific technique of mustard paste (shorshe paste from ground yellow and black mustard seeds with green chilli and water) as the primary flavour base, applied after the fish has been pan-fried in mustard oil. The fish is first seasoned with turmeric and salt, then fried until the surface is sealed and slightly golden (not cooked through), then removed; the mustard-paste sauce is built in the same mustard oil, the fish returned, and the whole simmered briefly until the fish just cooks through. The golden, turmeric-tinged thin broth is the jhol.