Rajma Chawal

The night before, cover the dried red kidney beans with plenty of cold water and leave to soak for at least 8 hours.

Drain the soaked kidney beans, cover with fresh water, and boil hard for 10 minutes. Then simmer for 1 to 1½ hours, or pressure-cook for 20 minutes, until completely soft. Keep the water.

Finely chop the onions, grate the ginger, crush the garlic cloves, chop the green chillies and the fresh coriander, and blend the tomatoes to a purée. Heat the vegetable oil and fry the cumin seeds and bay leaf until the cumin sizzles.

Add the onions and fry slowly until deep golden brown, about 12 minutes.

Add the ginger, garlic and chillies, then the puréed tomatoes, the ground turmeric, ground coriander and Kashmiri chilli powder with 1 teaspoon of the salt, and cook until the oil separates.

Add the beans with about 500 ml of their cooking water (top up with fresh water if needed) and simmer for 20 minutes, mashing some beans against the pan to thicken the gravy.

Meanwhile, rinse the basmati rice until the water runs clear and simmer it, covered, in the 450 ml of water with the remaining ½ teaspoon of salt for 12 minutes, then leave it covered off the heat for 5 minutes.

Stir in the garam masala and the fresh coriander. Serve over the basmati rice.