Illustration/ Ravindra Jadhav

One of my aunts was famous in the family for her dal. In 50 years of living in Bombay, she had held on to her Punjabiness resolutely and she felt her "asli Punjabi dal" was proof. But, there was nothing particularly Punjabi about her dal, other than its particular robustness, tempered as it was with things like kadi patta, infrequently used in Punjabi cooking, but common in Western and Southern India. It was a most delicious dal and she was justly famous for it. But clearly the recipes of different neighbours, in-laws and cooks she had encountered, had mated with her original recipe to birth something new. Recipes are like that.