Punjabi cuisine
Punjabi cuisine is the culinary tradition of the Punjab, a region now divided between northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It rests on an agricultural base of wheat, rice and dairy, and is known for its tandoor cooking.
History
Its roots go back to the Indus Valley Civilization. Harappan sites have yielded ovens resembling today's tandoors, together with chicken bones bearing traces of fire. Some researchers think these ovens worked in a similar way to modern ones, although a direct line of continuity remains a hypothesis. The Sanskrit medical text Sushruta Samhita describes meat roasted in an oven after marinating in black mustard and other spices.
The tandoor spread across northern India especially after Partition in 1947, when many Punjabi families resettled in cities such as Delhi. By then, basmati rice, the region's native variety, already formed the basis of many rice dishes with meat or vegetables.
Culture
In villages, people still cook in wood-fired and masonry ovens, and communal tandoors, known as kath tandoors, are common. Breakfast is an important meal that varies by subregion, with stuffed parathas, chana masala, chole kulche, halwa poori and Amritsari lassi. The diet combines vegetables and legumes, such as saag made of mustard and spinach greens, dal makhani or rajma, with lamb, chicken and freshwater fish, since the region has no coastline. Ghee and lassi are part of everyday life, and dishes such as karahi, chicken tikka and butter chicken are now known worldwide.
Legend and fact
Tandoori chicken is often linked to the Harappan ovens of some five thousand years ago, but this remains a hypothesis. What is documented are ovens, chicken bones with fire marks and ancient references to spiced roasted meat, not a specific recipe.