What’s in my Dabba? with Studio Priyanka

No Bombay kitchen is complete without its Masala Dabba, a stainless-steel box, worn and battered, passed down through the generations. Each is as unique as its owner, full of most-favoured spices and many-varied stories within. In our ‘What’s In My Dabba?’ series, we get a glimpse into some of our friends’ kitchens, as they share the judicious spicing of their favourite dishes, along with hosting rituals, tips and stories. Delight awaits.

In this chapter, we sit down with Priyanka Raj, founder of Studio Priyanka – a culinary studio inviting guests to slow down and savour food-led experiences. Here, Priyanka shares notes on gentle gatherings, blissful memories of heat-quenching mangoes, alongside a beloved family recipe for crispy poori and raw mango pickle. A dish forever tied to recollections of lively road trips and leisurely picnics.

➻ What’s in your Masala Dabba?

I actually have two – one simply doesn’t hold enough! The first is a beautiful brass masala dabba my mother-in-law brought for me from Chennai, which I really treasure, and the second is a smaller steel one that carries whole spices. The steel masala dabba deeply reminds me of growing up in India, since my mother always had one in the kitchen. It felt like the centre of the home – everything began there. It’s practical, beautiful, and deeply emotional all at once.

➻ Which spices are you reaching for most often while cooking, and why?

Turmeric, cumin, and asafoetida – the holy trinity in Indian cooking. Turmeric is absolutely essential. It brings warmth, colour, earthiness, and forms the base of so many dishes. Cumin gives depth and grounding, while asafoetida adds this extraordinary savoury quality that quietly transforms food.

➻ For your culinary experiences, how are you welcoming guests to the table?

Very gently. We want guests to feel held by the space before the meal even begins. A great deal of thought goes into the atmosphere, the lighting, flowers, fragrance and music. We often use low seating because grounding feels important to us; sitting closer to the earth changes the pace of a meal. More than anything, we want people to slow down.

➻ Can you tell us of a ritual that you swear by when hosting?

Eat with your hands. In Indian philosophy, the hand represents the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. Eating with your hands creates a different kind of connection to food. You touch it, feel its temperature and texture, engage with it fully. There’s something deeply human, tactile and meditative about that.

➻ What’s on the menu for us today, and why have you chosen this dish?

Today, I’m sharing a recipe for poori with a raw mango pickle and ripe mango slices. Together, it feels like summer on a plate – many Indians would instantly recognise it as the taste of home. For me, this dish is inseparable from my childhood: school tiffins, train journeys, road trips, picnics, visits to grandparents. Even now, whenever I travel back to London from India, my mother packs poori and pickle for the drive to the airport.

➻ What are your earliest memories of Mango Season?

For me, the season began with the first truly ripe mango slice, served alongside kathal ki sabzi (jackfruit curry) and parathas. Jackfruit arrives in the same season, so that meal always marked the beginning of summer. And summer also meant drinking aam panna, made from green mangoes, served both sweet and savoury. In the intense north Indian heat, it was as much relief as it was ritual. There were also mango shakes. Ripe mangoes blended with cold milk – thick, sweet, and deeply comforting.

But the memory I return to most is my father bringing home crates of Malihabadi Dusseheri mangoes from Lucknow. They’re prized for their intense sweetness, floral aroma, and creamy, fibreless flesh. We would place them in buckets of cooling water, peel them with our hands and eat until the juice ran down our wrists to our elbows. To me, that was (and still is) the real pleasure of mango season.

➻ Which mango variety is your absolute favourite?

In India, mangoes are deeply regional; we tend to eat what grows around us. For that reason, Kesar, Chausa and Malihabadi mangoes will always be my favourites, each carrying distinct memories. In fact, I only really discovered Alphonso mangoes after moving to London. In general, I love mangoes at their ripest point, when they’re fragrant, intensely juicy, and impossible to eat neatly.

➻ What are your top tips for picking the perfect mango?

Touch it before anything else. A good mango should feel heavy, fragrant, and slightly soft without collapsing under pressure.

➻ How do you balance the mango’s sweetness?

Honestly, I rarely want to balance the sweetness too much. Even though I don’t really have a sweet tooth, when it comes to mangoes, I want all of it! The sweetness, the juice, the excess of it. But if I were to add anything, a little red chilli powder and lime can be beautiful. They sharpen the sweetness rather than take away from it.