This is one of my all-time favourite snacks. I used to make the chipstick potatoes myself, but then I found out you can buy them frozen just as good. Now I make the spicey stuff first, keep it in the fridge and add a spoonful to a bowl of matchstick french fries whenever.

You blend to a puree in a food processor: one medium onion, two cloves of garlic, two tabledpoons of lemon juice, one dried red chilli, a half inch of fresh ginger and a teaspoon of cumin. Then you fry it gently in a few tablespoons of oil until it is brown and dry-looking, which takes maybe twenty minutes (the original recipe, which is from Mdhur Jaffrey, says four tablespoons of oil, but you can add it as you go depending on how much is needed. The onion puree mix needs oil so as not to catch and burn, and it absorbs the oil as it cooks.)

Then roast a tablespoon of sesame seeds in any kind of pan on a medium heat till they turn brown, and add those plus a teaspoonful each of salt and sugar.

To eat, get some very thin french fries and put them in a big frying pan or a wok with a tablespoonful or more of the onion mix, to taste. It’s easiest to get them well combined by stirring and turning them in a hot pan, for some reason.

Still saving up for that digital camera…