Whenever people meet to share a meal, whether it's in the home or on the street, they form a table between them. After all, eating together is at the heart and soul of our families and communities. It expresses a bond between us that speaks of an instinct for the comfort and warmth of company. So, when we come together to eat, we are for those few moments a family, at least in deed.

One of my favourite foods to share with family and friends is the raan, because the real pleasure in eating a raan is in sharing. In cutting or tearing pieces of this superbly marinated, exquisitely cooked leg of lamb from a single platter placed in the centre of the table, I feel a kind of satisfaction that is rarely matched by other foods. And, as I might have mentioned before, there's no better time for such delicacies than the wintertime, with the powerful aromas of spices and cooked meat lingering in the sweet chilly air of the season.

The raan is a celebrated delicacy, traditionally made only for special occasions. Painstakingly prepared over hours, it's cooked in an oven ever so slowly to let the marinade and spices soak as deeply into the texture of the meat as possible, mixing deliciously with the juices of the mutton itself.

The Sikandri Raan, one of my favourites, is a preparation from the North West Frontier. It is a fairly robust preparation, reflecting the climate and conditions of the region. The mutton leg is marinated with red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste, mace powder, cardamom powder, and lemon juice, and left to soak for a few hours. Then drenched in vinegar and rum, and a little water, the raan is baked in an oven for about an hour and a half allowing the juices to blend. Once the water has evaporated, the raan is basted with oil and grilled until it's well-done all over. Garnished finally with onion rings and sliced tomatoes, the Sikandri Raan follows a surprisingly simple recipe for the fabulous host of smells, flavours and textures it harbours when cooked.

A more refined recipe, however, is the Awadhi Raan-e-Dum Pukht, historically from the kitchens of the Nawabs of Awadh. The Raan-e-Dum Pukht is traditionally prepared stuffed and boneless. The tigh-bone is carefully removed from the meat, and the meat itself is marinated for hours in red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste, and malt vinegar. The meat is then stuffed with a mixture of cocktail onions, ginger, green chillies, coriander, mint, garlic, cheese and black cumin, and sewed up with needle and thread into a parcel. Soaked in malt vinegar and wrapped in sheermal dough, the raan is then allowed to cook for a few hours on dum, preserving the pungency of the spices and infusing the meat and the sheermal dough with the heady aroma of the stuffing. Garnished with onions and pineapple sautéed in butter, and with lemon juice, the Raan-e-Dum Pukht truly is a regal joy.

I'd suggest taking your closest family and friends with you to your table. The experience of a raan is not merely to be shared but cherished. Each experience creating a new bond between you and the family with whom you eat.