Perform aria about the first Indian dish (5)
I believe the answer is:
raita
'indian dish' is the definition.
(type of Indian side dish)
'perform aria about the first' is the wordplay.
'perform' indicates an anagram (I've seen 'performing' mean this).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'the first' becomes 't' (1st letter of 'the').
'aria' is an anagram of 'raia'.
'raia' going around 't' is 'RAITA'.
(Other definitions for raita that I've seen before include "Indian yogurt and vegetable dish" , "Something with yoghurt" , "Indian dish of chopped cucumber and yoghurt" , "Dishy thing" , "side order" .)