Rajasthan Cuisine
Cuisine
Land
of Princes, as Rajasthan is called, shows off, many a fine gastronomic both
within the palaces and outside. The royal kitchens of Rajasthan, the preparation
of food was a very complex matter and was raised to the levels of an art form.
Thus the 'Khansamas' (the royal cooks) worked in the stately palaces and
kept their most enigmatic recipes to themselves. Some recipes were passed on
to their descendants and the rest were passed on as skills to the chefs of semi
states and the branded hotel companies.
Rajasthani cooking was inclined to the war-like lifestyle of the medieval Rajasthan
and the availability of ingredients of the region. Food that could last for
several days and could be eaten without heating was preferred, more out of necessity
than choice. Scarcity of water, fresh green vegetables have had their effect
on cooking.
In the desert belt of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner, cooks use a minimum of
water and prefer, instead, to use more milk, buttermilk and clarified butter.
A distinct feature of the Maheshwari cooking is the use of mango powder, a suitable
substitute for tomatoes, scarce in the desert, and asafoetida, to enhance the
taste in the absence of garlic and onions.
Generally, Rajasthani curries are a brilliant red but they are not as spicy
as they look. Most Rajasthani cuisine uses pure ghee (clarified butter) as the
medium of cooking. A favourite sweet dish called lapsi is prepared with broken
wheat (dalia) sautéed in ghee and sweetened.
Perhaps the best-known Rajasthani food is the combination of dal, bati and churma(dal
is lentils;bati is baked wheat ball; and
churma
is powdered sweetened cereal), but for the adventurous traveller, willing to
experiment, there is a lot of variety available. Besides, each region is distinguished
by its popular sweet - Mawa Kachori from Jodhpur, Alwar ka Mawa, Malpuas from
Pushkar, Rasogullas from Bikaner, Ghevar from Jaipur to name a few.
Contrary to popular belief, people of Rajasthan are not all vegetarians.The
unique creation of the Maharaja of Salwar is the Junglee maas. Junglee maas
was a great favourite among the Maharajas and due to the paucity of exotic ingredients
in the camp kitchen, the game brought in from the hunt was simply cooked in
pure ghee, salt and plenty of red chillies. However, now this dish has been
adapted to the less controversial ingredients like kid/lamb, pork or poultry.
The personal recipes of the royal KHANSAMA still rotates around their generations
and are the highlights of regal gatherings. Each state of Rajasthan had their
own style of the recipes, and are continued in the Rajput households. It was
mainly the men folks of the family that prepared the non-veg. Some of the Maharajas
apart from being great hunters relished the passion of cooking the SHIKARS themselves
for their chosen guests and the trend continues among the generation.
