Cuisine
In
the royal kitchens of Rajasthan, food was very serious business and was
raised to the level of an art form. Hundreds of cooks worked in the stately
palaces and kept the recipes a closely guarded secret. It was a matter of
great prestige to serve unusual dishes and the royal cooks were encouraged
to experiment, the royal guest were treated to such delicacies as stuffed
camels, goats, pigs and peacocks… it was perfectly normal to have
pigeons fly out of elaborately prepared dishes. It was usually difficult to
taste all delicacies. Safed Maans or white meat is served on festive
occasions.
Even as the Mughal influence is noticeable in the
cooking in the courts, the common man's kitchen remained untouched. Cooking
here has its own flavor and the simplest; most ingredients go into the
preparation of most dishes. Dried lentils, beans and gram flour are
liberally used. In the desert belt, a minimum of water is used, and instead
milk, buttermilk and clarified butter form the base of the dish.
There are dozens of varieties of sweetmeats-Ghevar, Rusgulla, Gulab Jamun,
Barfi the list is endless.
Royal Cuisine
Staying in a Heritage Hotel, you can expect sumptuous non-vegetarian and
vegetarian dishes prepared as per recipes handed down over generations.
Often, the owners have a deep knowledge of the process and can share with
you the finer aspects of their cooking.
Sula or barbecued meat
marinated with a seasonal vegetable is a non-vegetarian specialty.
Regional Specialties
If Jaipur has its specialty of dal bati choorma and ghevar, none of the
other princely states have lagged behind. Bikaner has its savories,
especially bhujiya, witch has accounted for its fame, and the quality of its
papads and badi remains unrivalled. The lean mutton of the desert goats of
this region too is considered the most favorable. Jodhpur has its kachoris,
puffed breads with stuffing- those with mawa being extraordinarily sweet,
while others have biting not green chilies laced with a masala that is also
intended to single the palate. In Bharatpur, milk sweets, rarely
commercially available, occupy a niche by themselves. One such sweet has
milk boiled over hours to a consistency when it can be folded into little
pancakes that, quite linked with the monsoon festival of Teej, is called
ghevar, consisting of round cakes of with flour over which sweetened syrup
is poured. Today, variations include lacings with cream and Khoya, making it
a delightful concoction. Muslim food has also occupied a place in the
overall cuisine of the state, not just in pockets such as Tonk and Loharu,
but also in Jaipur where the Muslim craftsmen have been known to celebrate
Eid with great quantities of kebabs and pasandas, and with sevaiyan so fine,
it cannot be rolled elsewhere.
Daal Bati Choorma
Jaipur may be known the world over for its impressive Hawa Mahal and the
fortified old city of Ajmer, but connoisseurs recognize it for another
specialty-daal-choorma. This cuisine owes its origin to the Jaipuri penchant
for picnicking in the rainy season when the surrounding hills turn lush. On
such occasions, the picnic meal almost invariably consisted of
daal-bati-choorma, usually cooked on site rather than carried in a hamper.
The daal consists of a lentil curry; bati is a round ball of bread baked in
a charcoal fire with clarified butter concealed within; choorma is a sweet
dish made with bread bruised with jaggery or sugar and ghee. A variety of
daals may be cooked for the purpose, the bati could be made with wheat flour
or millet or even a mix of maize and wheat flour (misi), and choorma came in
an astonishing variety, several of which could be served together - the
bread with which it was made again consisting of wheat or maize or millet,
and combined with desiccated coconut, khoya, or even raisins and dry fruits.
The taste, overall, is mild, with sweet and salty alternates, no chillies,
but its fat content making it extremely calorific.
