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Home » Rajasthan Tourism » Rajasthan Cuisine
Rajasthan 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.
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