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Rich and regal Rajasthani food

Desert dreams Rajasthani food has both pure vegetarian Marwari cuisine and the meats from the royal kitchen. Chef Mod Singh from Jodhpur

As we sit sipping khatti chaach, buttermilk flavoured with ginger and some herbs, looking out at the Arabian sea with and the bobbing catamarans waiting for ‘dal-bati-churma’, Rajasthan is the furthest thing geographically but there we are waiting. Pepper Restaurant at Taj Malabar is hosting a Rajasthani food festival (dinner).

And then the good things happen. I just have to gush about dal, bati, churma, which we are told is a complete meal in itself. And it turns out to be. Dal is…we all know what dal is, and bati – is a kind of bread made of atta (flour) roasted on a charcoal fire ideal with a dash of ghee (or more than dash). Churma is sweet, made of wheat flour combined with sultanas and other dry fruits, sugar, khoya etc. There is a hint of spice, then there…a trace of sweet all playing peek-a-boo with the palate. So that is what they mean when they talk about the play of flavours. This is turning out to be fun, breaking bati, a modest teaspoon of ghee, dipping it in the dal and there goes. The churma is sweet in a very restrained kind of way, not one bit sickening. This combo is indeed a meal in itself.

For some reason we were labouring under the misconception that Rajasthani cuisine is vegetarian, that is until the ‘laal maans’ and ‘khatta murg’ make an appearance. The Rajputs, Amit Ghosh, executive chef Taj Malabar tells us, love their meats as well. Being a warrior race and hunting was integral to their lives. Therefore it was only logical that they eat the game that they hunted. ‘Laal maans’ is a fiery red, the kind that would make one worry for one’s digestive tract…in fact one’s insides in general. I take a respectful bite (all in the line of duty) and it is spicy alright but not in the scary way but in an another helping kind of way, nice with the small, soft bajre ki roti. Khatta murg is a contrast to the fiery red of ‘laal mans’, there are the spices but the curry is finished with curd, which is what probably makes the curry tangy, perfectly complemented by the rotis. Water scarcity and the resultant scarcity of vegetables reflects in the cuisine where very few fresh vegetables are used and curd or ghee is used instead of water. ‘Gatta curry’ is an excellent example. Gatta is made from gram flour kneaded into a dough with spices, made into strips which are then boiled, cut into cubes and fried. The fried gatta is then added to the curry. Gently spiced, the amchoor (dried mango seed powdered) adds the tang…the final effect is delectable.

‘Khata-meetha tamatar’ (sweet and sour tomato curry) is the piece-de-resistance, we are told it is a personal favourite of the Maharaja of Jodhpur. It has the sweet and the sour of the tomatoes, no add-ons (hopefully) tastes simple and natural. ‘Chilka aloo pyaz’ (potato (unskinned) curry with onions) too is simple and a stark contrast to the drama of the meats, subtlety seems to have been uppermost on those planning the menu.

Chef Mod Singh and Chef Ganga Singh have been brought down from the Taj Umaid Bhavan, Jodhpur. “This is the food of the royalty. This is the kind of food that the royalty eats, this is how it is cooked for them,” says Chef Mod Singh. It is an eating out alright but the flavours are such that one could as well be eating rich food at a Rajput home. The chef assures us that they have gone easy on the ghee and the spices. Talking of spices, the pickles…there are so many of the them besides chicken and mutton made the Rajasthani way, there are pickles made of small berries and cluster beans – ker, sangri – and variants of these indigenous lentils.

One can wrap up the meal with desserts such as lapsi, sevian kheer, gulab jamun or rabri ladu. The buffet has plenty to offer, definitely a feast for the genuine foodie.

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