Festive Special: Recipes from the Royal Kitchen of Mewar

The festive season is here and we are as excited as you are. Festivals are incomplete without making and savouring some special dishes with friends and family. We caught up with two of our favourite chefs and requested them to share easy recipes which will add a spark to your celebrations.

There’s more to Rajasthani cuisine than dal baati choorma and lal maas. The state offers some rare dishes which are not found anywhere else. Over the years, these have taken a backseat but the team of chefs at Udaipur’s Taj Fateh Prakash Palace is reviving a number of mouthwatering curries which had been lost with time. Executive Chef Hemant Rematiya thinks that every dish has its own style and story. Chef Rematiya is a fourth generation chef and his ancestors have passed on many a rare recipe to him.

Rajwadi Amba Haldi Ki Sabji
One such recipe is Rajwadi Amba Haldi ki Sabji. Chef Rematiya tells us that the dish was an integral part of a royal warrior's meal, thanks to its medicinal values. “Turmeric powder is an integral part of Indian cuisine and known for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial properties,” says the chef. He adds that fresh turmeric is not available everywhere but the Mewar region in Rajasthan is blessed to have a variety of produce due to suitable climatic conditions, and fresh amba turmeric is one of them. This kind of turmeric is brighter in colour and bitter in taste.A unique style of preparation was used to prepare the rare Mewari delicacy that Rajwadi Amba Haldi ki Sabji is. Fresh Amba turmeric used to be soaked overnight in buttermilk to calm down the heating nature and bitterness before cooking. Only clarified butter was used in its making. Not much has changed over the years. In fact, the dish can be easily prepared at home.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients 
200 g Fresh turmeric
50 g Amba Haldi
4 tbsp Ghee
2 Green Cardamom
3-4 Cloves
1 inch Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp Hing
2-3 Green chillies (slit into halves)
1 tsp Garlic (chopped)
1/2 inch Ginger (grated)
3/4 cup Sour Yogurt
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
Salt (to taste)
1/2 cup Green Peas
2 tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)

Method
Wash the turmeric and amba haldi and peel them using a knife.
Grate these two using a medium grater.
Heat ghee in a pan.
Once the ghee is hot, add the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon.
Add cumin seeds, hing, green chilli, garlic and ginger and fry for a few seconds.
Add the grated haldi and amba haldi and fry for 10-15 minutes on low heat until turmeric is softened.
Keep stirring continuously to avoid the sticking from bottom.
Whisk yogurt with red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and add it in the pan.
Keep stirring continuously for 3-4 minutes until the sabji starts to thicken.
Add salt and green peas and cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Garnish with fresh coriander.

Makai Ki Galvani
Could festivals ever be celebrated without adding a few extra calories to our diet? Everyone loves to end their meal with a mouth-watering dessert. We reached out to Chef Anup Gupta, Executive Chef at Taj Aravali Resort and Spa, Udaipur and requested him to share one recipe from his treasure. Chef Gupta, who specialises in organic cuisine, regional food and active food, was too kind to share his Dussehra speciality Makai Ki Galvani with us.The Mewar region in Rajasthan has plentiful of maize crops. The most unique of them all are the ones with white kernels. Galvani is a festival specialty from Ghoda Ghati and Haldi Ghati near Nathdwara in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district. This gluten free sweet dish is extremely popular amongst the Gujjar and Meena communities of Mewar. The Jain community incorporates this dish in their festival menu and it is an integral part of their temple cooking too. Many of the families serve Makai ke Galvani as prasad.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients 
Ghee 100ml
Makki Flour 200gm
Jaggery 300gm
Water 2ltr
Cardamom Powder 5gm

Method 
Mix water and jaggery in a vessel and boil it. When the jaggery dissolves completely, filter it and keep it aside.
Heat the ghee in a kadhai (pan) and add makki flour to it and take another on low flame until it becomes golden.
After the make flour is roasted, add jaggery water to it. Keep stirring it so that there are no lumps.
After a boil, cook for two more minutes.
After this, add cardamom powder mix well and serve hot.