Rajasthan Cuisines

Rajasthan offers a large range of cuisines to the visitors who are overwhelmed by the great taste and variety of the princely state. In the ancient days, cooking in the Royal Palace was raised to the level of an art form and was a complex matter for the cooks, who used to serve the Royal families. Called the Khansamas, these cooks were of high regards and they use to prepare some of the most enigmatic recipes. Today there skills lie in some of the descendent families of the Khasnamas and few recipes adore the Magnificent hotels and palaces in the state and around India.

A speciality of the region is that, foods that could be saved for longer periods and eaten without heating are preferred. The war like phenomenon of preserving food for several days has given it the distinction of cooking many dry food recipes. As the state is a dry region, scarcity of water is the most important thing in the people's mind. The women folk use minimum of water and instead use more of milk,curd, butter. Maheswari cooking, the use of mango powder in cooking is a unique way to add taste to the dishes. It even serves the purpose of replacing the tomato, scarcely found in the desert land.

Normal with out being too red or spicy, the vegetable cuisines includes the daal,one seasonal vegetable, green salad, pickle and the good old tandoori roti. Some of the regions provide a greater variety of the Rajasthani Dish. The ingredients are gatte ki sabzi, papar ki sabzi,mangori,alu methi, ker sangri. Daals of greater variety are prepared whereas rice is used as pulao or as plain rice. Variety of rotis are to be found the names includes the bajra ki roti,makki ki roti,jau-channa ki roti,besan ki roti.

One can always have the pleasure to taste the bati, the parathas, puris and cheelra the popular ones among the many. Each and every region of Rajasthan has its own speciality like the gheevar of Jaipur, ladoos and mirchi badas from Jodhpur, malpuas from puskar and namkeen Bhujiya from Bikaner. Ajmer is best at sohan halwa, diljani from Udaipur,mawa from Alwar and til papri from Beawar. Few recipes that are to be found common in most of the restaurants and hotels of Rajasthan are the Kachoris,dahi baras,churma and bati.


Sweet Dishes
Besides the dishes made from the different types of spices available in the region, The entire state is a hot bed for the sweets like jalebis and fafda. Termed as Mithai's by the local peoples, the name has become synonymous in the whole country today and any thing sweet is terned mithai by the people of India. Rajasthanis generally prefer to have mithai's or ladoos with a glass of milk in the early morning.