Made in Mewar
The Mewar food festival, hosted by master gourmet Jiggs Kalra, is a perfect combination of great flavours
STORYTELLING Combines with food
We stepped into the gracious portals of the Jamavar at The Leela Palace Kempinski, with an air of anticipation for the Mewar food festival. Hosted by gourmet extraordinare, Jiggs Kalra, one could look forward to a super gustatory experience tempered with fascinating stories about the food. And we were not disappointed in the least.
The starters’ platter set the ball rolling. The sooley paneer ke with the delicious hint of cardamom and green peppercorn jostled with the bharwaan aloo Mewari with its saffron-rich yoghurt gravy while the kachori and the dahi gujiya did a delicious tango with the chutneys — mango and mint.
My companion dug into the vast array of non-vegetarian options from kebabs to a fragrant biryani with the meat so tender that cutting it was easy as pie.
After the starters came the famous dal bati churma and the fascinating story behind this famous Rajasthani food. Jiggs said: “The wives and mothers of warriors would give the men folk the raw wheat ‘peda’, when they set out to battle. The soldiers would bury these in the sand where they would bake in sun.” We, of course had the millennial version — bati doused in ghee with the delicately-flavoured churma and the traditional five lentil panchmael daal.
For the main course, there was paneer in saffron, the fascinating sweet and bitter methi kishmish — a stunning melange of fenugreek and raisin, old faithful, the bean and berry combination, kaer sangri and bharwaan gatte where the gatte are further stuffed with herbed paneer. The bread basket had the multi-flour bejarh (barley, channa and soya) and godri (wheat and channa). The Kabuli, a lovely layered rice with tomato and channa dal rocked with the silken smooth raitha.
Master Chef Farman Ali, bustled up to ask for…More
