Fit for a king

Journey through the royal kitchens of Marwar as Chef Chander Singh Rathore recreates their magic

April 28, 2016 05:18 pm | Updated 05:18 pm IST

29mp_food review

29mp_food review

When my sun-seared eyes adjust to the soothing coolness of Beyond Indus at Taj Club House, I’m welcomed with two things — a goblet of chilled masala chaas (buttermilk flavoured with rock salt and roasted cumin) and Chef Rathore’s deep-voiced ‘khamaghani’, a respectful form of greeting in Rajasthan. The first is considered almost a standard in those parts, with which to stave off the heat, and the second, a warm invitation to step into a sepia-tinted way of life.

Chander Singh Rathore, junior sous chef at the celebrated Umaid Bhawan Palace, has consolidated a litany of recipes from the royal houses of Mewar and Marwar. Earlier with the Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur, Taj Lands End, Mumbai, and Raffles, Singapore, Chef Rathore has encouraged palace cooks to share their culinary heritage, which he now showcases at the Marwar Royal Cuisine promotion. The chef has curated and cooked lesser-known dishes for people as diverse as Mick Jagger, Anil Ambani and Gaj Singh II, head of the royal house of Marwar-Jodhpur.

It had once seemed to Rudyard Kipling that Providence had created the maharajas of India just to offer mankind a spectacle, a dazzling vision of marble palaces, tigers and jewels. It’s a spectacle that also extended to their kitchens across forts and hunting lodges. Marwari cuisine is founded on the trinity of corn, curd and chilli. The spices are subtle, but surface with extraordinary clarity to mask the odour of the meat, once sourced from nomadic hunts and cooked over open coal braziers. The base for most dishes is drawn from coarse grains such as millet, and in a land with scarce water resources, milk and curd are used in gravies. Fiery Rajput valour, according to legend, is also spurred by the red Mathania chillies that add a dash of colour, flavour and bravado to the cuisine.

At my table, a scroll unfolds to display the menu. And on a white crescent-shaped quarter plate a string of starters appears — sangri kebab (made from wild runner beans), bhuna makai seekh (skewered corn kernel) and farka pudina machli (mint-yoghurt flavoured pan-fried fish). The unexpected tartness of the corn excites the palate and the succulent sides of the fish fall away at a touch of the fork.

The main course includes the unusual gulab jamun ki subzi (fried milk dumplings in an onion gravy), the delicately coated subz methi malai (vegetables in a cashewnut gravy), the legendary lal maans (lamb simmered with onion and Mathania chilli) and the incredibly tasty murgh soyeta (Jodhpuri chicken). The maans, cooked on the bone, is not as tender as I would like it to be, but the chicken is a revelation. Coated in sauce and delicately flavoured, it is a warm infusion of corn meal and yellow chilli. The gatte ka pulao (gram flour dumplings in basmati rice) is wholesome and redolent of the tang of the desert, but it’s the meat that is a true gem.

The desserts — ghevar and kulfi — are sweet, but not cloyingly so, and more than a spoonful is decadence. The cherry that afternoon arrives on a silver platter served by staff padding past on the soft carpet. It’s a blob of gulkhand enveloped in apricot. One mouthful and it unleashes the fragrance of a thousand roses, and as I leave, I toast this long forgotten way of life.

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