I have been watching this program with great interest these days. It features thalis (a meal consisting of many dishes) from different parts of India. All Indians are aware of the stunning varieties in food habits across the states. But I was amazed that within a state too thalis can differ in such a huge fashion.
The case in point is Jaisalmer in the state of Rajasthan. One of the episodes showed its non-veg Rajputana thali which had 3 types of meat - the famous Safed Maas (white mutton curry), Jungali Maas and a dish of dry mutton. But the Bhatia community from Jaisalmer is totally vegetarian and so is their thali. Indians are known for their sweet tooth but I was surprised to find that one of the thalis from the Andhra (I forgot which one) doesn't have any dessert. They end their meals with bananas instead.
The program also covers recipes of a dish or two. I remember two of them in particular. One was a sweet halwa made from - mutton. Yep. Mutoon. The usual suspects in any Indian dessert were all there - ghee, sugar, milk, khoya, dry fruits, cardamom powder and saffron water. I guess Kewra water was added as well to make doubly sure that the smell of the meat was totally eliminated. The person preparing the sweet told Chef Kunal Kapoor that no one will be able to guess that it is a meat preparation unless you tell them so. To be frank, the dish didn't appeal to me and I felt nauseous when I saw chef Kunal eat a spoonful of it. :-)
The other dish - Jungali Maas - was prepared by the heir of the royal family of Jaisalmer. I had never before seen any meat preparation with just 4 ingredients - mutton, salt, ghee and lots of red chillies. Of course, salt was added too. And garlic - but only because the person preparing it loved the taste of garlic in it.
If you are a foodie and would love to know more about the rich culinary tradition of India, you better tune in to Epic channel every night at 9. It's half an hour well spent.
The case in point is Jaisalmer in the state of Rajasthan. One of the episodes showed its non-veg Rajputana thali which had 3 types of meat - the famous Safed Maas (white mutton curry), Jungali Maas and a dish of dry mutton. But the Bhatia community from Jaisalmer is totally vegetarian and so is their thali. Indians are known for their sweet tooth but I was surprised to find that one of the thalis from the Andhra (I forgot which one) doesn't have any dessert. They end their meals with bananas instead.
The program also covers recipes of a dish or two. I remember two of them in particular. One was a sweet halwa made from - mutton. Yep. Mutoon. The usual suspects in any Indian dessert were all there - ghee, sugar, milk, khoya, dry fruits, cardamom powder and saffron water. I guess Kewra water was added as well to make doubly sure that the smell of the meat was totally eliminated. The person preparing the sweet told Chef Kunal Kapoor that no one will be able to guess that it is a meat preparation unless you tell them so. To be frank, the dish didn't appeal to me and I felt nauseous when I saw chef Kunal eat a spoonful of it. :-)
The other dish - Jungali Maas - was prepared by the heir of the royal family of Jaisalmer. I had never before seen any meat preparation with just 4 ingredients - mutton, salt, ghee and lots of red chillies. Of course, salt was added too. And garlic - but only because the person preparing it loved the taste of garlic in it.
If you are a foodie and would love to know more about the rich culinary tradition of India, you better tune in to Epic channel every night at 9. It's half an hour well spent.
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