Jaipur New: Local Foods

Mutton is slow-cooked with Mathania red chillies, garlic and yoghurt to produce the region's signature meat curry. The dish came out of Rajput hunting kitchens, where heavy chilli masked the taste of game. Colour comes from the chillies rather than tomato. It is usually eaten with bajra roti or khoba roti, and heat levels vary widely between kitchens.

Three elements are served together: baked wheat dough balls, a spiced lentil dal and sweetened crushed wheat with ghee and jaggery. Baatis were originally baked in sand or over dung fires by soldiers and herders, which made the dish portable. Each baati is cracked open and soaked in ghee before eating. It is the state's best-known plate.

Gram flour dough is rolled, boiled and sliced into cylinders, then simmered in a spiced yoghurt gravy. The recipe exists because fresh vegetables were scarce across much of Rajasthan for long stretches of the year. Texture sits between a dumpling and a firm noodle. It is served with steamed rice or chapati and appears on almost every thali.

Two desert ingredients are combined: ker berries from the caper bush and sangri beans from the khejri tree. Both are dried, soaked and cooked with red chilli, asafoetida and mustard oil. The result is tart and keeps for days without refrigeration. It was once famine food and is now among the more expensive items on a Rajasthani thali.

A large mild green chilli is stuffed with spiced potato, coated in gram flour batter and deep fried. Jodhpur is usually credited with the original, though Jaipur shops sell it in equal volume. It is served with chutney or slipped inside a bun. Heat depends on the chilli variety used, which changes with the season.

A flatbread made from a mix of flours, usually bajra with wheat or gram, cooked on a griddle and finished with ghee. The blend was a way of stretching scarce wheat with hardier millet. It is denser and darker than a chapati, with a nutty taste. Traditional pairings are garlic chutney, aloo pyaz sabzi and buttermilk.

A single platter carrying the region's dishes together, typically dal baati churma, gatte ki sabzi, ker sangri, kadhi, bajra roti, buttermilk and a sweet. Serving is unlimited at most venues, with staff refilling as you eat. It is the fastest way to cover the cuisine in one sitting. Vegetarian versions dominate, though palace restaurants serve meat thalis.