व्यंजन

Kodo and kutki bhaatशाकाहारीEveryday

Millet cooked exactly as rice is cooked, drained, and eaten with a thin dal or a green. Kodo holds its shape and eats coarse; kutki cooks in half the time and eats soft, which is why kutki goes to children and the sick.

PejशाकाहारीEveryday

Millet or rice gruel drunk cold from a pot carried to the field. The name covers a range from a thin drink to a thick porridge depending on how much of the day is left.

Mahua lattaशाकाहारीMain

Dried mahua flowers boiled with rice or kodo until the sugar in the flowers glazes the grain. It is sweet, faintly smoky and eaten as a meal, not a dessert — the clearest example of a forest product standing in for something a field would otherwise have to grow.

Mahua ladduशाकाहारीSweet

Dried mahua pounded with til or chironji kernels and pressed into a ball. No added sugar and no cooking; the flower is sweet enough by itself.

Chapda chutneyचापड़ा चटनीमांसाहारीSide

Red weaver ants and their eggs pounded raw with garlic, chilli and salt into a sharp, citrus-sour paste. Eaten in the southern and eastern forest belt; the Bastar version of the same dish, over the watershed, is the one that has been formally registered.

Bans karilशाकाहारीSide

Bamboo shoot, either fresh in a thin curry through the monsoon or salted and soured in a pot for the rest of the year. The fermented version is used a spoonful at a time, as an acid rather than a vegetable.

Jungle bhajiशाकाहारीSide

The plate of wild greens, each with a fortnight of season — charota with the first rains, koliyari from the bauhinia, chench, amari, munga, bohar. Boiled, drained and finished with garlic and salt. The kitchen has far more names for greens than it has for spices.

Rugda and bodaशाकाहारीSeasonal delicacy

Wild mushrooms that fruit under sal within days of the first heavy rain and are dug rather than picked. They cannot be cultivated, appear for perhaps three weeks, and sell in Jabalpur and Mandla markets at prices no cultivated vegetable in the region approaches.

TikhurशाकाहारीDrink or sweet

Starch washed out of the rhizome of Curcuma angustifolia, dug from the forest floor and settled in water over several changes. Set with jaggery it becomes a cool, translucent slab; stirred into water it is the region's summer drink.

Badi ki sabziशाकाहारीMain

Sun-dried urad dumplings fried and simmered — the stored protein of the wet months, and the northern and eastern edge of the region's food rather than its centre.

Bhutta and makka rotiशाकाहारीEveryday

Maize roasted whole on embers, or ground coarse and baked into a thick roti on the Satpura slopes.

Ember-roasted river fishमांसाहारीMain

Small fish from the Narmada, the Banjar and the tanks, wrapped in leaf and put in the ashes, then pounded with salt and chilli. Larger river fish are smoke-dried on the hearth rack for the monsoon.

GhughriशाकाहारीRitual

Whole grain or gram boiled and lightly salted, made at Pola and Nag Panchami and distributed rather than served. A ritual dish defined by being shared out, not by being cooked well.

ChironjiशाकाहारीIngredient

The kernel of Buchanania lanzan, cracked one at a time from a hard stone. It goes into sweets across north India and is collected almost entirely in forests like these, which is why it costs what it does.

Khoya jalebiशाकाहारीSweet

Jabalpur's own sweet — jalebi made from a khoya batter rather than a fermented flour one, so it comes out dense, dark and fudge-like instead of crisp. Sold by weight, warm, and not really found outside the city.

कहाँ चखें: The sweet shops around Fuhara Chowk in Jabalpur.