व्यंजन

Marathwadi mutton rassaकालवणमांसाहारीMain

Goat on the bone in a thin, near-black gravy of kala masala, with a film of red oil on top that is not skimmed. The blackness is roasted dry coconut, not chilli; the heat is separate and arrives afterwards. Eaten with jowar bhakri and raw onion, never with rice.

Naan qaliaमांसाहारीMain

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar's own dish and a genuinely Deccani one — mutton braised with whole spice, fried onion and yoghurt into a thin red-brown qalia, eaten with a leavened naan baked against the wall of a tandoor. It belongs to the same family as Hyderabad's braises and to nothing in western Maharashtra.

कहाँ चखें: The naan-qalia counters around City Chowk and Shahganj in the old city, from evening onwards.

Jowar bhakriभाकरीशाकाहारीBread

The staple. Patted by hand from unleavened sorghum flour and finished on coals so it balloons; coarse, slightly sweet, and heavy enough that a working day is built around two of them.

HurdaशाकाहारीSeasonal

Tender green jowar grain, fire-roasted in the ear and rubbed out by hand, eaten with lemon, salt, thecha, curd and jaggery. Available roughly three weeks a year, only where the crop stands. Farmers host hurda parties in the field in December and January and the whole thing is the occasion, not the food.

Shev bhajiशाकाहारीMain

A fierce thin gravy of onion, garlic and dark masala into which crisp gram-flour shev is dropped at the table, so it is still holding its shape in the first mouthful and dissolved by the last. It belongs to a belt rather than to one region — Khandesh, Marathwada and Vidarbha all claim it, and the northern districts make it hottest.

Bharli vangiशाकाहारीMain

Small round brinjals slit crosswise and packed with kala masala, roasted groundnut, sesame and dry coconut, then cooked in a shallow tamarind gravy. The Marathwada version is darker and hotter than the Pune one, which sweetens the same dish with jaggery.

KhichdiशाकाहारीMain

Rice and moong dal cooked soft with turmeric and a groundnut-oil tempering, eaten with plain curd and lime pickle. Ordinary food everywhere in India, but here it is what a household eats when the masala tin is being saved, and it is the standard offering at a death in the family.

KhichdaमांसाहारीMain

A Muharram dish and a different thing entirely from khichdi — cracked wheat, several dals and mutton pounded together over many hours until the meat has gone to fibre and the whole pot is one texture. Cooked in large deghs and distributed from the Deccani neighbourhoods through the ten days.

AmbilशाकाहारीDrink or gruel

Cold soured jowar or bajra gruel thinned with buttermilk, salted, sometimes with a green chilli crushed into it. Summer field food, drunk from a tumbler.

Thecha and khardaशाकाहारीCondiment

Green chilli, garlic, salt and roasted groundnut pounded on stone. Thecha is drier, kharda coarser and wetter with oil. Present at every meal, and the reason a plain plate is not a dull one.

PithlaशाकाहारीMain

Gram flour whisked into hot seasoned water until it thickens — twelve minutes from nothing to a meal, which is exactly why it exists. Eaten with bhakri and raw onion, and no household treats it as a recipe.

Shevayachi kheerशाकाहारीSweet

Hand-drawn wheat vermicelli simmered in milk with cardamom. Made for Eid in the Muslim households and for Nagpanchami and weddings in the Hindu ones, from the same shevaya dried on a sheet on the terrace in summer.

Kesar aamrasशाकाहारीSweet

The pulp of the Kesar mango, which is grown across Jalna, Beed, Latur and the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar orchards and holds a geographical indication of its own. Denser and more orange than Alphonso, and it takes heat and shallow soil far better, which is why it is the mango of a drought region.

Langar at Hazur SahibशाकाहारीCommunal meal

Roti, dal, a vegetable and kadah prasad served continuously in the free kitchen at Nanded's takht, cooked in Punjabi proportions with local wheat and eaten sitting in rows on the floor. The nearest thing the region has to a Punjabi institution, and it has been there since the eighteenth century.

कहाँ चखें: Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib, Nanded.

Tuljapur prasadशाकाहारीOffering

Puran poli and coconut offered at the Bhavani temple and eaten on the temple steps. The Dasara and Navratri crowds turn the town's entire lane system into a food economy for ten days.