व्यंजन

Dal paniaदाल पानियाशाकाहारीMain

Maize rotis wrapped in leaves and baked in wood embers, served with a thin spiced tuvar dal, ghee and a garlic-chilli chutney. The defining Nimadi meal, cooked outdoors as often as in, and the dish the region is named for as far as the rest of the state is concerned.

कहाँ चखें: Roadside dhabas along the Khargone and Barwani roads, and at village fairs.

Dal baflaशाकाहारीMain

Boiled-then-baked wheat balls cracked open and soaked in ghee, with dal and chutney. Shared with the plateau above and cooked at the same feast scale, but eaten here with a noticeably hotter chutney.

Bhutte ka keesशाकाहारीSnack

Grated fresh maize cooked down in milk with green chilli and mustard seed. Nimar grows the maize the plateau makes this from, and eats it in the same monsoon window.

Chana nimonaशाकाहारीMain

Coarsely ground gram cooked to a thick, heavily spiced pottage. Recorded across the Nimar and Malwa belt and served on state ceremonial menus as a regional dish; the name it shares with the green-pea nimona of the Gangetic plain covers two rather different preparations.

Lal mirch ka thecha and lehsun chutneyशाकाहारीAccompaniment

Pounded chilli and garlic, raw or briefly roasted, put on the table in its own bowl. In a valley that grows chilli commercially this is not a garnish; it is a course.

Jowar bhakri and makai rotiशाकाहारीBread

Coarse-grain flatbreads patted out by hand and cooked on an iron plate over wood. The bhakri is the everyday bread of the valley floor, and the reason wheat roti reads here as a slightly formal food.

RaabdiशाकाहारीEveryday

Soured buttermilk thickened with maize or jowar flour, salted and drunk cool. The valley's summer staple and a working meal in itself.

Mahua ke laddu and mahua rotiशाकाहारीEveryday and festive

Dried mahua flowers cooked with flour and ghee or ground into a sweet. A forest food of the Bhil, Bhilala and Barela households on both slopes, and a genuine calorie source rather than a curiosity.

Narmada river fishमांसाहारीMain

Fried or curried with dry red chilli in the fishing settlements along the river. The ghat towns themselves are vegetarian by convention, so the two food cultures sit within a kilometre of each other and do not mix.

Kadhi and chakki ki shaakशाकाहारीMain

Buttermilk-and-besan kadhi, and the wheat-gluten curry shared with the plateau. Between them they carry most of the household's cooking through the months when no vegetable is growing.

Gud papdi and til-gudशाकाहारीDessert

Jaggery cooked with wheat flour and ghee and set into squares, and sesame-and-jaggery brittle made at Makar Sankranti. Winter sweets built on jaggery rather than on reduced milk, which is the poorer and older pattern.

The Bohra thal at Burhanpurशाकाहारी और मांसाहारीCommunal meal

Eight or so people around one large steel platter, eating in a fixed sequence that opens and closes with something sweet, with a pinch of salt taken first. Burhanpur's Dawoodi Bohra community and its pilgrimage traffic keep the practice conspicuous in a town otherwise known for its Mughal buildings.

Kacche kele ki sabziशाकाहारीMain

Raw banana cooked as a vegetable, common in and around Burhanpur, which is among the state's largest banana districts — a case of a commercial crop working its way into the everyday kitchen.

Chironji, tendu and forest gathersशाकाहारीEveryday

Chironji kernels, tendu fruit and amla collected off the Satpura slope, eaten fresh in season and dried for the rest of the year. Chironji is also a cash gather, sold up to the sweet trade on the plateau.

Malpua and gud ki kheer at the fairsशाकाहारीFestive

Fried batter discs in syrup and a jaggery rice pudding, cooked in bulk at the Singaji and Narmada fairs. Fair food in Nimar is jaggery-based and cooked in the open in vessels the size of a cartwheel.