Traditional recipes

Thin pancakes of rice-flour batter cooked on an iron pan, the everyday breakfast of Chhattisgarh, eaten with tomato or green chutney.

Finger-shaped dumplings of rice flour and cooked rice, steamed and then tossed in a tempering of mustard, sesame and curry leaves.

Cooked rice soaked in water, eaten fresh (bore) or overnight (baasi) with onion, green chilli, salt and a side of bhaji or chutney.

A thick rice-flour flatbread baked slowly on a pan and then over embers, crisp outside and soft inside.

Soft deep-fried puris made from rice flour, made for festivals and eaten with chutney or vegetable curry.

A thin, sour curry of Bastar made with seasonal vegetables, bamboo shoot and a little rice paste, cooked with very little oil.

Soft dumplings of urad dal paste dropped straight into a tangy curd kadhi and cooked until they puff.

Spiced chana dal paste shaped into small dumplings and steamed instead of fried, a light Chhattisgarhi snack.

Crunchy, savoury fried snacks of spiced besan dough, made in large batches for Teeja and Pola.

Crisp sweet fried snacks of wheat and rice flour with jaggery, sesame and coconut, made for Teeja and Pola.

Fritters of coarse rice paste and curd, fried in ghee and soaked in sugar syrup, a festive sweet of Chhattisgarh.

Fried cakes of soaked rice flour and jaggery, coated with sesame, made for festivals.

Half-moon pastries filled with roasted semolina, coconut and sugar, fried until crisp; the Chhattisgarhi festive sweet for Diwali.

A sour, fiery chutney of red weaver ants and their eggs ground with chilli, garlic and salt, a traditional food of Bastar.

Red amaranth leaves stir-fried with garlic and chilli, which colour the dish a deep pink-red.

Colocasia leaves spread with spiced urad dal paste, rolled, steamed, sliced and cooked in a tangy curry.

Tender bamboo shoots of the monsoon cooked with onion, tomato and spices, eaten across Chhattisgarh’s forest districts.

A cooling summer drink made from tikhur, a starch from the roots of a wild turmeric-like plant, with milk or water and sugar.

A thin gruel of rice, broken rice or millet cooked in plenty of water, drunk by tribal families as food and drink.

Free-range country chicken cooked slowly in a spicy onion-tomato gravy, a favourite of village feasts in Chhattisgarh.

Soft, round fritters of wheat flour and jaggery, fried until brown, made for festivals and family occasions.

Crisp, ring-shaped fritters of urad dal, made for festivals and family ceremonies in Chhattisgarh.

A one-pot meal of kodo or kutki millet cooked with moong dal and vegetables, a traditional food of Chhattisgarh’s hill and forest villages.

Sun-dried dumplings of urad dal and grated ash gourd, stored through the year and cooked into curries.