Palak Patta Chaat
Palak patta chaat: whole spinach leaves fried in a thin gram-flour batter, then dressed hot with cold curd, chutneys, pomegranate and sev.
Gangetic Heartland
Recipes from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. An austere vegetarian tradition built on mustard oil, roasted gram flour, and sun-dried lentil cakes – earthy, pungent, and largely unknown outside the region.
Banarasi Tamatar Chaat
Banarasi tamatar chaat: tomatoes and potato cooked down in ghee for hours, mashed, spiced and served hot with sev. The only chaat in India served warm.
Bihari Kebab
Bihari kebab: thin beef strips worked in raw papaya, mustard oil, poppy seed and mace, then grilled over coals until they pull apart. Eid food from Bihar.
Bihari Mutton Curry
Bihari mutton curry: goat seared in mustard oil, then braised slowly in a masala ground fresh on the stone. The dish a Bihari wedding feast is judged on.
Bhandare Wali Aloo aur Poori
Bhandare wali aloo: floury potatoes broken by hand into a thin sour curry with no onion or garlic, served with poori. The communal meal of the Ganges plain.
Dahi Chura
Dahi chura: thick flattened rice softened in set curd with cane jaggery, eaten on Makar Sankranti in Bihar, where the festival is named after the dish.
Rasiao aur Ghee ki Roti
Rasiao: rice simmered into whole milk and sweetened with cane jaggery off the heat, served with ghee roti. The Kharna prasad eaten before Chhath’s long fast.
Kaddu Bhaat
Kaddu bhaat: bottle gourd and chana dal with rice, cooked without onion or garlic in rock salt. The meal Bihar eats before the thirty-six-hour Chhath fast.
Maithil Machh
Maithil machh: rohu steaks fried hard in mustard oil and finished in a thin garlic and mustard gravy. The fish that must be served at a Mithila wedding.