Champaran Ahuna Mutton
Champaran ahuna mutton: goat, whole garlic and whole spices sealed into a clay handi with dough and cooked in its own juices. No water, no stirring, no pastes.
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.
Ol ki Sabzi
Ol ki sabzi: elephant foot yam boiled with lemon, then fried in smoking mustard oil with a dry-ground mustard and coriander masala. No onion, no garlic.
Tehri
Tehri: rice, potatoes and winter vegetables cooked together in one pot with whole spices and turmeric. Not layered like a biryani, and never made without potato.
Rugra ki Sabzi
Rugra: a wild puffball foraged from sal roots in the Jharkhand monsoon, cooked in mustard oil with onion, garlic and turmeric. Uncultivable, and vanishing.
Khichdi ke Chaar Yaar
Bihari khichdi: rice with chana or masoor dal, tempered with onion and red chilli, served the only way Bihar serves it — with curd, papad, ghee and pickle.
Chilka Roti
Chilka roti: rice and chana dal soaked overnight, ground at dawn and spread thin on a hot griddle. A naturally gluten-free Jharkhandi breakfast.
Dhuska
Dhuska: soaked rice and chana dal ground to a batter and deep-fried until burnished outside and soft within. Jharkhand market food, served with ghugni.
Dal Pithi
Dal pithi, or dal dulhan: hand-pressed wheat dumplings simmered inside arhar dal until the pot thickens, finished with a garlic and ghee tempering.
Dal Pittha
Dal pittha: rice flour scalded into a hot dough, filled with coarse-ground spiced chana dal and steamed. Bihar’s soft, oil-free stuffed dumpling.