Bihari Flavours Plated On A Table With All Finesse
Image Credit: Litti Chokha. Image: Shutterstock

There is no dearth of flavours when we think of Indian food and one such cuisine that is still due to get it’s famed recognition is Bihari cuisine. This state from Eastern India sees many culinary techniques that involves a great deal of deep-frying to roasting (bhuna) and steaming or tampering (chounk). The region that mostly a rice eater, swears by mustard oil as their preferred cooking base. Talking of spices, the cuisine sees rustic flavours if simplicity and one of the distinct spice of Biharis is the use of panch-phoran (an amalgamation of five spices which includes cumin seeds (zeera), fenugreek seeds (methi), nigella seeds (mangrael/kalonji), fennel (saunf) and carom seeds (ajwain). 

And bringing these flavours to the capital were Desi Connoisseurs lead by Vickrham Vicky and Maneesh Srivastava, who have worked hard to relive those bygone flavours and have tried to bring the same essence for you. And they were back this time at Holiday Inn Mayur, New Delhi with Purvaiya 2.0. along with Chef Suraj Chauhan. It’s known fact that in Delhi Bihar’s cuisine isn’t easily available, and also the range of dishes that were available at the festival. Maneesh brought the flavours and memories of his hometown through this festival.

The festival saw live counter that was loaded with litti and aloo, baingan and tomato chokha, Paratha ( aloo, mirchi, cheeni, sattu) served with tomato sweet chutney, Aloo tikki chaat, dal pithi, Jhal muri , Bachka, Phuchka while the main course saw some delectable Rohu fish in mustard gravy, home-made chicken curry, Dehati Mutton , Aloo bhujia, Parwal bhujia, Arhar daal. The star attraction was the sweets counter with names like Chamdrakala, Buniya, Kaccha rasgulla, Pakka rasgulla, Khaja, Laung latika, Makhane ki kheer, Thekua

Loved the attention to detail. Loved the earthen pots adorned in traditional motifs.

Here's Maneesh Shrivastav Bihar special fish curry in mustard gravy


Ingredients 

•  Fish – Rohu 1kg, Marinate it with salt, chilli and turmeric powder for 10 minutes and Shallow fry them.

•  Yellow Mustard seed  -50gm

•  Coriander seeds – 50 gm

•  Garlic 12 -15 cloves

•  Ginger – 10 gm

•  Salt  – as per your taste

•  Turmeric powder – as per your taste

•  Tomato – 5-6 chopped

•  Mango pickle  2-3

•  Fenugreek seeds – 10-12

•  Asafetida (hing) – pinch

 Method

  • Make a paste of mustard, coriander, garlic, ginger and turmeric powder…add little water when you are grinding it. This should be a fine paste. Add water till you are able to attain smooth paste
  • Add 200 gms of mustard oil in Kadai (pan). Add fenugreek seeds and hing. Add the paste (and salt according to taste) and sauté till oil separates. 
  • Add tomato and continue to stir , till the mixture becomes little dry. 
  • Add water and allow it to boil. Add 2pieces of mango pickle (we need sour pickles), fish and boil along till you achieve constituency of thick gravy. Do not boil for more than 15 minutes, after you have added fish, as the pieces may break.
  • You will love the aroma and Color of this preparation. Little Pungent and different from your regular fish gravy and you will definitely crave for more.