Maharashtrian Dishes That Will Kill Your Desires For Other Cuisines
By: Sneha Chaudhary
The Cuisine of the Indian state of Maharashtra is Maharashtrian or Marathi Dishes. Although it shares a lot with other Indian cuisines, it has a distinctive characteristic.
Maharashtrian have historically treated their cuisine as being more austere than others. Maharashtrian Cuisine contains dishes that are mild and spicy. Dietary staples include maize, corn, sorghum, bajra, lentils, and fruits. Veggies are often served with peanuts and cashews.
Maharashtra Cuisine is largely influenced by seafood overlooking the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea, and the cuisine that is common in the interior of the state offers a good mix of traditional and contemporary preparations.
Maharashtrian Dishes into two styles: Konkan and Varadi. There are influences from the Goan, Saraswat, Gaud and Malvani areas of Konkan from the coastal area. On the other hand, Varadi Cuisine belongs to the region of Vidarbha. Some spices are important ingredients in Maharashtrian kitchen, such as Goda Masala, Kokum, Tamarind and Coconut.
Cooking Style in Maharashtra
- Maharashtrian meals are scientifically planned and the cooked-the golden rule is that the cooking medium must not be seen.
- The vegetables are more or less steamed and lightly seasoned to retain their nutritional value.
- There is almost no deep frying and roasting.
Some Irresistible Maharashtrian Dishes
- Ragda Pattice
- Bharli Vangi
- Sreekhand
- Basundi
- Pithla Bhakri
Ragda Patties
The much-known Ragda Patties or Ragda as the locals would call it PATTICE (a localised edition of the English patties) is part of the tasty street food of Maharashtra that can never be left on. It’s another street food in Mumbai that’s lip-smacking, cooked using curried dried peas and patties.
Bharli Vangi
A popular style of cooking brinjals, or coconut, onion, jaggery, Marathi Goda Stuffed Masala. Brinjal is a vegetable that’s not loved by many. But this Marashtra food platter has the power to kick this otherwise boring veggie into life. This blend of ingredients does wonders to the brinjal.
Sreekhand
Sreekhand is a kind of sweet yoghurt dish flavoured with cardamom powder and saffron, a success for weddings and the Dusshera festival. Usually served with piping, hot puris, it is another dish of Maharashtra Dishes that is popular throughout the country.
Pithla Bhakri
Maharashtra’s Pithla Bhakri is a portion recurrent comfort food. It is also known as the Farmer’s meal in the state. Mostly, after a long and tiring day at work, the hot pithra is joined with bhakri and even roti at times as a treat. Pithla served with rice has a consistency of watery liquid and a semi-liquid or dry pithla goes well with bhakri or roti. The same spicy variant is known as Zunka.
Basundi
Basundi is Maharashtra’s dish with awesome sweetness. Boiling the sweetened milk over low heat, it is diluted until it becomes half of its original amount. To improve the flavour and texture, sugar, cardamom, or saffron are added. There are also different forms of basundi, such as custard apple basundi, and angoor basundi, (with small-sized basundi rasgullas).
Thus, now you know that there are lots of Maharashtrian dishes that contribute to Maharashtra’s resplendent cuisine, which spans a wide variety from mild to spicy Maharashtrian dishes. And, now that you have this article as a helpful guide to this cuisine, the next time you visit Maharashtra, you will not be left out with any delicacy.
