Cuisine of the Jungle

An increasing focus for Bandhavgarh Jungle Lodge has been to promote farm to table food. While there are numerous fruit trees, including guava, jamun, mango, lemon, to name just a few, and a lot of home-grown herbs, the lodge also identified an area to grow even more vegetables. The set menu at the lodge allows for guests to experience nutritious and scrumptious meals with recipes that are an ode to the region but brilliantly conceptualized to suit the taste buds of the international traveler. These meals are further customized in accordance with the guests’ preference, allergic reactions (if any), and spice levels.

The flavours

The thematic meals (‘street food’, ‘local’, ‘continental’, ‘world cuisine’) will ensure you taste the best of everything. So, if it’s ‘matar jeera shorba’ as soup on one day, you can enjoy ‘tomato and peppercorn’ soup with garlic bread on the side the next day. From biryanis to barbeques, grilled chicken to vegetable hakka noodles, lal bhajito mashed potatoes, the variety is immense and bursting with flavour.

Dal Kebab

250 g split chickpeas, soaked for four to five hours in water I
large onion, chopped
8 to 10 cloves garlic, ground
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
Dash asafoetida powder
A small handful of onion sprigs, trimmed
2 to 3 tablespoons roasted gram flour Coriander seeds, Crusted
½ teaspoon grated ginger
Salt
Oil for frying

Drain chickpeas in a colander and crush or grind them light! into small granules like paste and mix all the ingredients int chickpea paste to make mixture, binding well. Take small piece f the mixture and flatten on your palm like a tikki. Heat oil, deep-fry in batches of 4 to 5 tossing every now and the to a golden brown and crispy. Slide them on a dish and serve with green chutney.
Note: The mixture should be thick, to be able to drop into the oil
if not. add some roasted gram flour to get the right consistency.

Serves4

Masala chai

2 cups water
1 teaspoon tea leaves or as needed ½ to 1 cup milk
Sugar
Whole Masala:
3 to 4 black pepper corns
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
cardamom pods

Gound the whole masala in a mortar and pestle. Boil water, drop in tea leaves with ground masala. Add milk, sugar, boil furthe or 2 minutes or until desired brown color appears. Strai hrough the sieve and serve hot.
Note: To enhance the or flavor you can add cinnamon, saffron, int, lemon grass, fennel, honey or rose petals.
Home remedy: For sore throats or a common cold, add a fe asil leaves and a pinch of ground cloves to the masala chai.

Serves2