This weekend, Anuradha Joshi Medhora, will serve a variety of mutton dishes of the royal Maratha and Rajput families, at a pop up titled The Royal Mutton Decadence Trail
Mans Khushk
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Anuradha Joshi Medhora, 30, grew up surrounded by good food. “I am from Indore, and have been fascinated with food since childhood. I love the cuisine of the Malwa region – I grew up eating it as I was surrounded by people who were from the royal families or belonged to the old households where it was cooked,” says Medhora, who started Charoli Foods as an opportunity to introduce people to the cuisine of the royal Maratha and Rajput families, and to revive the lost recipes of the region.
Mans ka Zarda Pulav
This weekend, at a pop up titled The Royal Mutton Decadence Trail, she will serve a variety of mutton dishes. This is her first pop up focusing on mutton, and will be serving a specially curated wine and beer options.
Taaze Masale Ka Mans
“Most people equate royal food with Rajasthan. There’s more to royal food, and mutton dishes, than just Lal Maas,” says Medhora, who has a day job in her family’s textile business.
Kaliya Dal with Ghee Chawal. Pics/ Sneha Kharabe
Here’s a whiff of her menu.
Peete Mans Ka Soola
This starter, a Central India staple, is a slow cooked mutton dish that Medhora learned from her mother — it was a dish she ate at home regularly. “The meat is beaten at regular intervals with a stone while it is getting cooked, so that it becomes mushy and achieves a pulled pork-like consistency. It is served with flatbread and you roll it up like a taco and eat it,” she says.
Peete Mans ka Soola
The mildly-spiced dish is made using a fatty piece of meat, preferably the shoulder, as it is cooked in its own juices. It has a richness that comes from the use of malai and ghee, and flavours of cardamom and pepper. It is smoked at the end using the dhungar method — ghee is dropped on hot coal and once it starts smoking, the whole dish is sealed with coal for 40 minutes; Medhora adds laung (clove) for added flavour.
Dahi ka Halwa
Shikampuri Kebab
This is one of Charoli Food’s specialties and a favourite at their pop ups. “This version of kebab came to Malwa from the coast of Kashmir. It is said that one of the royals from Malwa went to Kashmir and fell in love with the dish and brought it back with them. Since then, it was always served at state dinners,” says Medhora. She heard this tale from her grandfather who had attended many dinners at royal houses where he was served the kebab.
Mans Khushk
Traditionally a dish made with paya, Medhora has adapted it using just mutton. “I don’t like paya,” she confesses. The spicy tangy semi-dry dish is one of her favourites. “It is made by deep frying onions, adding in spices and then grinding them on a stone till it becomes a smooth paste. My mother says you have to do it on the stone else you won’t get the taste,” she says, adding that she uses a stone she got from home.
Taaze Masale Ka Mans
This dish is a favourite with the begums of Bhopal. “The recipe doesn’t use any pre-ground masalas but gets its flavours from green chillies, onions, ginger and garlic,” says Medhora. She sourced the recipe for this semi-dry dish from her Bhopal-based aunt.
Kaleji Ka Raita
A chilled raita, it has gamey bits of kaleji in it and a mustard flavour. Medhora insists that this dish can convert people who don’t like offal. “This recipe was from a friend’s mother who hails from an old Maratha Sardar family,” she says.
Kalia Dal
This dish is Medhora’s take on Dal Gosht. “It is an old Maratha recipe. It’s a spicy dish with prominent flavours of hing and red chillies,” she says. The dal is best eaten with plain rice.
Mans Ka Zarda Pulao
“This is actually two dishes combined in one — a spicy mutton pulao mixed with a sweet zarda pulao. The zarda is made with jaggery and makes up about one-fifth of the dish and is used to cut the spice of the mutton,” says Medhora, who got these recipes from her mother’s friend in Bhopal.
Besides the mutton dishes, Medhora will also serve On Tali Arbi - double fried arbi, Ghadi Ke Parathe, which is ghee laden layered parathas, and for dessert Dahi Ka Halwa — a curd-based halwa.
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