A Mewari wedding menu, course by course

Our kitchen cooks Mewari food first, and most families who marry here want at least one meal of it. Here is how we usually build a wedding menu around the local dishes. The heart of it is dal baati churma. Baati are hard wheat rolls baked in a wood fire, cracked open and soaked in ghee, then eaten with a five-lentil dal. Churma is the same dough crumbled and sweetened with jaggery. We bake the baati on a live counter so guests eat them hot.

Around that come the vegetables of a dry state: gatte ki sabzi, gram flour dumplings in a yoghurt curry; ker sangri, desert berries and beans cooked with dried red chillies; and papad ki sabzi. Kadhi, rice and bajra roti complete the main course.

For non-vegetarian menus, laal maas is the Mewar classic, mutton in a deep red gravy of Mathania chillies. We tone the heat down for guests who are not used to it unless you ask otherwise. Desserts are malpua with rabri, ghevar in winter, and a jalebi counter fried to order.

Most families pair one fully Mewari meal, often the thali dinner, with a broader buffet for the reception that adds North Indian and South Indian counters. We plan both with you at a tasting about two months before the wedding.