Teej and Gangaur: festival food in a Jaipur kitchen

Two festivals shape the food of a Jaipur household more than any others. Gangaur falls in March or April, after Holi, and Teej arrives with the first monsoon in July or August. Both are women’s festivals, both involve fasting and feasting, and both have a pantry of their own. Each year they show up on our menu in some form.

Gangaur is eighteen days of worship of Gauri, ending in a procession through the old city from the City Palace. Families make gunas, small fried sweet or salted dough twists, and ghevar is already appearing in the sweet shops. Chef Vikram’s grandmother made a gunas with ajwain and jaggery that we now serve, crushed, over a dessert in the spring menu.

Teej is the festival of the swing and the first rains. Ghevar, the honeycomb disc of fried batter soaked in syrup and topped with rabri, belongs to this season, and the humidity of the monsoon is said to be what gives it its texture. Our pastry cook spends two weeks each July getting the batter right, and from mid-July to mid-August the tasting menu ends with a small ghevar with saffron rabri.

If you are in Jaipur for either festival, book early. The processions close roads in the walled city in the evening, so leave extra time to reach C-Scheme, and ask us for the best route when you confirm your table. On Teej evening, our Sunday thali becomes a festival thali with ghevar, malpua and kheer.