Jharkhand Thali

Jharkhand is a state that was carved out of Bihar in 2000, so needless to say, the food has a lot of overlap with Bihari food. But that didn’t stop us from cooking up new distinct dishes to create a full Jharkhand thali (other than the Litti Chokha which we simply had to repeat from our Bihari Thali). As always, this is a testament to the immense breadth and depth that exists in Indian cuisine. We found the Jharkhand thali to be an earthy rustic wholesome meal which was both flavorful and filling. Dishes like the Aloo Baigan Chokha, Aloo Chana and Dehati Chicken will definitely be added to our family recipe repertoire. We highly recommend that you give some of the dishes below a shot.

Chilka Roti (Link to recipe)

I took one bite of this dish and exclaimed - ‘this tastes just like dosa’!! Isn’t it amazing that there is a dish in an eastern state of India which is so similar to a staple South Indian dish!! The subtle difference in the preparation is that it is made slightly thicker.

Dhuska (Link to recipe)

This is a deep-fried dish made out of rice and lentils. It can also be shallow fried for a healthier twist but we loved the deep fried version better. It paired excellently with the Aloo Chana.

Aloo Chana (Link to recipe)

We simply loved this dish!! The green chillies added to the tomato and onion based curry gave it a kick that complimented the slightly more bland Dhuska beautifully.

Litti Chokha (Link to recipe)

No Jharkhand or Bihari thali can be complete without the trademark Litti Chokha dish. This time we slow cooked the Litti over a gas flame for a more authentic rustic taste and then smeared it with pure ghee. What’s not to love about that!!

Raiwali Bhindi (Link to recipe)

Here Okra is cooked with freshly ground mustard powder and dry mango powder (amchur) which results in a unique tangy flavorful vegetable dish. This dish complimented well with hot rice and kulthi dal.

Kulthi Dal (Link to recipe)

Horsegram lentils!! Never having eaten this form of lentils before, I was a bit apprehensive if I would enjoy the taste. It’s a robust lentil that required soaking overnight and still retained a bite to it after cooking. I also learnt that it’s better to remove the outer skin of the lentils as well. Overall, I was happy with my first jaunt with the horsegram lentils and appreciated the wholesome taste of this dish.

Dehati Chicken (Link to recipe)

This was an easy and lip-smacking preparation of village style chicken. This curry calls for the addition of whole green chilles, whole red chillies and red chilli powder - so this dish is not for the faint of heart!!

Thekua (Link to recipe)

Deep-fried wheat-flour and jaggery cookies, these were initially difficult to get right. We later discovered that the trick was to fry them on a low to medium flame so that they cooked fully. Subtly sweet with a crunchy crumbly texture, we enjoyed this dish even more accompanied with a cup of chai.

This thali took a lot of patience and hard-work - with overnight prepping, slow-cooking and deep-frying. But the end result was well worth the effort! And of course discovering new dishes that we know we will repeat for a long time was the icing on the cake.

With this we are proud to have completed thali’s from the 4 eastern Indian states Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha (Link). Now on to our next frontier - to complete thali’s from all of the southern Indian states with our final Telangana thali.