Himachali food: Dham, Siddu, Madra and the everyday hill kitchen

Himachali cooking is shaped by altitude and season. In the lower and mid hills, wheat, rice, maize and pulses do most of the work; higher up, buckwheat, barley and amaranth take over, along with more dairy and dried vegetables that keep through winter. Meat is common at festivals and in the higher valleys, less so day to day.

Dham

Dham is the formal feast, served at weddings and temple functions and cooked by a hereditary caste of cooks called botis. It is a sit-down meal eaten off leaf plates, usually vegetarian, and the dishes are slow-cooked, often a day ahead. A typical Dham includes rice, a madra (see below), a sweet-and-sour preparation such as khatta made with tamarind or amchur, black gram maash dal, and mittha — sweet rice with raisins and dry fruit. The exact spread changes from Kangra to Mandi to Chamba.

Siddu

Siddu is a steamed bread made from wheat flour left to rise, then stuffed — with a paste of walnuts and poppy seeds, or with spiced pulses, or in some homes with a green like chulai. It is steamed over a pot, then eaten hot with ghee, dal or a chutney. It is winter food and popular right across the Kullu, Shimla and Mandi areas.

Madra

Madra is a Chamba and Kangra dish of chickpeas or rajma simmered in a thick, lightly spiced yoghurt gravy enriched with ghee. It is one of the anchors of a Dham.

Everyday and higher-altitude food

Down in the valleys, everyday meals are dal, seasonal sabzi and rice or roti, with buttermilk. In Kinnaur and Spiti you will meet buckwheat pancakes, barley flour sattu, thick thukpa noodle soups and butter tea, reflecting the Tibetan influence. Trout, farmed in the Kullu and Kangra valleys, appears on many menus, and the state's apples turn up as juice, cider and chutney.

Where to try it

Roadside dhabas do the honest everyday version. For a Dham you generally need to be invited to a function, though some restaurants in Shimla, Mandi and Dharamshala put on a Dham thali, especially around festivals. In Kinnaur and Spiti, homestays are the best way to eat local — see the Spiti Valley guide.