Samosa is a fried pastry that is ideally filled with mashed and spiced potatoes. However, each region in the country has its unique style of preparing this savoury dish.

A delicious dessert, rabri is made by boiling the cream of milk and condensing it. It is sweetened with sugar or jaggery (gur). Rabri is best served cold accompanied by hot jalebis (syrupy sweets).

A stew that consists of slow cooked meat and bone marrow, nihari is an explosion of robust meaty flavours in the mouth. The soft meat, along with spiced stew and chillies, is eaten with the delicate khamiri roti that is made in a clay oven.

It is said the recipe of nihari dates back to the 17th or 18th century. Nihari draws an Indo-Persian influence that was brought in by the Mughals. In fact, the word ‘nihari’ comes from the Arabic word ‘nahar’, meaning morning. Legend has it that during the Mughal period, nihari was eaten as a breakfast dish by Nawabs after their prayers (fajr). Eventually, this meaty dish trickled down to the army personnel and Mughal soldiers started consuming it for energy-boosting purposes. It is said that it was cooked in large pots overnight and served to the labourers and soldiers for free in the morning.

One of the most popular North Indian breakfast options, these flaky, deep-fried and crisp kachoris are a not-to-be-missed savoury.

It is an old recipe in which a whole fish is stuffed with spices and kept in an earthen pot. It is then cooked and served with rumali roti.

The delicacy is prepared with meat marinated in spices overnight. The meat is then soaked in yoghurt and sandwiched between layers of aromatic rice. The dish is cooked on dum (steaming over coal) after the handi (vessel) is sealed with dough.

A traditional preparation of potatoes, dum aloo is a gravy-based dish. Smaller potatoes are deep-fried and then cooked under pressure to make this delicacy. Garnishing is done with dry fruits and the dish is best served with roti (Indian flatbread).