Culinary India — A Cooking Journey

Fly to the City of NawabsNawabA Muslim prince or governor ruling a province under the Mughal empire and, later, under the Raj.Read in the glossary for the height of Awadhi cuisine — galawati kebabs, sheermal and dum-cooked biryaniBiryaniA dish of rice and meat cooked together in a sealed pot, so that the rice takes up the flavour of the meat as it steams.Read in the glossary. The Yahiyaganj spice market by day, and an evening cooking class where dinner is what you prepare.

Fly south to Jodhpur, the indigo-washed Blue City beneath Mehrangarh. Settle in, then a rooftop dinner with the great fort floodlit above the old town.

Mehrangarh Fort and a heritage walk of the old city, then out to the countryside for a cooking lesson with a weaver's family — a Goth, the age-old village feast: dal bati churma, gatta sabzi, ker sangri, cooked over wood.

To Narlai, a former royal hunting lodge in the Aravalli hills. By evening, turbaned and carried by bullock cart under a starlit sky to the 16th-century Rawla Narlai stepwellStepwellA well reached by a long descending staircase, so that water can still be drawn as the water table falls.Read in the glossary — a hundred lamps, a jogi's folk songs, and a feast at the water's edge.

A morning at leisure, then on to Udaipur by way of the Ranakpur JainJainA follower of Jainism, an ancient Indian religion whose central commitment is non-violence towards every living thing.Read in the glossary temple and its 1,444 carved marble pillars. Arrive in the City of Lakes for an old-town walk as the light softens on Pichola.

The City Palace and a boat on Lake Pichola, a miniature-painting studio, then a cooking lesson in the royal Rajasthani style — the old secrets of spice, substitution and combination.

To the heritage palace-hotel of Deogarh Mahal, a stroll of the local market and its people, and a rural train ride through the Aravalli countryside — the day, otherwise, at leisure.

On to Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, founded 1727. An evening at Masala Chowk — the open-air food court in Ram Niwas Garden — for the city's street flavours gathered in one square.

The morning among Jaipur's set-pieces — Amber Fort and its Sheesh Mahal of mirrors, the Hawa Mahal and the Jal Mahal on the water — with a heritage walk of the old walled city.

Time for the markets — hand-block-printed textiles, gemstones and blue pottery — then a Rajasthani cooking class in the royal Jaipur style: laal maas, gatte ki khichdi, bundi raita, all in pure ghee.

West to Agra, breaking the drive at the Abhaneri stepwell and the ghost-city of Fatehpur Sikri. By evening, a Mughlai cooking class — the Indo-Persian court cuisine of the MughalMughalRelating to the Muslim dynasty of Central Asian descent that ruled most of the subcontinent from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.Read in the glossary empire.

The Taj Mahal at sunrise, then back to the hotel for breakfast and a drive to Delhi for onward flights — the appetite, and the recipe box, both full.