A sweet made of air, ghee and patience
The shape: a round, flat disc about as thick as a finger, riddled with holes like a honeycomb, golden at the edges and paler at the heart.
The taste: ghee first, then sugar, then whatever sits on top. A plain ghevar is surprisingly light. A rabri ghevar is a dessert for four.
- Base
- Refined flour, ghee, a little milk, iced water
- Fried in
- Pure ghee, in a deep ring mould
- Soaked in
- Sugar syrup, sometimes with cardamom
- Size
- From a palm-sized disc to a family platter
- Texture
- Crisp at first, softer as the syrup settles
- The word: in our grandmother's Dhundhari, the dialect of the Jaipur region, nobody explains ghevar. It is simply the thing that arrives with Teej.
- Who makes it: the halwai, the professional sweet-maker, rather than the home cook. It needs a deep pan of very hot ghee and a steady hand, so most families buy it.
- Where else it is loved: across Rajasthan, and in the Braj country around Mathura, in Haryana and in Delhi's old sweet shops. But Jaipur treats it as its own.
- Not to be confused with: feeni, the nest of fine fried threads Jaipur eats at the kite festival in January. Feeni is threads, ghevar is a honeycomb.
Why ghevar belongs to the rains
That is the explanation every sweet-maker in the walled city gives, and you will hear it with total conviction. Whether it is chemistry or habit, the result is the same. Ghevar arrives with the clouds and leaves with them, and the scarcity is half its charm. Our aunt still refuses to eat it outside the monsoon on principle.
The season: the monsoon months of Shravan and Bhadrapad, which in Rajasthan usually fall across July and August.
- The weather: warm, very humid air, heavy bursts of rain and grey, soft light. It is the one season when frying in a hot kitchen feels bearable.
- The calendar of sweets: Jaipur tells the month by its shop windows. Til and feeni in January, gujiya at Holi, ghevar in the rains, mithai towers before Diwali.
- Out of season: a few shops now make ghevar most of the year for weddings and visitors. It is edible, but locals will gently tell you to wait for Teej.
- After Raksha Bandhan: the towers shrink quickly. By the time Kajli Teej has passed in Bundi, most shops have moved on to other sweets.
Teej, the festival that ghevar is made for
The meaning: Teej means the third, after the lunar date. Married women keep it for their husbands' long life, unmarried girls for a good match.
The colour: green, for the fields, and above all leheriya, the wave-dyed cloth of the monsoon. Our leheriya and bandhani page shows how it is tied and dyed.
- Main festival
- Hariyali Teej, in Shravan
- Date
- Third day of the bright half of Shravan, usually late July or August
- Second Teej
- Kajli Teej in Bhadrapad, famous in Bundi
- Honours
- Parvati's reunion with Shiva
- Jaipur's moment
- The royal procession from the City Palace
- The swings: a jhoola, a swing, goes up in every big neem or banyan, and women take turns to fly while the others sing the old rain songs.
- The procession: in Jaipur, Teej Mata leaves the Zenani Deorhi of the City Palace in a palanquin, through Tripolia Gate, and goes out again the next day for Budhi Teej.
- The dates move: Teej follows the lunar calendar, so it shifts by a few weeks each year. We confirm the dates every season. Our Teej festival guide explains the whole calendar.
- The spring sister: if you love Teej, come back for Gangaur, which follows the same royal route through the walled city at the end of winter.
Sindhara, the basket that carries ghevar home
What sindhara is: the gift a married daughter receives from her parents' home before Teej: new clothes, bangles, henna, cosmetics and sweets.
Why ghevar: a sindhara without ghevar would be talked about for years. It is the sweet that says the girl has not been forgotten by her mother's house.
- The first Teej: in many families a bride who married in the past year comes home to keep her first Teej with her mother, and the ghevar order doubles.
- To the in-laws: a large ghevar is also sent to the daughter's new family. The bigger the disc, our grandmother used to say, the bigger the respect.
- Mehndi on the eve: henna artists set up on pavements and in courtyards, and the darker the stain, the deeper the love. Our mehndi page explains how we arrange a session.
- Raksha Bandhan: a week or two later, sisters tie a thread on their brothers' wrists, and the ghevar boxes go round the family again.
How a halwai makes ghevar
The batter
First the ghee: cold ghee is rubbed with ice or iced water until it turns white and creamy. This is the step that makes the honeycomb.
- Then the flour: refined flour and a little milk are beaten in, with more iced water, until the batter is as thin as single cream.
- Kept cold: the bowl often sits on ice. Warm batter gives a heavy, flat ghevar.
The ring and the pour
The mould: a deep metal ring, or a tall narrow pan, is set in a kadhai of smoking-hot ghee, so the batter is fried in a column rather than spreading.
- The thin stream: the halwai pours a ladle of batter from a height into the centre. It hisses, froths and pushes outward, leaving holes as it sets.
- Again and again: he waits for the froth to settle, pours again into the hole in the middle, and repeats until the disc is thick enough.
Lifting and soaking
The lift: a long skewer goes through the centre and the disc comes out whole, golden and dripping. A broken ghevar goes to the staff.
- The syrup: once drained, it is dipped in or drizzled with sugar syrup, which soaks into every hole.
- The finish: it is left plain, or spread with malai, thick cream, or rabri, milk boiled down for hours, then strewn with pistachio, almond and silver leaf.
Why we don't make it at home
The heat: the ghee must stay very hot for the whole batch, which a home stove struggles with.
- The skill: the timing of each pour is learned over years. Our cooks can teach you dal baati in a morning, but not this.
- The compromise: if you want to cook in Jaipur, our haveli cooking class teaches the dishes families actually make at home, then we buy the ghevar.
The kinds of ghevar, and which to order
Plain ghevar
- What it is: the honeycomb and the syrup, nothing else. Sometimes called sada, simple.
- Why order it: it keeps a little longer, travels best and lets you taste the ghee. Our grandfather would eat nothing else.
Malai ghevar
- What it is: spread with a layer of thick cream, sometimes lightly sweetened, then topped with nuts.
- Why order it: it is the version most people picture. Eat it within hours, because cream does not wait in the monsoon heat.
Rabri ghevar
- What it is: soaked with rabri, the thick, grainy reduced milk, often with saffron.
- Why order it: this is the grand one, the ghevar for a family occasion. Rich enough that one disc feeds a table.
Mawa and the newer versions
Mawa ghevar: topped with mawa, milk solids cooked down until dry and crumbly. Denser than malai.
- The inventions: some shops now sell chocolate, mango or sugar-free versions. Try them if you like. Our aunt calls them a kind of heresy.
- Mini ghevar: small discs, easy to eat in one sitting. Sensible for travellers who want to taste without a commitment.
Where Jaipur buys its ghevar
LMB, Johari Bazaar: Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar, known to everyone as LMB, is a sweet shop and vegetarian restaurant in one, and stacks ghevar in towers through the season.
The old halwais of the walled city: the lanes off Johari Bazaar and around Badi Chaupar each have their own favourite. Your guide will take you to the one his mother uses.
- Old heart
- Johari Bazaar and the walled city
- Best-known name
- LMB, Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar, Johari Bazaar
- Best hour
- Morning, when the day's batch is fresh
- Busiest days
- Sindhara, Teej and Raksha Bandhan
- Choose a busy counter: in the monsoon, stock that sits is stock that spoils. A queue means the ghevar was fried that morning.
- Look at the colour: even gold and a dry, crisp surface are good. Dark edges mean old ghee. A wet, sagging disc has been in syrup too long.
- Ask what it is fried in: good shops fry in pure desi ghee. Some cheaper ghevar is fried in vegetable fat. The shop will tell you if you ask.
- Order a day ahead: for a large disc on Sindhara or Teej itself, the queues are long. We place our guests' orders the day before.
- Beyond Jaipur: Udaipur, Bundi and Jodhpur all make ghevar in the rains. Our food of Udaipur guide and food of Jaipur guide cover the rest of the sweet calendar.
How to eat ghevar like a local
Break, don't cut: at home a ghevar is broken with the fingers into wedges, honeycomb side up, and passed around on a steel plate.
Right hand only: eat with the right hand, as with all food in Rajasthan. Expect sticky fingers, and a basin to wash them.
- Any time of day: sweets in Rajasthan are not kept for the end. A wedge of ghevar with the morning tea is perfectly correct.
- With something sharp: families often eat ghevar with a salty snack, a mathri or a kachori, so the sweetness does not tire you.
- Manuhar: your host will press a second piece on you. That is manuhar, the loving insistence of Rajasthani hospitality. Accept once, then cover your plate with a smile.
- Never waste it: leaving half a disc on the plate is noticed. Take a small piece first and ask for more.
Carrying ghevar home, and keeping it
Plain travels, cream doesn't: a plain ghevar in a sealed box keeps for a day or two in cool conditions. Malai and rabri versions should be eaten the same day.
Keep it dry: humidity softens the honeycomb. Store it in an airtight box, away from the fridge, which makes it soggy and hard at once.
- Revive it gently: a minute or two in a warm oven before serving restores some crispness to a plain ghevar. Add the cream afterwards.
- Flying with it: pack it flat in a rigid box, in your cabin bag. Check your destination country's rules on dairy before you carry anything with cream.
- The honest advice: ghevar is at its best within hours, in Jaipur, in the rain. Treat it as a reason to come back in Shravan.
A Teej day in Jaipur, built around ghevar
Morning, the bazaar
- Leheriya and bangles: walk Johari Bazaar for leheriya and Maniharon ka Rasta for lac bangles, before the crowds. Our guide to the bazaars of Jaipur has the lanes.
- First ghevar: stand in the queue at a sweet shop and eat your first wedge on the spot, with a glass of chai under an awning.
Midday, mehndi and rest
- At your hotel: a mehndi artist paints your hands while lunch is laid out. We can arrange a leheriya sari to be draped or a turban tied in the season's colours.
- Then sleep: the procession is in the evening, and the humid afternoon is for resting.
Afternoon, the swings
- In a courtyard: we take you to a garden or a family courtyard where the swings are up and women are singing. Join in if invited.
- Pakoras in the rain: if a shower comes, there will be hot gram-flour fritters and more chai. That is the monsoon's other great taste.
Evening, the procession
- A rooftop on Tripolia Bazaar: we arrange a place with a family we know, above the route, with an umbrella and dry cushions.
- After: dinner at your palace hotel or on a haveli roof, and of course a rabri ghevar to finish. Our journal on Teej in Jaipur has more.
Planning a monsoon trip for Teej and ghevar
Where to stay: Samode Haveli puts you inside the walled city for the procession, and Rambagh Palace is lovely in the rain, with peacocks on the lawns.
The month guides: Rajasthan in July and Rajasthan in August explain what the season is really like.
- Best months
- Late July and August
- Weather
- Warm, humid, showers that come and go
- Lead time
- A few months, more for a long weekend
- Pack
- Light cotton, an umbrella, sandals, something green
- Closed
- Ranthambore's core zones in the monsoon
- Then go south: Udaipur's lakes fill and the Aravallis turn green. Our Monsoon in Mewar journey is built for these weeks.
- Or follow Teej: see Hariyali Teej in Jaipur, then drive about four hours to Bundi for Kajli Teej about two weeks later.
- For eaters: our food lover's Rajasthan journey can be timed for the rains, when ghevar, pakoras and roasted corn are everywhere.
- Stay safe: the monsoon is the season for upset stomachs. Eat sweets from busy shops, drink bottled or filtered water and read our health and safety guide.