Concluding my recipes from Tirunelveli, I will post a sambar recipe that tastes different from both the ‘podi pota’ and ‘arachuvitta’ sambars. For the edification of my readers who are not familiar with these terms, let me explain. Sambar is a wet dish that is mixed with rice. Or it can be had as an…
Category: Main Dishes
Vazhakkai Kootu (Raw Banana Curry)
Another recipe from the Tirunelveli region of Thamizhnadu. This time, a curry using raw bananas. Raw banana is never used in North Indian cuisine. But I do buy it every week as it is one of my favourite vegetables. Since North India is bereft of it, there are no recipes from this region. So, I…
Beans Usili (Stir Fried French Beans And Lentils)
Usili basically refers to a method of preparing vegetables. It’s Bengal gram and pigeon peas crumbled into a vegetable of choice. I have previously posted cabbage usili in this blog. The usili recipes are from the South Indian state of Thamizhnadu. These dishes are mildly spiced and pair well with steamed rice and a wet…
Vegetable Manchurian
This is a delicious Indo-Chinese dish. I am not even sure that such a dish exists in Chinese cuisine. But it is very popular in India. It contains various vegetables formed into dumplings and dropped into a sauce that is sweet, sour, hot and salty. An amazing dish. A meal at a Chinese restaurant in…
Bhendi Do Pyaaza (Okra And Onion Curry)
Summers means okra time. A vegetable that I really love. I prepare okra in several different ways. Often, I make a Punjabi style okra with sliced onions and it tastes marvellous. Similarly, I often make okra in this do pyaaza style – consisting of okra and onions. But this dish tastes vastly different from the…
Kothu Parotta (Minced Indian Flatbread)
This is a typically Thamizhnadu dish that is really tasty and healthy. Unlike the paranthas of North India which are hearty, South Indian parottas are crunchy and flaky. I love both types, but the South Indian ones do use a fair amount of all purpose flour (maida). I am therefore not able to touch these…
Uttar Pradesh Kadhi (Fritters In A Chickpea And Yogurt Base)
The Punjabi kadhi is very well known and forms the benchmark for all North Indian kadhis. But say that to someone from Uttar Pradesh (UP) and they will hotly dispute it. For there is a delicious kadhi from this state too. My sister-in-law’s mother (may her soul rest in peace) used to make the best…
Chembu Mor Kootan (Taro Root Curry)
Kerala and Tamizhnadu have a large number of yogurt based dishes that can loosely be called ‘kadhi’ in North Indian terms. Each one is tastier than the other. When I first turned vegan, I rued the fact that I could no more enjoy these wonderful dishes. Thanks to Dr. Rupa Shah, I learnt how to…
Laknawi Dal
As part of my experimentation with different Indian foods, I was keen to prepare some stuff from the Avadh region (that includes modern day Lucknow). The food in this region, as preferred by the rulers of Avadh (or Oudh) is mainly non-vegetarian. I was therefore delighted to discover this dal and went ahead to prepare…
Sabut Masoor Dal (Whole Pink Lentils)
Hari is an expert on dals, as he is on several other topics. So, one evening when we were deciding upon the dal for the next day, he suggested sabut masoor dal. I have had masoor dal (pink lentils) several times – it is one of my favourite dals. But the whole lentil (brown in…
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