I often find that even the simplest recipes taste wonderful. As with this mezhuku peratti. Mezhuku means grease. Peratti means stir fry. As the name suggests, this is a very simple recipe using vegetables (any one of raw banana, yam, eggplant or jackfruit seeds) and oil. The only spice added is turmeric powder. And a…
Category: Main Dishes
South Indian Dal Tadka
South India has a number of dals that are not commonly known. I have grown up on some of them and really miss them as I do not remember the recipes, only the taste. But I will rectify this situation with experimentation. It is in one of these experiments that evolved into this recipe –…
Keerai Masiyal (Spinach Curry)
This recipe is so simple that even I can prepare it. It’s just spinach with some crunchy elements added in. It is one of the most popular dishes of Palakkad cuisine. I am sure it is also widely make in Thamizhnadu. There are several versions of this recipe. But the moment I use the term…
Karuvepillai Kuzhambu (Curry Leaves Curry)
That’s a strange title – but that is exactly what this post is about. A curry make with curry leaves. I appreciate that curry leaves are not available in many parts of the world. But it is a hardy plant and can grow in most hot and/or humid climates. It will not survive only in…
Vendakkai Puli Pachadi (Okra In Tamarind Sauce)
You cannot imagine how good this tastes, especially when paired with a mulakootal (a bland wet dish to be mixed with rice). Some years ago, I ran a cooking class on behalf of Sharan. On the menu was a spinach mulakootal and this puli pachadi. All attendees were floored. They swore that they had never…
Tirunelveli Sodhi (Stew)
Two of my favourite breakfast dishes are idiappam (stringhoppers) and aapam (crepe). That’s because I love the stew that they are served with. This vegetable stew, in common parlance in India, is ishtew. It is also called sodhi. It’s an astounding dish with vegetables and spices all in a base of coconut milk. I have…
Tirunelveli (Or Nellai) Sambar
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…
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…
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