Download 1001 South Indian Curries

With luck, my book 1001 South Indian Vegetarian curries covering Andhra, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Kerala would be out this year. You can grab your soft copy below.

Click here to download 1001 South Indian Curries ( pdf file : 1 Mb)

/Happy cooking
Ramki

1001 Uppuma ( South Indian savoury porridge )

Uppuma ( ooh- pooh- ma) is a South Indian savoury porridge, generally made from cream of wheat ( Sooji / Rava ). Known as Upma in Tamil & Malayalam, Uppindi in Telugu, Upeet in Marathi and Uppittu in Kannada, they all mean "Salty- flour". In north India the savoury version is not cooked , though we find a sweet version called Sooji Halwa. In south India, the savoury version is the most common, though we have a sweet version too, called Kesari.

Model Upmas: These mouthwatering Upmas are some of the best recipes I've come across
Semiya Upma
Rava Upma
Vegetable Upma
Cracked wheat Upma
Dalia - Cracked wheat Upma 2: With some great photos
Oatmeal Upma

Uppuma - A Primer
Uppuma is nothing but a porridge made from cracked grains. Porridge is one of the oldest foods of mankind (they have been found in the stomachs of 5000 year old bodies). For much of history fine flour was a luxury as flour making technology was not available. However, it is easy to coarsely grind a cereal or legume. These grits were then boiled in a liquid. This is a simple, foolproof way to draw nourishment from grains or legumes. So it is no wonder almost all nations have their own versions of Upma made from locally available grains, flavoured by their traditional flavourings.

You will find Oats porridge ( from steel cut oats or rolled oats) in most of Europe and USA ( cooked with milk and sugar), and maize porridge in Mexico ( cooked with milk and chocolate).

A variety of cornmeal porridges are common in the southern US. Sorghum porridge is common in many African nations. The famous peas porridge made from pea grits are eaten in England and Scotland. You'll bump into Barley porridge ( Tsampa) in Tibet, Cornmeal porridge ( polenta) in Italy, Buckwheat porridge in parts of Russia, Millet porridge in Namibia and Middle East,and Rye porridge in Finland.

Though I prefer my Uppuma semisolid ( and that's why the recipe calls for four cups of water for each cup of grits) , you can alter the amount of water to make it thicker or mushier. Remember that Uppuma thickens dramatically on cooling.

In a good uppuma, the grits can be tasted separately and have not turned into mush. The secret to doing this is to precook the grits by dry roasting them. They should spend as less time as possible simmering in boiling liquid, usually less than a minute. The more time the grits are boiled, the more are the chances that they become mush. Learn this key skill and cooking up a variety of Uppumas is a breeze.

1001 Dosas

Model Recipes : The blogs below showcase some of the best dosa recipes I have come across

Pesarattu : Recipes don't come clearer than this..
Palak Dosa : Siri adds an interesting twist by using spinach puree.
Poha Dosa Vanaja's pancake sized dosas
Wheat flour Dosa

Dosas - A Primer
Dosa, a wafer thin rice - lentil crepe is a very popular South Indian breakfast food. Dosa is generally served with sambar or chutney. South Indians have been eating dosas for thousands of years

Dosa is normally made from a batter of rice( 3 parts) and urad dal ( 1 part). These are soaked overnight, and ground to a batter the consistency of condensed milk.

Being a thin crepe, Dosa does not require fermentation. Why ? for the same reason Naan's and rotis require fermentation, but chappatis and parathas don't. In all these foods, fermentation is used to make a thick foodstuff spongy. A thin crepe like a dosa or a flatbread like a chapati need not be spongy and so do not require fermentation.

However, in most places the same batter is used for Dosa, Idli and Uttapams. Idli and Uttappams being thick, need to be spongy. So this comon batter is normally fermented.

A variety of cereals and lentils can be used for Dosas. At one end we have the neer dosa made only from a cereal ( rice) and at the other end we have the pesarattu made only from pulses ( Mung dal) . Most dosas however, use a combination of cereals and pulses, thereby providing both carbohydrates and protein.

Restaurant quality thin, crisp dosas are impossible in homes unless you have a large thick skillet. A large, thick skilet soaks up heat and transfers it all at once to the dosa, instantly converting it from batter to wafer. A thin skillet either steams the dosa (if it is not hot enough)and makes it soft or burns the dosa if it is too hot.

Only the dosas made from rice and urad dal and some pulses remain crisp. Many other cereals ( wheat, ragi etc) make perfectly edible, but soft dosas.

Dosa making takes quite a few tries to master. However,do not be worried by the shape or size of your dosas. Even when they become a soggy mess because you are unable to flip them as a single sheet, they still remain very edible !

Folk wisdom has that the first dosa is always a sorry mess and I've found it to be absolutely true, time and time again.

1001 Vada ( Indian Lentil Fritters)

Vada- A Primer
Vadas are deep fried lentil cakes or lentil fritters as they are known in the west.

Lentils are eaten across the world and so varieties of fritters exist in all cultures. In south India, they are normally made from the commonly available Urad dal, Chana dal and tuvar dal.

Batter made from a variety of cereals / flour are also deep fried and called vadas, but in the true sense of the term, Vada denotes only lentil fritters. So despite the name, the famous vada pav of Bombay is actually not a vada. Neither is the Madhur Vada of Karnataka, which is made from rice flour, rava and maida. To qualify as a true vada, the batter should be made from lentils and should be deep fried in oil.

This definition works well for most south Indian Vadas. But Anjali points out that a batter made from rice flour or cereals like millet are deep fried in Konkani coast. So we need a different definition of a Vada for the North. Any takers ?

Any deep fried lentil batter would taste good is the unspoken assumption behind Vadas.

Almost any type of fresh lentils, soaked and ground lentils, or boiled lentils can be used to make vadas. The taste and texture of the vada will vary with the lentil used.

Note that certain lentils (especially red kidney beans/rajma) contain toxins which are destroyed only on cooking. So these beans cannot be soaked, groundup and used for vadas. They need to be soaked, cooked and then used to make vadas.

A properly cooked Vada is not oily or laden with calories. Great vadas are possible only if you understand the the core deep frying principle - Maintain the oil at the right temperature . All tips below aim to keep the oil at the right temperature.

1. Use Peanut oil, sunflower oil or canola oil. These oils can heat up to higher temperatures without smoking - essential for cooking vadas.

2. Choose a deep,heavy skillet. Add enough oil so that it is atleast twice the depth of the food you fry. Using less oil results in its temperature dropping fast when batter is added.

3. Fry at the right temperature. Too high and you burn the batter. Too low and the batter soaks up oil and becomes greasy. If the oil smokes, it is too hot. To check temperature, drop a couple of bits of batter into the oil. At the right temperature, batter sinks a bit, but bobs right up and browns within 45 seconds.If the batter sinks, oil is not hot enough. If it dances on the surface, oil is too hot.

4. Do not overcrowd the oil. Carefully add the batter, leaving lots of space around each piece. Too much food causes oil temperature to drop and makes the food greasy.

5. Cook with fresh oil. Unless filtered and stored well, oil earlier used for deep frying may smoke or infuse a stale flavour to Vadas.

6. Cook with clean oil. After every couple of batches, filter away the particles of batter floating around.

All vadas need to be served hot, with a spicy chutney. Leftover vadas can be soaked in yogurt / rasam and refrigerated. They stay good for a couple of days. Leftover vadas can also be used to cook up Vada Curry - a restaurant innovation designed to use up the leftover Vadas. In this curry, vada is mashed up and simmered in the curry base.

And that's my first submission for Rushina's Pakora contest.

Model Recipes

These are some interesting Vada recipes I came across..

Dhivya's Banana Flower Vada
Anjali's Multigrain Vada
Kurma's Urad dal Vada
Divya's Dosai Mavu Vada - a different twist on the Vada, proving you can deep fry just about any batter and it'll taste good.

1001 South Indian curries- Download ebook

Reaching a million people..
Dinakaran, The top Tamil newspaper selling over a million copies had my interview in its Sunday edition and for the past two days I've been swamped by calls.

It takes a great civilisation to make a great cuisine. With our thousands of year old rich and vibrant culture, it is no wonder we have a rich and diverse cuisine. This book was written chiefly to share the wonder that we take for granted - Our rich South Indian cuisine.

It is humbling to know that South Indian Curries are virtually unknown outside India. It will be a pity if this vast treasure house of South Indian Curries is not shared with the world.

For those who can't wait, I've put up a soft copy online. In case you are unable to download, mail me ( siramki at gmail) and I'll try to send a copy. Click here to download 1001 South Indian Curries ( pdf file : 1 Mb)

/Happy cooking

One Page Cookbooks

One page cookbooks offer a new, easy way to look at cooking.

For the reluctant cook
They are designed for the”don't-wanna-but-gotta-cook" people. No cooking terms are used and no knowledge is assumed on the part of the reader. The presentation is non -threatening. There are no complicated steps, no exact measurements and nothing to memorise.

Learn one recipe – Cook a thousand more
Each recipe is broken into three easy parts- The base, the flavouring and the additives. These are prepared separately, then mixed and cooked together. This way, the chances of going wrong are minimised. Since all recipes follow this exact format, learning one recipe lets one cook thousands of other recipes.

A thousand recipes ?
The table lists recipes starting from 000 to 999 - a total of 1000 recipes. There is a recipe corresponding to each number, and many of them have never been cooked before - you have a chance to invent your own a unique recipe. In fact the table lists not just 1000 recipes, but 9!*9!*9! ( read Nine factorial cubed). You won't run out of recipes anytime soon !

Easy to refer
One page cookbooks are designed for easy reference. Hang it in the kitchen and thousands of recipes are right there, in front of you!

Focus on creativity, not manual skill
The core idea is to encourage creativity by not focusing too much on details or on manual skill. All recipes demanding a good deal of manual skill have been avoided. Only simple, easy to cook recipes are listed.

Cook on the first try
All recipes are designed to be cooked by a novice on the very first try. That said, this cookbook does not promise to create an overnight chef. The chief goal is to keep it simple, which occasionally leads to oversimplification. However I find it useful, when stuck with a cook's eternal question - What do I cook today ? I hope you do too.

1001 Kerala curries

Kerala Curries

Kerala curries are built on Coconut and Yogurt. Unlike North Indian curries, Milk /cream/ nut paste are not used as a curry base. Heavy use of coconut, fish, use of raw curry leaves and raw coconut oil for flavouring, Low use of Tamarind unlike other south Indian cuisines, use of Coconut oil for cooking & use of vegetables like raw banana and raw jackfruit, breadfruit ( kadachakka) are unique to Kerala curries.

0.0.0: Tomato Pulissery

Prepare base as per point 0 & flavouring as per point 0. Add a handful chopped tomato. Cook as per the master recipe.

1.1.1 Olan (Beans and pumpkin in yogurt-coconut curry)
Prepare base as per point 4 & flavouring as per point 1. Add half a handful of raw chopped pumpkin. Cook as per the master recipe.

2.0.0 Pulinkari (Tamarind curry)
Prepare base as per point 5 & flavouring as per point 0. Add a handful of chopped and boiled raw bananas and cook as per the master recipe.

3.8.0 Aviyal (Mixed vegetables in yogurt curry)
Prepare base as per point 3 & flavouring as per point 8. Mix all with half a handful of boiled mixed vegetables. Add half a spoon raw coconut oil and serve. No need to cook any further.

4.0.0 Plantain Erissery (Banana cooked in coconut gravy)
Prepare base as per point 1 & flavouring as per point 0. Add a handful of chopped and boiled raw bananas. Cook as per the master recipe.

5.7.0 Kalan (Yam cooked in Coconut – Onion gravy)
Prepare base as per point 2 and flavouring as per point 0. Add half a handful each of cubed and boiled yam. Cook as per the master recipe.

6.7.2 Keera Mulagootal (Spinach and lentil curry)
Prepare base as per point 6 & flavouring as per point 7. Add a handful of chopped spinach. Cook as per the master recipe.

Cook for a crowd

Cooking for a crowd

Following a few simple steps you can create a meal for may people in under 10 minutes

Step 1: Keep the base cooked and ready.( Rice, pasta, bread or noodles).

Step 2 : For all south Indian dishes, have the boiled tamarind water and boiled tuvaram paruppu ready .

Step 3 : Keep some milk and fresh fruits ready. In a crunch you can atleast serve milkshakes / fresh fruits.

Step 1 :

The base is rice, pasta, noodles or bread. Have it cooked and ready. These can be refrigerated for up to a week. If you are particular about steaming hot rice, just sprinkle some water on rice and microwave it for a minute.

Keep cooked pasta / Noodles ready. You can cook them to a south Indian taste by the following steps.

1. Heat oil. Add some kadugu, ulutham paruppu, vara milagai, perungauam, karuveppilai, onions. Stir fry for a while and mix with pasta or noodles to get a pasta uppuma. Tastes great.

Or if you want them served with a sauce, cook any of the sauces below

1. Add a handful of coconut , seerakam and green chilies. Grind to a paste. Add curd and mix. Add this to pasta.

2. Take any of the readymade soup powders. Mix with water and make a thick soup. Just add to pasta and serve.

Once the base is ready, most of your work is done. Whether it is for 5 people or for 50, just keep the base ready and you are safe. in a crunch, you can serve raw pasta or rice and yogurt.

Step 2 : Cooking Sambar / Rasam /Kulambu

For all south Indian dishes, have the following ready

1. Boiled Tamarind water.

Make a large batch of tamarind water, boil it for 10-15 minutes. refrigerate. Will last for a month.

2. Boiled Tuvaram paruppu

Take a cup or two of Tuvaram paruppu, pressure cook it for 2 whistles with a bit of turmeric and refrigerate. Will last for a week.

Once these are ready in your fridge, you can create dozens of kulambus, sambars or rasams in under five minutes.

Take 6 cups. Put one chopped vegetable into each cup - say Mullangi, Vendakkai, Kudai milagai, Small onions, Brinjal, Pavakkai. Sprinkle some water and microwave everything together for 4 minutes.

Take six more cups.

In cup 1 add some tamarind water, mix a bit of vellam and sambar podi. Add the cooked onions. Microwave for 4 minutes. Venkaya puli kulambu is ready.

In cup 2 add some tamarind water, mix a bit of vellam and sambar podi. Add the cooked kudai milagai. Microwave for 4 minutes. Kudai milagai puli kulambu is ready.

In cup 3 add some tamarind water, add some boiled tuvaram paruppu and sambar podi. Add the cooked brinjal. Microwave for 4 minutes. Brinjal puli sambar is ready.

In cup 4 add add some boiled tuvaram paruppu and sambar podi. Add the cooked brinjal. Microwave for 4 minutes. Brinjal paruppu sambar is ready.

In cup 5 add some boiled tuvaram paruppu and mix it with water to get a thin paruppu thanir. Add a pinch of sambar podi. Add a handful of chopped tomatoes and Microwave for 4 minutes. Add the juice of half a lemon. Lemon rasam is ready.

In cup 6 add some tamarind water, add some boiled tuvaram paruppu and mix with water to get the consistency of rasam. Add a pinch of sambar powder and a pinch of pepper. Microwave for 4 minutes. Milagu rasam is ready.

You can first make six cups and microwave all these together. So in just 5 minutes you have two kulambus, two sambars and two rasams ready. For all these you can use the same garnish. Heat a spoon of oil, add a pinch of kadugu, perungayam, red chillies and karuveppilai. Add to all six cups. Add some fresh kothamalli to all cups and serve.

There you go - 6 dishes in under 10 minutes. Easy ain't it ?