10 Simple Andhra Recipes

This cookbook lists 10 simple Andhra curries. It is greatly simplified so that a first time cook can easily cook them. For more detailed recipes and variations, check out the more detailed recipes from my fellow bloggers below.

1.: Yogurt The best loved ‘ recipe’ is the yogurt. Yogurt mixed with cooked rice is consumed at the end of a meal across south India.

2.: Majjiga pulusu ( Buttermilk curry) is buttermilk mixed with a pinch of turmeric and salt and cooked briefly. There are uncooked versions which are not heated at all.

3.: Perugu Pachadi (Raw vegetable - Yogurt curry) is just vegetables mixed with yogurt. A variety of salad vegetables like onions, tomatoes, cucumber or boiled vegetables like potato, eggplant etc can be used.

4.: Kobbari Pachadi (Coconut – chili blended curry) Coconut blended with chili and salt is a much loved blended curry. Variants call for the addition of a bit of tamarind, onions, garlic clove , roasted peanuts or cooked gram (pottu kadalai / Bhuna chana) which are blended along with coconut.

5.: Kandi Podi (Lentil - chili powder) is just roasted tuvar dal blended to a powder with red chili and salt. A variety of pulses like urad dal / chana dal can be used in place of or in addition to tuvar dal to create a range of Podis.

Andhra loves tamarind so much that it is eaten raw. Pachhi means raw and it is only in Andhra will you see raw tamarind curries.

6.: Pachhi Charu (Raw tamarind thin curry) is just flavoured tamarind water.

7.: Vankaya Pachhi Pulusu is grilled and mashed eggplant mixed in with raw tamarind paste and spices.

8.: Vankaya Pulusu ( Eggplant Tamarind Stew) is eggplant cooked in tamarind sauce. A bit of jaggery / sugar is usually added to balance the sourness. A couple of pinches of rice flour mixed in with a spoon of water is mixed in and simmered to thicken the curry.

9.: Nimmakkaya Pappu Charu (Lentil stock – lemon curry) is a thin lentil curry mixed with lemon juice. As lemon juice turns bitter on cooking, it is mixed in after cooking. Instead of tuvar dal, mung dal / horse gram can also be used.

10.: Mamdikkaya Pappu (Mango- Lentil curry) is mango and lentils simmered together. Boiling chopped vegetables along with dal into a thick curry is a speciality of Andhra cuisine. Instead of mango, dosakkaki ( round cucumber, a speciality of Andhra), spinach or even young tamarind leaves are used.