10 Traditional Tamilnadu recipesThe one page cookbooks give you the basic recipes, designed to be cooked by anyone in under 30 minutes. For more detailed recipes and variations of the recipes, check out my fellow bloggers below..
1.: Yogurt
I’d easily rate the simple yogurt as the tastiest ‘recipe’ of them all.
2.: Thayir Pachadi (Raw Yogurt curry)
One of the easiest and fool proof recipes.
3.: Thenga Thogayal ( Blended Coconut- Tamarind curry)
If you can operate a blender, you won’t go wrong with this one.
4.: Paruppu Podi (Spiced Lentil powder)
Contrary to popular belief, Paruppu podi can be prepared from just one kind of lentil. Any roasted lentil or any mix of roasted lentils blended with red chili and salt tastes delicious.
5.: Kootu (Coconut - cumin –chili curry)
Note that a kootu need not always have boiled pulses in it. A thick Kootu doubles as a Poriyal ( dry vegetable curry)
6.: More Kulambu ( Buttermilk curry).
Apart from the blend of coconut-cumin and chili with yogurt, other versions call for a variety of soaked lentils, rice, dhania, garlic etc to be blended together and mixed in with yogurt. Though not common, a more kulambu is perfectly edible even when uncooked.
7.: Tomato Rasam ( Thin curry)
A rasam need not always have lentils/tamarind in it. Here, the sourness comes from tomatoes. You can replace the sambar powder in this recipe with a pinch each of coriander powder, pepper powder and cumin powder.
8.: Kulambu (Sour Curry).
Though the recipe above calls for boiled vegetables, stir fried vegetables taste even better in a kulambu.
9.:. Paruppu (Boiled Lentils)
A paruppu needs no flavouring, though spicy versions exist.
10.: Sambar (Lentil- sour curry)
It took me quite a while to realise all that differentiates a kulambu from sambar is the addition of boiled dal.
Once you master these basic recipes, you can easily cook up scores of variations. Look in the archives of this blog for thousands of sambars, kulambus, rasams, kootu etc.,
I find that the very simple version of a lemon rasam missing. My mother makes this, probably you can give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteThe base being the thuar dal water. Flavoring being green chillies, ginger, tomatoes (1-2, optional), curry leaves, asofotida mustard and cumin all fried for a minute, topped with a dash of lime.