1001 Dals

Dal refers to skinned and split pulses (lentils, peas or beans). It also refers to the curries made from cooked pulses. Here, the term is used loosely, to cover all pulses, split or whole. Over 50 types of pulses are cooked in India. These are the main sources of protein for a mostly vegetarian population.

The basic preparation of dal is the same across India. Soak the dal and boil it with a pinch of turmeric. Add flavouring and salt and your dal is ready. Dals like tuvar dal , mung dal and masoor dal are thin and so require no soaking. It is primarily for this reason they are among the most cooked dals. The larger the dal is, the more it needs to soak. Chick peas and Rajma (Kidney beans) need the longest soaking time among dals.

Each region has its own favourite dal. The quick cooking tuvar dal and mung dal are very popular in the south. In Tamilnadu, just plain, unflavoured, boiled tuvar dal is eaten mixed with cooked rice and ghee. Tuvar dal is also cooked into stews like sambar and paruppu kootu.

Tuvar dal is boiled with a variety of vegetables and eaten as the Pappu in Andhra. Change vegetables and you have a whole variety of typical Andhra dals like Nimmakkaya pappu, Dosakkaya pappu, Mamdikkaya pappu etc.,

In Maharashtra, the dal is cooked with kokum / tamarind and is served as the Amti ( Nupur’s version uses buttermilk instead of Kokkum).

Tuvar - ni -dal, made from boiled and spiced Tuvar dal is the most popular dal dish in Gujarat.

Urad dal and chick peas dominate Punjabi cuisine where they are cooked into Maa ki daal or Chole.

Uttaranchal has several innovative ways to cook dals. It is here you'll find dals being roast and ground before being cooked into Chainsooo or bhatwani. It is here you'll see dals soaked and ground up to a coarse paste and then cooked into phanoo.

In the kitchens of the Nawabs in Lucknow, the humble dal was cooked with expensive spices and nuts into Shahi dal and Sultani dal.

The pairing of pulses and grains is India's gift to the culinary world. Something magical happens when dals are paired with rice or rotis - simple dishes turn into comfort foods and leave a warm glow in your heart.

If you have an interesting dal recipe, or notice a bloomer, please leave a comment.

1001 Iyer Curries

Iyer cuisine arose from the ritualistic, vegetarian cooking practices of Tamil Brahmins from Cauvery delta, chiefly from Tiruchi, Tanjore and Mayavaram of central Tamilnadu.

Traditionally Iyer cooking is done only after a bath and concepts like madi ( avoiding contact with anything not recently cleaned) and pathu (avoiding contact with food served to the diner) are still practiced in many households. The food is served only after it is offered to Gods and ancestors ( or rather to crows ). After the food is served, the males go through an elaborate ritual, worshipping it, sanctifying it, offer it to various Gods and only then start eating it. A brief ritual is also observed at the end of the meal, thanking the Gods.

The most favourite 'curries' of the Iyers are also the most basic, requiring little or no cooking at all. Iyers are known for their love of yogurt , paruppu ( boiled tuvar dal) and ghee. The meal starts with cooked rice consumed with paruppu and ghee and ends with yogurt eaten mixed with rice. In fact Iyer’s undying love for yogurt- rice combo has earned them the name 'Thayir Sadam', which is what most lunchboxes of Iyer children still contain !

Iyer migrations to Kerala, Bengal and Karnataka has led to the development of distinct cuisines in these places. At their core, you'll see that these cuisines follow the Tamil Brahmin style of cooking, with some key ingredients replaced with whatever was available easily in the new lands they settled in. For example, replace sesame oil with coconut oil and Tanjore cuisine moves one step closer to becoming Palghat cuisine.

Typically onions, garlic or spices like fennel, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves are not used in Brahmin cuisine. But unlike the more orthodox Iyengar cuisine, Iyer cuisine tolerates them and you'll occasionally find them being used.

Like most south Indian cuisines, Iyer curries are built on tamarind, lentils, yogurt and coconut. Different combinations of these building blocks give rise to different curry families. Meenakshi Ammal’s ‘Samaithu Par’ is the classic cookbook cataloging Iyer cuisine.

If you spot a bloomer or have traditional Iyer recipes you’d like to be linked here, mail me or leave a comment. Thanks !

1001 Iyengar Curries

Iyengars believe the kitchen is a temple and what gets cooked there is ambrosia. The simplest of Iyengar curries gets suffixed with 'amudhu (ambrosia).

Think of the Iyengar kitchen as a temple and you’ll understand why orthodox Iyengars will not eat from other kitchens and restrict access to their kitchens. This is why Iyengars prefer total silence in their kitchens and frown upon the usage of onion , garlic or spices like cloves, fennel, cinnamon / bay leaves. (These spices are not used in any temple kitchens).

For more on Iyengar cuisine check out the Yum blog or get Mrs.Kamala Wodeyar’s book.

If you are ever allowed into an Iyengar kitchen, behave as you would in a temple and you'll not go wrong !

1001 Poriyals ( Dry vegetable curries )

Poriyals
Dry vegetable curries are an integral part of South Indian cuisine. In South India, the staple food - rice, is eaten with a variety of gravies. Dry curries accompany all these dishes. A variety of vegetables, leafy greens, fresh & dried pulses are cooked into delicious poriyals. The most common cooking technique is braising, where the vegetables are cooked in a covered pan on low heat with minimum water.

The easiest way to cook poriyals is by using boiled vegetables. And the easiest way to boil vegetables is in a microwave. Just cut up a vegetable, sprinkle it with water and microwave it for 2 to 5 minutes in a covered container. You can use one master podi for flavouring all your poriyals. Just mix in the spice mix with boiled veggies and your basic poriyal is ready.

If you cook sambar / kootu / aviyal long enough so that all the water evaporates away, what you have left is nothing but a poriyal. You can think of poriyals as dry sambars / kootus. This is why you can flavor poriyals with exactly the same techniques you use to flavor sambar / kootu / kulambu. Sambar powder , kootu podi, rasam powder, kulambu powder – all can be used to flavor poriyals. Experiment with any of the flavouring techniques listed in the sambar / kulambu / kotu / aviyal cookbooks to flavor poriyals.

To illustrate, if you cook a kulambu long enough so that all water evaporates, you’ll end up with puli kuthi poduthuval. Cook up a sambar long enough to dry it and you have paruppu potta poriyal. Cook up a kootu long enough and you have thenga araichu vita poriyal. In many households, thick kootus / sambars are actually used as poriyals.

Most traditional poriyals are cooked by braising – cooking the vegetables in a covered pan, with a little bit of water. This always takes time and so I’ve called for boiled vegetables in most poriyals listed in the cookbook, except for quick cooking veggies like mushrooms. Stir frying vegetables is sometimes done, with a lot of oil. But this requires constant stirring and takes a while. Andhra cuisine deep fries the vegetables dipped in batter of spicy gram flour and serves them as poriyals. Andhra also has a wide variety of poriyals built on vegetable – boiled pulses mixture.
Kerala uses very simple flavouring – just a drizzle of coconut oil poured over the boiled vegetables and served as mezhugu peratti. Or roasted coconut flakes are mixed in with the boiled veggies to make a thoran.

Like all curries, changing the building blocks gives rise to different classes of poriyals.
Change the base and you have a range of poriyals. Instead of veggies, use spinach and you have varieties of Keerai poriyal. Use boiled and mashed potato / mashed banana and you have podimas. Use boiled pulses and you have Sundal. Use fresh veggies and soaked mung dal and you have the Kosumalli. Use sprouts and you have sprouted poriyals. Use mushroom and you have mushroom poriyal etc.

Change additives:
Add tamarind and you have Pulikutthi poduthuval ( Poriyals with tamarind), add steamed, spiced lentils and you have the usili. Add boiled tuvar dal and you have paruppu poriyal and so on.

Change flavouring and you have another class of poriyals like podi potta poriyal, araichu vita poriyal or thalithu kottiyae poriyal.

Though not listed here, change the cooking technique and more poriyals appear. Try baking, grilling, steaming veggies. Experiment with a wide variety of locally available goodies to cookup a range of poriyals.

1001 Sambars - Lentil Sour stews

Sambar - A Primer
Sambars are probably the tastiest lentil stews on the planet. With the tang of tamarind balanced by lentils and divinely flavoured by sambar powder, a good sambar can be slurped up like a soup. Sambars are uncomplicated curries, easily made when you understand the building blocks. If you have learnt to make sour curries (kulambu), all you need to do is to throw in a handful of mashed, boiled tuvar dal and lo behold, the sour curry becomes a sambar. In fact, sambar is still called Paruppu Kulambu (Sour curry with lentils) in pockets of Tamilnadu.

The word ‘Sambar’ is most likely not a Tamil word. For ages, Kulambu was the traditional Tamil dish and not sambar. The prohibitive price of dal did not permit it to be used in daily cooking. The technique of cooking kulambu with dal was probably learned from the Marathas. Experts say the word ‘Sambar’ has been borrowed from Marathi. Tanjore was under the rule of Marathas in the 17^th century. Legend has that Sambaji, son of Sivaji, modified a traditional Maharashtra recipe and created the first sambar. Probably apocryphal, but what is true is that the Marathas had a sambar like dish (the Amti) predating sambar.

The building blocks of a Sambar are the sour lentil base, the flavouring and the goodies added. The sourness comes usually from Tamarind, and flavour from Sambar powder. A wide variety of goodies are simmered in this flavoured broth. Sambars are versatile dishes and whole new families of them can be created by small variations of the basic building blocks.

Vary the souring agent and you have Tomato sambar, Mango sambar , Coconut milk sambar (which would be divine with some tamarind added, as done here), More Sambar, lemon sambar etc.

Vary the lentil used and you have Pasi paruppu sambar, Iru paruppu sambar, masoor dal sambar etc.

Vary the flavouring and you have podi potta sambar, araichu vita sambar, pitlai, rasavangi, Gounder sambar, Udupi sambar, Milagu sambar etc
(Tip : Instead of sambar powder, use local spice mixes and you’ll see sambar magically jumping cuisines. For example, mix in a pinch of powdered cinnamon with Tamil sambar powder and you have the Konkani sambar powder .)

Vary the goodies ( or use none) and you have Kadamba sambar, paruppu sambar, keerai sambar, paruppu urundai sambar etc., See Miri’s radish sambar.

Like any recipe, as the sambar moved into different regions, it changed form and moulded itself to accommodate local goodies. When it moved into Tanjore from Maharashtra, it dropped kokkum and took on the easier available tamarind as a souring agent.

Various regional variations of sambar exist within Tamilnadu. For example, in Salem, we bump into garlic in sambar. Moving west across Tamilnadu, we have the Gounder sambar which uses a paste of cumin, black pepper , garlic and curry leaves to flavour the sambar. Finely chopped tomato, onion and cilantro is added to the Gounder sambar just before serving.

When sambar moved further west, into Kerala through the Palghat pass, in the cook pots of the migrating Iyers, it morphed to accommodate the easily available coconut and coconut oil. Tamarind trees being uncommon in Kerala, we see Keralite sambars using yogurt, tomato or Kodumpuli as souring agents instead of Tamarind.

4 July 2008 Update : No Kerala sambars are cooked with Kodumpuli argue fellow Kerala bloggers. I'm also unable to find a single vegetarian recipe using this souring agent and it puzzles me - why has this been sidelined in Keralite vegetarian cuisine ? Is it because of its strong association with seafood (so much so that it is called Fish Tamarind ) ? Does anyone know of a vegetarian recipe using Kodumpuli ?

Sambars in Andhra evolved into a thick stew called pappu pulusu ( Lentil - Tamarind ). The technique of cooking vegetables along with tuvar dal characterizes many Andhra sambars.

When sambar moved into Karnataka, Kannadigas found out a way to cook two dishes in one. They let the sambar rest after cooking. It then separates into a thin watery layer and a thick dal-rich bottom layer. They would use the watery top layer as Rasam and the thick bottom layer as sambar - proving the point that rasam is nothing but a clear sambar. Karnataka also gives us the delicious, greenish, Rayar sambar. This is sambar in which dollops of blended cilantro (kothumalli) puree has been added. ( Thanks Hemant, I learnt this first from your post ! )

In Udupi sambar, we find a novel way of using onions. Onions are grilled on a open flame and the charred outer layers are removed. The grilled onion is pureed along with coconut and this paste is added to the sambar to give a unique flavour.

With easy availability of spices, it is not surprising we find cinnamon and clove in Konkani sambars, a combination which would raise the hackles of Tanjore Brahmins. Konkani sambars also substitute the locakky abundant Kokum ( Garcinia Indica / ‘bhirnda‘ or ‘bhinda‘ in Konkani, ‘murugala hannu‘ in Kannada) for tamarind. Moving north to Maharashtra, we bump into the ancestor of Sambar - the Amti. Amti-Bhaat-Bhaji (lentil, rice and vegetable) is the staple diet of Maharashtrians. Amti is very similar to Kannada sambars and like them, uses Cinnamon and cloves for flavouring. Instead of Tamarind, it uses Kokum as a souring agent. ( Thanks Preenu, for correcting me on this )

Further north, we meet another staple, the Tuver-ni-daal (Tuvar dal curry ), one of the pillars of Gujarati diet. This is nothing but sambar with added ginger and green chilli paste. Like the Tamil rasavangis and pitlais, you’ll find whole peanuts in Tuver – ni- daal.

Prepackaged Sambar powder has greatly simplified sambar making and has guaranteed uniformly flavoured sambar. Like any mass produced spice mix, the easy availability of prepackaged sambar powder is fast killing off many delightful regional spice mixes. Though it is a lot less flavourful than fresh ground spices, readymade sambar powder now dominates sambar preparation, with fresh ground spices being reserved for special occasions.

Use the cookbook to create scores of your own sambars – and let me know if you’d like your recipe included here.

Here’s to Sambars – May it continue to delight !

1001 Kormas

Korma – A primer
Korma, the curry of the Nawabs, is a mild, rich, thick curry. The base is rich and is mildly flavoured by expensive spices.

Originating in the kitchens of Lucknow, the Korma soon spread across the country. In Hyderabad, the mild Mogul korma bumped into the strong spices of the south. It gradually accommodated them, evolving into a spicier version, coming to be called the Kuruma.

North Indian Kormas are built from dairy products ( milk / cream / yogurt). South Indian Kurumas are built from coconut paste / coconut milk. Like any curry using milk products, a korma will split (solids separate) on prolonged cooking or high heat. So it should be cooked gently, over a slow fire, with frequent stirring. This would ensure a creamy curry.

Using boiled vegetables greatly shortens the cooking time and reduces the risk of the korma curdling.

Korma is aristocrat’s curry. The only question you have to ask yourself while cooking a korma is “ Will a Nawab eat this ?” So the spirit of a korma calls for expensive spices and goodies. If you want to use saffron / vanilla bean as flavouring, go right ahead – the Nawabs would be proud of you! Kormas using less expensive goodies like spinach / boiled pulses are not very common. However, a variety of Korma called the Navratan korma using a mixture of nine vegetables is very popular. In fact, if the Kerala Aviyal is flavoured with expensive spices, it could pass off as a Navratan Korma !

Though traditionally eaten with naan, rotis or rice, a korma goes equally well as a sauce with pasta or noodles. Being very mild, it serves an excellent introduction to Indian cuisine. See Param’s Chana Kurma, Divya’s Vegetable kurma, Cook simple’s Cashew Korma, Heidi’s Navratan Korma.

And this one goes to Srivalli's Curry Mela.

1001 Kulambu

Kulambus are one of the easiest curries to make. Dissolve a spoon or two (or even three, as I do) of tamarind paste in a cup of water. Bring it to a boil, add a couple of pinches of sambar powder, a pinch of salt, and a pinch (or two or three) of jaggery. Let it simmer for five minutes and your basic kulambu is ready. Kulambu is nothing but sambar without Tuvar dal – In other words it is just a flavoured sweet and sour stew. In sambars the sourness of tamarind is balanced by the dal. In kulambus we use jaggery to regain this balance.

The defining characteristics of a Kulambu are sourness, sweetness, flavouring and absence of dal. The sourness comes usually from Tamarind, sweetness from jaggery and flavour from Sambar podi. However, kulambus are so versatile that whole new families can be created by small variations of the basic ingredients. By varying the sourness, flavouring and the goodies added, we can cook up scores of kulambus. The one page cookbook summarises these variations.

Change the souring agent and new families of kulambus appear. Replace tamarind with Tomato and you have Thakkali Kulambu. Use Mango and you have Manga Kulambu. Use yogurt and you have more kulambu and so on. Column 1 lists the types of Kulambus you can cook up by changing the souring agent. See Divya’s Thakkali Kulambu, Revathy’s More Kulambu.

Change the flavouring style and new classes of Kulambu like Araithu vita Kulambu, Poricha Kulambu etc, spring up. Column 2 summarises these changes. See Amma’s Araichu Vitta Kulambu.

Change goodies used and more kulambus spring up, Use sun dried veggies and you have Vatral kulambu. Use a mix of boiled pulses and you have Kadalai kulambu. Use steamed lentil balls and you get Paruppu urundal kulambu. Column 3 lists these variations. See Sriranjini’s Vatral kulambu, Prema’s Vatral Kulambu, Laksh’s Kadalai Kulambu, Mami’s Paruppu Urundai kulambu.

It took me quite a while to realize that Kulambu is a universal solution, not just a local recipe. For example, Vatral Kulambu is about converting dried goodies into a tasty stew. The genius of this solution is that it is not limited to local vegetables. As it is universal, it can handle any dried foodstuff with ease. Every culture has its own dried foodstuff and almost all of them can be turned into delicious sour stews. Vatral kulambus can gracefully accommodate a huge variety of dried goodies – from the Sangriya, Ker,or Gunda of Rajasthan to the dried shitake / porcini mushrooms or sea weeds of the far east or even the dehydrated fruits / dried meats of the west.

Similarly, feel free to experiment with other goodies by using locally available vegetables, pulses and fruits. See Tamil Cuisine’s Kulambu list

Safe Kulambus
The strong flavouring that Tamil cuisine uses has caused quite a few embarrassing incidents in the kitchens, office and school cafetaria’s of the west. (My brother in law was politely asked to have his lunch in the privacy of his cubicle and my nephew refuses to pack in a traditional lunch, dismissing it with what his friends comment -“ Yucky”. ) This is not demeaning or insulting as it stems from ignorance – it is no different from my grandma turning away in disgust after smelling parmesan cheese.

On the other hand, I’ve had the pleasure of introducing Tamil cuisine to people from all over the world and have watched many go bonkers over it. It is not easy to appreciate a thousand year old cuisine, without putting in a little effort to understand it. For the uninitiated, we need to alter the flavouring and souring agents so as not to cause a ‘cuisine shock’. ‘Strange’ local spices need to be replaced by ‘safe’ spices familiar to your guests.

Red chillies can be replaced by the milder paprika or black pepper, Asafetida by onion- garlic powder, Black mustard by brown mustard, Coriander seeds by cumin and tamarind by tomato/sour cream/ yogurt. Traditional sesame oil can be replaced with oils familiar to your guests. ‘Strange’ vegetables like sundakkai can be avoided. When you have a doubt with your guest’s familiarity with an ingredient, it is usually better to replace it with a safer alternative.

You can however use the original ingredients if you know your guests are familiar with it. For example Tamarind is familiar to people from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. (In fact, the word Tamarind is an Arab word meaning Tamar – I- hind or Dates of India).

When cooking for newbies to Tamil cuisine, I do the following:

1. Tell my guests exactly what to expect – “I’m cooking up a sweet and sour stew from coconut milk and tamarind” and not “ I’m cooking up a Tamil delicacy – Thengapal Kulambu”.

2. Avoid strong flavourings like asafetida, turmeric, chili powder & sambar powder and use milder alternatives.

3. Let my guests handle the spices, smell them and even taste them. I talk about each of the spices and the reason why it is used. I do the same with vegetables my guests might not have encountered earlier.

Once you’ve let your guests taste a ‘safe’ kulambu, it is easy to let them work their way up to traditional kulambus.

Advanced kulambus for the Bold Cook
Tread with caution. You are entering unchartered territory here !
In this section we'll try out exotic variations, most of which has never before been cooked, for the simple reason that the world was not always a global village.

Sourness
Experiment by using any of the following souring agents.

• Use a variety of Tamarind pulps - from the very sweet to the very sour. Check out the tamarind varieties in South east asian, African, Latin American and Arab speciality stores.
• Use the pulp of sour fruits like gooseberries, Elanthai palam etc.,
• Use few bits of Kokkum ( kodumpuli) soaked in water
• Use a couple of spoons of a variety of vinegars / wines mixed with a cup of coconut milk.
• Use a cup of sour cream. Or even soy sauce mixed with coconut milk.
  

Flavouring
Each cuisine has its own set of spices. In addition to the traditional spices we use for flavouring you can try experimenting with various spices.

Allspice which tastes like a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg can be used in masala kulambus. Vanilla bean can be used for mild kulambus like thengapal kulambu. You can add subtle flavoring by garnishing kulambus with a variety of herbs like rosemary or dill. Or experiment with a variety of European herbs like Marjoram, Oregano, Sage, Tarragon, and Thyme. To be safe, add these added towards end of cooking as delicate herbs lose their flavour on overcooking.

Thickeners
Traditionally only rice flour or gram flour (besan) are used to thicken kulambus. However, you can experiment with a variety of thickeners like Lotus root flour, Sago starch, Arrowroot flour, Okra powder or tapioca flour. Dissolve a pinch of these thickeners in a spoon of water and add it towards the end of cooking.

Sweeteners
Instead of jaggery as a sweetener you can use Panai vellam, karupatti, Brown sugar , molasses, honey, or just about anything sweet. Each will yield you a kulambu with a subtly different taste.

Goodies
Each region has its share of local fresh and dried goodies. Almost all of these can be turned into delicious kulambus. Embark on a voyage of discovery, visit the local markets, buy stuff you have never tasted before and turn them into kulambus never cooked before.

With these innumerable variations you can cook up a different kulambu for every day of your life and still would not have scratched the surface. And that’s the genius of Tamil cuisine!

And this one goes to Srivalli's Curry Mela.

1001 Traditional Karnataka Curries

Karnataka curries use the same four building blocks as other South Indian curries - Tamarind, Lentils, Coconut and Yogurt. However, it places different emphasis on these blocks and on the spices used.
Karnataka curries use much less chilies than Andhra curries and use more lentils and coconut than Tamil curries.

Unlike other South Indian states, where curries are eaten with cooked rice, Karnataka curries are also eaten with Jowar ( Sorghum / Cholam ) and Ragi ( Finger millet / Kelvaragu) in addition to Rice.

Karnataka cuisine can be broadly split into the North Karnataka cuisine , South Karnataka cuisine and Coastal cuisine.

North Karnataka cuisine has a large overlap with Maharashtrian cuisine. Rice starts giving way to a variety of flatbreads. Coastal Karnataka cuisine is very similar to Kerala cuisine. Like Kerala, coastal Karnataka curries uses coconut oil instead of sesame oil / ground nut oil. South Karnataka cuisine resembles the cuisine of Tamilnadu.

Different regions use different combinations of the basic building blocks. For example, Coorgi curries are generally coconut based, gently spiced, and usually sour.

Like Keralite cuisine. Mangalore curries heavily emphasize the use of coconut and coconut milk. It is here we see the use of colocasia leaves as a vegetable.

Malenadu (mountainous land) spans Shimoga, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Kodagu (Coorg) and parts of South Karnataka. Its cuisine is a blend of Coorgi and Mangalorean cuisines. Speciality vegetables like tender bamboo shoots, turmeric leaves and raw jackfruit are used in their curries. Use of very little oil and steaming are hallmarks of Malenadu cuisine.

In the temples of Karnataka, we see a unique salad, the Kosambari. It is made from soaked green gram mixed with carrots and cucumber and is served as a ‘prasad’.

Like all south Indian curries, most Karnataka curries are flavoured by various combinations of mustard, curry leaves, ginger, garlic and cumin. Saarina Pudi, an equivalent of Sambar powder is widely used to flavour many curries. Use of spices like cinnamon, clove and poppy seeds is much more common in Karnataka curries than in other states. In certain regions, the flavouring is tempered by religious beliefs. For example the use of onions / garlic is frowned upon in the temple town of Udupi.

Let us now take a bird’s eye view of major Karnataka curries.

0.: Dali Thoye ( Plain Lentil curry) Dali Thoye is just boiled lentils( Tuvar dal / Mung dal), usually eaten with hot cooked rice and ghee.

1.: Kolmbo ( Coconut -Lentil Sour curry) Kolmbo can be seen a sambar with a lot of coconut. See Manisha’s kolmbo

2.: Saaru (Thin lentil curry). Saaru is commonly made by mixing tamarind paste with lentil stock (the water in which lentils have been cooked). Saaru can be looked at as a thin version of the Sambar. If you let the sambar sit after cooking, it separates into two layers. The top watery layer can actually be served as Saaru. See Roopas Pepper Saaru with a twist – using milk in place of tuvar dal !

3.: Majjigae Huli is a spiced yogurt curry. In some versions, yogurt is not cooked but is mixed in just before serving. See Mythreyee’s Majjige Huli with winter melon, Rupa’s Majjige Huli.

4.: Gojju is a sweet and sour tamarind curry. It is similar to a tamil Kulambu, but for the fact that it is a lot sweeter. See Tangy Gojju, Okra Gojju

5.: Chutney is a blended , spicy, uncooked coconut curry. A version called the Thambuli is very popular.

6.: Mosaru Baji is a raw yogurt curry, very similar to the north Indian Raita or the Tamil Thayir Pachadi. See 1001 Raitas for recipes.

7.: Huli, a lentil sour curry, is very similar to Sambar. See Masala Magic’s Huli and Huli Podi, with Cinamon, RH’s Lentil Ball Huli

8.: Sagu, a coconut- chili curry, is very similar to the Tamil Kootu. It always has a base of blended coconut and chili and is usually bursting with vegetables. You can even cook a sagu without lentils. Sagu has many versions in which soaked poppy seeds / cinnamon / cilantro / mint / cumin / cloves/ pepper etc are also ground up along with coconut. It is so versatile that I’ll be putting up a 1001 Sagu cookbook soon. See Asha’s Sagu, Vegetable Sagu, Latha’s Sagu with lentils.

9.: Paalya, a dry vegetable curry is similar to the Tamil Poriyal. See Potato Palya, Prashish’s beetroot Palya, Eco Smith’s Squash Palya, Paru’s clusterbeans Palya.

If you notice an error, or have a recipe that needs to be included here, please comment or mail me. Thanks !