A recipe for passion is always simmering !
Chettinad cuisine, enjoys a special place among food lovers, let it be a normal veggie dish or sizzling non-veg , they always include a radically distinctive blend of spices covering up the key ingredient, which wakes up your taste buds. Here is one such recipe… mixed vegetables tossed with freshly ground spice blend
Tamil to English ~~~ Kaikari – Vegetables, Pirattal – Tossed/Stir-fry
KaiKari Perattal / Mixed Vegetable Pirattal / Chettinad Vegetable Curry / Pirrattal / Kaikari Piratal
Simple evening tiffin prepared with store bought Ragi flour.
Englsih ~ Finger Millet
Tamil ~ Kezhvaragu
Telugu ~ Ragi
Kannada ~ Ragi
Hindi ~ Ragi, Nachani, Bajra
Malayalam ~ Panjapule
Srilanka ~ Kurakkan
Puttu maavu / Kezhveragu puttu / Steamed puttu
Murungakkai with coconut flavoured semi thick egg curry.
Murungakkai ~~ Drumstick
Muttai ~~ Egg
Drumstick Egg Curry / Murungakkai Curry / Murungakkai Muttai Poriyal
Long beans, are like any other beans except, its pod grow longer, about half a yard long and hence its also known as Yard long beans. They belong to the legume family (Cowpea / Blackeyedpea) and taste similar regular green beans but with less sweetness. Good when stir fried or steamed. Here's a simple stir fry version seasoned with Indian spices.
Normally a bunch might have about 50 to 60 beans, my recipe is for half of that. They can be refridgerated for 2 days but taste better when fresh and bright green.
Roti Canai is a popular Malaysian style fried bread similar to our Kerala style Parotta. Flour, eggs, milk and loads of fat mainly ghee or margarine is used to give a flaky texture. The process is similar to our Parotta but with extra ingredients which alters the taste and texture. Another popular version from Singapore is called Roti Prata, similar ingredients and process except for the folding. Roti refers to bread in Malay.
Rava idlis are wheat based healthy steamed cakes, popular breakfast or tiffin item from Karnataka.
Rava Idly / Rava Idlly / Rawa / Rawa Idly / Rawa Idli
Rava ~ Cream of wheat ~ Semolina ~ Sooji
Chicken cooked in special ground curry leaves masala, a popular chettinad pick.
Ridge gourd combined with shrimp to make this delicious curry. A very rare combination, which works out great when cooked well seasoned in the form of a peppery thick gravy. The recipe shared here is from my granny and all credit goes to her.
Ridge Gourd ~ English
Peerkangai ~ Tamil
Beerakaya ~ Telugu
Heeray Kayi ~ Kannada
Turai ~ Hindi
Peechinga ~ Malayalam
Wetakolu ~ Sinhala
Here's an easy recipe to bring home the most hated veggie on earth. Though Italian born, when given life with protein packed Indian lentils, this would no longer be looked down with a frown. Usili, a famous South Indian preparation takes an interesting twist in this recipe when combined with broccoli.
Ridge gourd (Peerkangai ) cooked in tomato onion gravy. (Peerkankai Curry / Beera Kaaya curry / Beerakaya Curry / Ghiya Tori / Nerua / Turai / Heeray Kayi / Luffa)
