Just to share with you…..
I am from Madathukulam (coimbatore) in Tamilnadu. As for as I know Thanjavur is famous for its filter coffee as Mayiladuthurai is famous for its masal vadai, Kumbakonam is known for its ‘kothsu’, chetti Nadu [Which consists of Karaikudi,pudhukkottai,sivakangai] is famous for its paniyarams, app ams, chicken specials etc, Thirunelveli is famous for its ‘sothi kuzambu’ and Madurai is famous for its briyanis. I really wish to bring out the specials of tamilnadu in this site so that each and every visitor could be benefitied from it.
Viruthombal is TamilNadu’s speciality. Treating people with White rice, Mutton curry and payasam at home is a tradition Most of our current food habits are not very healthy. But if you follow our traditional food, it contains excellent medical qualities to keep our body really fit. The ginger, garlic and numerous ingredients of our food continuously helps to maintain good health.
Fish is one of the most favourite food of costal districts where all forms of fish are prepared with special flavour to treat the tongue. But people which are not in coastal are like me can get only Dam fishes. They way ot taste aother varieties of fish is in its dried form only that is what we call as “Karuvadu” (dreied fish). Karuvattu (Dry fish) kulambu is the most special item which I am posting here.
When I was in my school days we have one neighbour (our family friend). Her name is Agnes Mary and her huby is Adaikkalam. Their native is Trichy. Whenever she goes there she used to buy lots of Karuvadu (Dried fish stuffs like neimeen, nethili been). Also she used to cook each karuvadu in a different way. They are one who brought karuvadu recipe into my family.
My husband used to like nethli karuvattu kolumbu only. Since in US we are not getting Nethli I am using Anchovy and saddrines.
Ingredients
1. Small dry fish(karuvadu) - (5-10 ), cleaned and washed
2. Tamarind – big lemon size, soaked
3. sesame oil or any oil - 3 tsp
4. CurryleavesCorriander powder - 3 tsp
5. Chilli powder – 1 tsp (or more)
6. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Salt
Vegetables
1. Bringal /indian egg plant - 2 (chop lengthwise)
2. Mochaikottai/mochakottai - 1 cup pressure cooked
3. Drumstick - 4 or 5 small pieces
(All the three used will give you more taste and flavour is you don’t have something then you leave that and add the others)
For Grinding
1. Medium size Onion(chopped) - 1 (3/4 th for grinding and 1/4 th for tempering)
2. Garlic cloves - 2
3. Medium size Tomatoes - 1( chopped )
4. Sombu/ big zeera - 1/2 tsp
Preparation
1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Fry all the items listed in for Grinding. Then grind it well into smooth paste.
2. Heat 2 tsp of oil in pan. Add mustard seeds and splutter. Then add curry leaves, 1/4 th onion and all the vegetables and also the dried fish. Fry them all well.
3. Add chilli powder, corriander powder and turmeric powder. Add little water and salt. Let it cook.
4. Extract thick juice from the tamarind and add that .
5. Cook in medium heat atleast for 15 -20 mins. Slow cook add the taste.
Tips
If you are going to use dried mochakottai then soak it fo 8 hrs and then pressure cook. If you using fresh mochai no need for pressure cooking.
If you are using the karuvadu brought in US then you have to add in the begining because it is taking more time to get cooked. If you are going to use Karuvadu form India then those you can add that just 10 mins before switching off.
Just to share with you….
I have seen prawn/shrimp for the first time in chennai. After my marriage we were in chennai for 6-7 months. Once day I saw my house owner aunty cleaning prawns outside. That is the first time I saw prawn in my life. That time I don’t like it since it was like a ugly insect.
After that we were shifted to Bangalore. My Mathi brother was staying close by. He likes non-veg a lot. They used to cook many sea foods. From them we just started to learn cooking and eating the shrimp. I remember it is aslo called as “SEMMEEN” because he used to say as semmeen sometimes.
In India we mostly call it as Prawns (in English), Era or eral ( in tamil). It is little bit costly when compared to other sea foods since it has lot of medicinal value. Here is US its known as Shrimp.
We can make many recipes out of shrimp such as shrimp thokku (prawn thokku), shrimp pulav, shrimp birayani, shrimp bajji, era/ shrimp kolambu etc. Here we are going to learn about thick shrimp /prawn curry. You can say shrimp kulambu also.
Ingredients
1. Shrimp - 1/2 kg
2. Sombu - 1/2 tsp
3. Big Onion (chopped) - 1
4. Medium size Tomato (chopped) -2
5. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
6. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
7. Chilly powder - 1 tsp
8. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Salt and oil as required
10. Coconut - 2 tsp
11. Whole black Pepper - 1/2 tsp (5-8 nos)
12. Curry leaves – little
13. Coriander leaves for garnishing.
Preparation
1. Heat the oil in kadai.
2. Add big jeera/sombu and curry leaves.
3. Add chopped onion, ginger- garlic paste and tomato and fry well for 5 minutes.
4. Add corriander powder, chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt and mix well.
5. Add cleaned shrimp and little water and mix well.
6. Cook for 15-20 minutes on low flame. Shrimp will be cooked soon but still we want everything (tomato, onion etc to be mixed and blended well so slow cook for more time which brings taste to your curry)
7. Grind coconut, sombu and whole balck pepper into fine paste and add to curry. After 5 mins when it is done garnish with Coriander leaves.
Tips
You can avoid 7th step. Because most people won’t do this step. I posted my version shrimp curry here.
Just to share with you……
Chettinad chicken is one of my all time favourites among chicken dishes. Chettinad is a small part in southern tamilnadu which is famous world over for its unique cuisine. The flavour of freshly grinded chillies, coriander and fennel, coconut and all other spices gives it a wonderful taste. Once you taste any chettinad dish you will never forget the taste of it. In today’s version, chicken is simmered in coconut milk and gets its unique flavor from a blend of quite a few spices like fennel seeds, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, pepper corns, cardamoms and cumin to name a few. Bit of preparation goes into the making of this curry and there is no short cut method and if you have the time and the ingredients on hand, only then start to prepare and please don’t compromise with the ingredients if you want that authentic flavor.
Chettinad Chicken curry
Ingredients
1. chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces – 1 kg
2. small onions, shallots (sambar onions) – 1 cup
3. chopped tomatoes -1 cup
4. turmeric pwd – 1/2 tsp
5. curry leaves as needed
6. coconut milk (extract from 1/2 coconut) – 1 cup
7. fresh coriander leaves for garnish
8. Salt to taste
9. oil – 1 tbsp
Make a paste
1. green chillis – 2
2. garlic flakes – 8
3. ginger – 1 inch
4. poppy seeds (soak in warm water for 10 mts) - 1 tsp
Roast and make a powder
1. pepper corns – 1/2 tsp
2. cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
3. fennel seeds – 3/4 tsp
4. coriander seeds – 1 1/2 tsp
5. dry red chillies – 6 to 8
6. cardamoms – 2
7. cinnamon – 1
8. curry leaves as needed
9. oil – 1/2 tsp
Preparation
1. Heat little oil and roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, red chillis, cardamoms, cinnamon and curry leaves on medium heat stirring constantly for 2 mts. Remove from fire, cool and grind to a powder.
2. Make a paste of the ginger, garlic, green chillies and poppy seeds. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the small onions and curry leaves and saute till transparent.
4. Add the ground paste and cook for a minute before adding the chicken and cook on high heat for approx 4 mts and do stir the chicken once in a while.
5. Reduce to medium heat, add salt, turmeric powder and tomatoes and combine well. Let the chicken cook in this for 4-5 mins uncovered.
6. Now add the coconut milk and transfer the contents to a pressure cooker. Pressure cook for 4 mins or until one whistle. Open lid and combine well.
7. Finally add the ground masala powder and cook for 3 mins. Turn off heat and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
Serve hot with white steamed rice, biryani, chapatis or dosas.
Just to share with you……
Salna – This dish is very common in Tamil nadu which is can be taken along with chappathi’s and Parrota’s. Salna’s are very good in small restaurants. Till now I didn’t get the recipe of it. But I got a different salna from recipe site. I don’t remember whose sit fit is now. This can be made with mutton bones and less meat. It might look different form other nonvegdishes since mutton can be cooked with Dal.
Mutton / Atukari Salna
Ingredients
1. Toor dal - 1/4 cup
2. Mutton bones - 1/4 kg
3. Onion(medium size) - 1
4. Tomato(medium size) - 1
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Coriander powder – 2 tsp
7. Chilli powder - 1 tsp
8. Ginger-garlic Paste – 1 tsp
9. Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
10. Cloves, Cinnamon, Bay leaves - 2 each
11. Coriander leaves for garnishing
12. Salt, water and oil as needed
Preparation
1. Take toor dal and mutton bone pieces in a pressure cooker and cook 3 to 4 whistles.
2. Now, heat the oil in the kadai. Splutter cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon.
3. Then add the chopped onion. When the onion is half done add ginger-garlic paste and fry for 2-3 mins.
4. Now add the chopped tomato, salt, turmeric powder and curry leaves. Fry all this well until oil seperates from the gravy.
5. Add the chill powder, coriander powder and fry for another 4-5 mins.
6. Now add the boiled mutton bone pieces and toor dal in Kadai.
7. Put the lid on the kadai and cook until done.
Tips
Salna or chalna is ready serve with Paratha, roti, puri , Biryani, idli, idiyappam, dosai and also with plain white rice.
Just to share with you ….
This is simple and mouth watering Fish /Meen kolumbu . The Same method can be followed for any type of fish. Meen Kolumbu is very famous dish. We have lots of tamil songs which depicts the taste of meen kolumbu (say nathu vachha meen kolumbu yenna illukkuthu etc). Yep always the old meen kolumbu tastes more since the fish pieces are soaked in puli . Usually my grandma will make in huge quanties and keep the kolumbu for 2 to 3 days. The flavor of the meen kolumbu will remail in whole samayal arai which tell others that u made meen kolumbu which is its speciality.
Meen Kolumbu
Ingredients
1. Fish – 1 kg
2. Onion – 1/2 chopped
3. Green chillies -2 slitted
4. Curry and coriander leaves
5. Sesame Oil (is best if you don’t have u can use any ) as need for saurting
6. Tamarind – small ball size
7. Red chilli powder -2 tsp
8. coriander powder – 5 tsp
9. Little turmeric powder
For Tampering
little fenugreek seeds, whole pepper corns and sombu
For grinding
1. Onion -1 (if you have small onions/red shallots/chinna venkayam then take that equivalent to big onion/periya venkayam/ballari venkayam)
2. Corriander seeds -3 tsp
3. Jeera – 1/2 tsp
4. Red chillies -2 and green chilli -1
5. Tomato small size -1
6. Grated coconut -2 tsp
7. Sombu- 1/4 tsp
8. Garlic cloves -8-10
8. Whole pepper corns – ½ tsp
9. Oil as needed for frying above ingredients.
Preparation
1. Fry well all the ingredients For Grinding and grind that well.
2. Pour oil in Kadai. Add the items under tempering and then add curry leaves.
3. Add chopped onions , green chillies (optional).
4. Then add the grinded masala and let it fry for some time.
5. In the mean time soak the tamarind in water and get the thick extract. Add Red chilli powder, coriander powder ,turmeric powder and salt. This itself will look like kolumbu.
6. Now pour this in kadai. Cover it with lid and let it be in fire for minimum of half an hour in medium fire. Then open the lid and check the color and consistency and also the oil should float on the top. If not then keep it for some more time.
7. Finally add fish pieces and let it bil for 5 mins and switch off. Fish kolumbu is ready.
Tips
After putting the fish pieces don’t keep in stove for more mins .If so the pieces will get mashed and you won’t be able to take out pieces from gravy
Prepare Kolumbu a day ahead to feel the real taste.
Heads and tails you can use for kolumbu and the remaining pieces for frying.