Pickled Bitter Gourd Travelling on business is a great way to sample regional cuisines. Local dishes, quaint preferences, small eateries, are what make India such a great place to travel in. Many a time though, I'd be travelling with Mr.K.C.Jain, who's a stickler for home-cooked food,...
Cabbage Vegetable Dish with Coconut This recipe is inspired by Hema Athai (my Aunt), who figured out a way to reconcile her health consciousness with the challenges of feeding fussy Tambrams. I cook it often now, but somehow, her signature never vanishes from the dish. INGREDIENTS -...
Beans & Dal Poriyal - Tamil Vegetable Dish Beans Paruppu Usili This Beans + Dal vegetable dish is a perfect match of taste & health, and doesn't take a lot of work either. Serve it with Sambar or Rasam rice, and you'll wonder if you've made enough....
BISI BELE HULLI ANNA Bisi Bele is complex cooking, unless you’re doing it regularly. If you get it right though, there are few dishes that give the kitchen such an aura. It’s Happiness packed in a One-Pot meal. Though the dish is of Kannadiga origin, it is made by...
VEN PONGAL Phonetically speaking, whenever, though breakfast or brunch is the mot juste. We’re in serious comfort food territory here, like Grandma’s pancakes or the Pan-Punjabi Rajma Chawal. Ask any Tambram what he’d be happiest to see on the breakfast table, and a plateful of Pongal...
THENGA (COCONUT) THUVAIYAL Thuvaiyals are a dying breed, unless you’re hardcore Tambram. And that’s really funny in this day and age when people are dying to think up flavourful dips and sides. Most restaurants also, which offer the ubiquitous ‘Tamil Saapadu’ or Thali, have begun to...
BREAD PAKODA Though you’re free to go with snack, I reckon the Bread Pakoda belongs in the mini-meal category. It’s one of my go-to breakfasts for the kids during winters, but the monsoons arriveth, and now is as good a time as any to serve deep...
PASTA SALAD WITH OLIVE DRESSING Pasta salads are sure-fire winners on the party table, but with expensive ingredients and uncommon methods, plus the Indians’ peculiar inability to do al-dente, they’re tricky little blighters. Why this recipe may interest you, is that I’ve tried to substitute a...
Ever wondered why Tambrams are this high IQ, high EQ community? Here’s our magic potion, the thing that has helped us beat 97% reservation in Tamil Nadu, the thing that keeps us happy in Silicon Valley or Singapore or Srirangam… Puliodharai is our DNA in food form....