Indian food, Andhra recipes and Global cuisine inspired cooking

When the ingredient for JFI- January (Coconut) was announced, I knew which recipe I was going to blog. One of the most treasured fruits of the Gods is the coconut so revered to us, Hindus, symbolizing divine consciousness and forms an integral part of Hindu religious ceremonies, from birth to death. The humble, tender loving, […]

A chutney I often prepare is tomato chutney, a South Indian style chutney, I learnt from a Tamilian friend’s mother, Revati Aunty who usually prepares it with idlis, dosas and ven pongal (South Indian style lentil-rice preparation). Its easy to prepare with very less cooking time.

Today I prepared it as an accompaniment with dosas for […]

The podi (spice powder), pachadi (type of chutney) and the pickle form an integral part of Andhra cuisine and no Andhra vegetarian meal is complete without them. Other than the famous traditional Andhra Avakai (Mango Pickle), Andhra cuisine also boasts of an assortment of pachadis, one of them being Pachi Mamidikaya - Kobbari Pachadi.

Raw Mango-Coconut […]

Dosakaya or Nakka Dosakai (Yellow cucumber), a small, round-shaped light green to bright yellow colored vegetable, with a crisp crunchy skin and a mild sweet-tarty taste, is used to prepare traditional Andhra delicacies like dosakaya pappu , dosakaya pachadi and dosa avakai. Dosa Avakai is an old Andhra culinary tradition which is made on the […]

Today we are celebrating Ugadi, the Telugu New Year Day, which is the first festival of our Telugu calendar and the first big festival that comes after Sankranti.
Our Andhra festival is known by different names in different states of India like “Gudi Padwa” in Maharastra and “Ugadi” in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Whatever the name […]

For this Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn’s Kitchen, I am blogging about a very interesting sour leaf called Red Sorrel.Hibiscus cannabinus aka red sorrel leaves,roselle,gongura (telugu)pulicha keerai (Tamil),Ambad bhaji,ambada,ambadi(Hindi) are popular sour greens here in the Southern State of Andhra Pradesh.Red Sorrel comes in two varieties, one is green leaf and the other being […]

Fresh juicy tomatoes are an integral part of my kitchen and the sweet-tangy flavor of the tomatoes is something irresistable.Almost every other day tomatoes are used in my cooking …sliced and drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper or with sandwiches or as a hot soup.And, of course,it goes without saying that […]

This authentic Indian chutney is so versatile and goes with most foods and tastes great on crackers,sandwiches,grilled chicken,fish,chips and of course no Indian meal is complete without freshly prepared chutney.Generally its prepared fresh and traditionally served with curry and other side dishes in a traditional Indian meal to contrast the flavors.Its a very popular chutney […]

This particular recipe is similar to the Punjabi dish Baigan ka Burtha.Down south in Andhra,we dont use any of the spice powders which are used in preparing the burtha.To prepare the pachadi,mustard seeds,cumin seeds and black gram are used for tempering and the egg plant is grilled or placed directly over the gas burner so […]

Many think that an “Ayurvedic Diet” is a diet consisting of spicy Indian food. Not necessarily – an Ayurvedic diet is a diet which matches your body type to the foods consumed – eating those foods that sustain your body type, to avoid unbalancing your prakruti (natural tendencies). Ayurveda includes counter measures to let you […]