Indian food, Andhra recipes and Global cuisine inspired cooking

To us South Indians, our everyday traditional food is incomplete with a podi (spice pwd) and its an an essential food item on the dining table, be it for breakfast or lunch. When one is hard pressed for time and you need fix a quick lunch, all you need to prepare is some steamed rice, [...]

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 [...]

There are certain recipes which always remain our favorites and we can never be tired of cooking them over and over again. One such favorite recipe that I cook often and is enjoyed by my family and friends is the Spicy Chicken Masala Curry. This chicken curry recipe is not a fancy one, very simple, [...]

A unique culinary delight of South Indian cuisines is the Podi, a dry spice-mix (powder), where a combination of spices, lentils, herbs or leaves are roasted in oil and ground to make a crumbly powder. These spice mixes or podis are eaten as an accompaniment to South Indian tiffins or breakfast dishes such as dosas, [...]

Indian Ivy Gourd is a widely consumed vegetable, available in India through out the year. Called Dondakaya (Telugu) or Tindora/Tondli (Hindi), these cute looking small, stubby, green colored vegetables which grow aggressively on vines are used to prepare delicious stuffed curries, stews, pickles, salads and stir fries.

To many, dondakaya is an unusual vegetable, not very [...]

This fast and flavorful dish is a simple recipe, quick and easy-to-make and so tasty! I got this capsicum rice recipe from one of our pot-luck party friends and I tweaked the recipe a bit to add more spice and crunch to it. Fresh crunchy capsicums, masala flavor and crunchy peanuts jazz up the taste [...]

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 [...]

Andhras love their mirapakaayalu (green chillis)! Not only do we use them liberally to spice up our curries, pachi mirapakaayalu are used to prepare mirchi bajjis(stuffed green chillis), mirchi khatta masala curry,mirchi ka salan(hyderabadi chilli delicacy) and a hot favorite (among the South Indians) is majjiga mirapakaaylu (sun-dried chillis).

Majjiga Mirapakayalu
Majjiga (buttermilk) mirapakaaya, a traditional Andhra [...]

Sesame flavored rice or Nuvullu Annam is a light flavoured rice delicacy, enriched with nutrients from seasame seeds and Indian spices.This dish is simple unlike a pampered biryani..:)in the fact that the main ingredient is only sesame seeds with the infusion of spices like curry leaves and mustard seeds in the tempering. Sesame seeds have [...]