Book Extract
Flavours of the south
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Three delicious vegetarian preparations to tingle your taste buds, extracted from Chandra Padmanabhan’s latest book, Simply South, being released today.
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Paravaannam
Rice dessert from Andhra Pradesh
Serves: 4-6
Soaking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes
Ingredients:
Half cup rice
7-8 cups full cream milk
2 tbsp sago (sabudana)
One-and-a-half cups powdered jaggery
3 tbsp ghee
3 tbsp cashew nuts, halved
2 tbsp seedless raisins (kishmish)
Half tsp powdered green cardamom
1. Wash rice and drain. Soak rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Place milk in a heavy-based pan over high heat and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes till reduced by about one-third.
3. Add sago and simmer for 10 minutes
4. Mix in rice and simmer for at least 15-20 minutes till tender.
5. In another pan combine jaggery and quarter cup water. Cook and stir till jaggery dissolves. Strain jaggery through a muslin cloth into payasam.
6. Meanwhile, heat one and a half tbsp ghee in a frying pan over moderate heat and fry cashew nuts till golden. Drain and set aside.
7. Add remaining ghee to pan and fry raisins till they puff up. Drain and set aside.
8. Add cashew nuts, raisins and powdered cardamoms to payasam. Simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Serve hot or chilled.
Simply South: Traditional Vegetarian Cooking, Chandra Padmanabhan, Westland Publishers, Rs. 295
Senai Urundai
Yam Fritters from Kongunadu
Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
One and three fourths cups grated yam (see note alongside)
4-5 dried red chillies
Half cup roasted peanuts
One and a quarter cups grated fresh coconut
1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
Half tsp turmeric powder
Quarter cup gram flour (besan)
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
1 sprig curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp salt or to taste
oil for deep frying
1. Combine yam, red chillies, peanuts, coconut, fennel seeds and turmeric powder in a bowl. Grind to a coarse paste resembling vadai batter, gradually adding half cup water.
2. Add gram flour, onions, curry leaves, coriander leaves and salt to yam paste. Mix well.
3. Heat oil in a deep frying pan to smoking point. Drop spoonfuls of batter into hot oil. Lower heat to moderate and fry fritters in batches, turning frequently, till golden brown and crisp.
4. Drain and place on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.
5. Serve as a side dish or a teatime snack.
Note: You need to buy about 400 gm of yam to get one and three quarters cups of the cleaned and grated vegetable.
Guthi Bendakai
Stuffed Okra from Andhra Pradesh
Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
500 gms small, tender okra (bhindi)
1 tsp salt
Half tsp turmeric powder
spice powder
2 tsp oil
5 dried red chillies
Two and a half tsp cumin seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
tempering
1 tbsp oil
Half tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp husked black gram (urad dal)
1 dried red chilli, halved
1. Wash okra and dry thoroughly. Make a slit lengthwise, at the tail end, coming three-quarters of the way up, ensuring that the segments do not separate.
2. Heat oil for spice powder in a pan over moderate heat. Add remaining ingredients for spice powder and fry over low heat, tossing gently, till fragrant.
3. Cool and add salt and turmeric powder. Grind to a fine powder.
4. Stuff okra with spice powder and set aside.
5. Heat oil for tempering in a pan over moderate heat. Add remaining ingredients for tempering in the order given. When mustard seeds splutter, add okra and sauté gently for 1-2 minutes.
6. Lower heat, cover pan and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally till okra are tender. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
7. Serve hot as a side dish.
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