To tempt or inspire.....

Indian Melon and Tamarind Kuzhambu with Brown Chickpeas | Kadalai Puli Kuzhambu

It is not all sambar and rasam in Tamil Nadu. Once you start exploring lentil/soupy dishes there are a wealth of them - pitlai, kuzhambu, kootu, masiyal, rasavangi, ..... and more.

And within each, so many different types. Traditional Indian cuisine is an ancient one, eons old, with superb flavour and texture combinations, exquisitely evident in these soupy and/or lentil dishes. Infinite varieties exist, emerging from very subtle cooking differences (eg whether the vegetables are added before the tamarind or after), on the time of the meal, on the region, the village, the time of year, the festival, the vegetable used, or the spices used, whether coconut is added, and so on.

This dish is a delicious dish that can be made with Ash Gourd, Winter Melon, Bottle Gourd, Green Squash, Pumpkin, drumstick vegetables or a mix of vegetables. It includes brown chickpeas (kala chana) cooked with toor dal for both silky smoothness with the chunky chickpeas. It is a dish from Tamil Nadu.

You can pick up the different melons/gourds in good Asian groceries.

Many of the Tamil dishes I cook come from #MeenakshiAmmal 's #CookAndSee books - 3 volumes' worth, with a 4th Volume by her granddaughter. She is very specific about which vegetables can be used in each dish (according to spice mix, dal used and other factors). These days, people are looser in their choices. Some of that older knowledge is being lost.

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To tempt or inspire....

We have a few ways of making Cucumber Pachadi (the South Indian version of Cucumber Raita), varying just a little in ingredients.

This is one of the simplest and one of the favourites. Topped with mustard seeds, green chillies, curry leaves.

The recipe is of course, from Meenakshi Ammal's Vol 1 of her Cook and See series.

#TemptOrInspire #MeenakshiAmmal #CookAndSee #IndianFood #Vegetarian #FromTheArchives #FromTheKitchen #cookingAU #eggFree #cooking