"South Indian Food" is a term used to refer to the cuisines found in the four southern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu .
The similarities in the four states' cuisines are the presence of rice as a staple food, the use of lentils and spices, use of dried red chilies and fresh green chilies, coconut and native fruits and vegetables like tamarind, plantain, snake gourd, garlic, ginger, etc.
Overall all the four cuisines have much in common and differ mostly in the spiciness or hotness of the food.
This curry is traditionally called More Kuzhambu made with sour yogurt, my friend from Chennai used to call this Moor Corrum. Therefore till this day I still call it Moor Corrum. Whenever I make this curry for my "North Indian" friends, it is always a great hit. Over the years of repeated trial of this recipe I have modified this a little. For instance in the traditional recipe they don’t add Besan or gram flour to this, but I do just to make the curry more smooth, but if you like you can totally omit the besan.
This recipe yields about 6 servings.
Ingredients
• Yogurt (more toward sour side) 6 cups
• Water 3 cups
• 2 tables spoon of besan (gram flour)
• 1 pound of any choice of one of these vegetables (gourd, potatoes, beans, okra, white pumpkin, eggplants) cut in cubes and sauteed and cooked in oil and salt with 4 chopped cloves of garlic and 1" piece of finely chopped ginger till tender. (note if you cook okra, make sure to add some lime juice to it while cooking to minimize sliminess)
• Toor daal 3 tables spoon
• Corriander seeds ¼ cup
• Channa daal 4 tables spoon
• Urad daal 2 tables spoon
• Red chilli pods 4-6 (based on desired heat)
• Methi (fenugreek) seeds 1 teaspoon
• 1 teaspoon black pepper corn
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• ½ bunch of coriander leaves washed and drained
• Turmeric powder 1 teaspoon
• Oil 2 tables spoon to fry dry ingredients
• Grated coconut ½ cup
• Salt to taste
• 1 table spoon of lemon or lime juice
For Tadka
• Oil 2 tables spoon
• Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
• Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
• 1 twig curry leaves
• Asafetida 1/3 teaspoon
• 2 pods of dry red chili pepper
• 5-6 baby onions peeled (not chopped)
• 1 teaspoon of paprika.
¼ cup of chopped cilantro/coriander leaves for garnish.
Method
• Soak all the daals in warm water for 20-30 minutes.
• After 20-30 min drain all the water from daals.
• Saute and cook choice of chopped veggies in 1 tables spoon of oil with chopped garlic, ginger and little salt until tender.
• Set aside.
• Heat 2 tables spoon of oil in a pan, add coriander seeds, peppercorns, cumin seeds, all daals, methi and red chili pods.
• Sauté until daals are golden brown.
• Grind the all of the above sauteed dry ingredients in a food processor with coconut, jalapenos and coriander leaves in to a fine paste adding a little water.
• With hand blender churn the yogurt with water, add besan (gram flour) to yogurt.
• Mix well until no lumps and cook on medium heat for 10 min, with stirring occasionally and making sure it does not boil over.
• Add the coconut and spice paste, salt and turmeric to cooking yogurt and mix well with constant stirring.
• Add cooked veggies and cook for additional 5 minutes in a medium flame stirring in between.
• Add lemon or lime juice mix well.
• For tadka: Heat oil in a pan, when hot add cumin and mustard seeds, when they crackles add asafetida, red chili pods, and curry leaves.
• Add baby onions with dash of salt and saute until soft and brown.
• Lastly add paprika to this for nice red color, turn the stove off.
• Add this to prepared curry and mix well.
• Garnish with chopped cilantro leaves.
• This curry tastes very good with plain rice.
Recipe modified by Surekha from a recipe given to her by her friend from Madras (now Chennai).
Description of South Indian Food source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Indian_cuisine
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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