southindian curry

Best Kootu Podi (Iyengar Style)

August 4, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Kootu podi or vegetable lentil stew(kootu) powder makes it easy to make kootu in a matter of minutes. This is a recipe that goes back many years and comes straight from one of the best cooks that I knew.

When dinner bowls bring fond memories…

As I sit to write this recipe down, I’m taken back almost two decades, but it still feels like yesterday.

I moved to this place where my now twenty year old was one. The little kid had loads of energy, and I was a new mom who wanted to entertain him, expose him to nature, the park, people, and other kids. Typical mom, took him to basketball which he hated, music which he loved. In between all those classes, I’d walk with him around our neighborhood in circles…

The park was a small walk away, and it was also the place for women to catch up with each other, their outing. Since it was a new development, the crowd was young and in the same boat as I was. However, I missed my family back home, so anytime I saw older women from India, I made sure to talk to them. It felt like home….

Quick South Indian Egg Curry

January 9, 2020 By Asha Shivakumar

Tender soft eggs are soaked in a super flavorful curry with a coconut base. This easy South Indian egg curry recipe shows you how to cook a tasty curry using minimal ingredients, making it a perfect dish for a busy weekday dinner and its gluten free.

Eggs are my everyday lazy protein. Egg curry is my go-to lazy dinner.

When eggs are your protein, it’s one pot, quick and hearty. On my lazy days, eggs are what’s for dinner. This South Indian egg curry is one that appears on the menu every couple of weeks. It’s also one of my favorite go-to egg recipes when I have sudden guests, because you most likely have all the ingredients on hand and not only is it easy to make, it’s also incredibly flavorful. You add hard-boiled eggs to a spiced tomato sauce and in less than 30 minutes, dinner is done. Serve this on top of rice, roti or my no–yeast quick naan.…

Veggie Meatball Curry aka Pakoda Kurma

June 15, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Veggie Meatball Curry aka PAKODA kurma is made with lentils and soaked in a rich, flavorful curry. Great when served over ghee rice or jeera rice.

Sunday lunches have always been and still are very special. It’s mostly chicken curries with rice. There were days when it used to be vegetarian meals due to religious reasons and then came this meal.

Pakoda Kurma or Veggie Meatball Curry. The hearty curry base is a onion tomato base and the lentils vada is soaked and simmered in the curry….

Madras Kheema Curry

March 30, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Keema or Kheema Curry is a robust, peppery curry dish made with minced chicken or lamb cooked with earthy spices! It’s not the most well known dish, but to the people who’ve eaten this curry in Chennai know it’s worth. Serve this with dosa, idli or appam. Enjoy a blissful meal.

If you’re like me and yearn to cook something different, hearty, homemade and comforting food with the thought of eating something to warm up your senses in any weather then this is just the excuse to stroke that indulgence.

Kheema is a traditional Indian dish made of spiced ground meat, usually combined with peas or potatoes. Usually made with chicken or lamb, however it’s also great with ground turkey or beef. This dish however is inspired by a recipe that was written in my diary twenty years ago. It was called Madras Style Chicken Kurma that called for whole chicken….

Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry

January 26, 2019 By Asha Shivakumar

Don’t be intimidated by kohlrabi/noolkol! This root vegetable is easily adaptable to many flavors and keeps it’s crunch. Delicious and Nutritious. This Kohlrabi/Noolkol Edamame Fry is a vegetarian lovers meat dish.

I’m always curious about other people’s comfort food. The stuff you eat when you’re sick or sad. I feel like it tells you so much about that person, where they came from, what they turn to feel better.

And when I ask people so many secrets spill out, gooey mushy nostalgic childhood food, some’s grandmother’s mutton, someone else who goes to a tiny box-line restaurant in old Shivajinagar for the flavors of that chicken that’s unbeatable, some else, who makes an elaborate meal from scratch to lose themselves in the method and to forget….

Cabbage Puttu/Stirfry – Vegetable Dry Sabzi South Indian style

May 20, 2018 By Asha Shivakumar

This easy weeknight South Indian style cabbage puttu-stirfry is spicy and gingery, and it’s perfect with some roti or chapathi.

There are people who like to say how exactly they feel about certain foods. They don’t like the taste, it’s too sour or too sweet, or “Why would I ever eat that? It seems too healthy.”

I live with these types of people.. I was one, oh well, I’m still one.

They are firm non-believers of the cabbage family….