Rice is an Indian staple and this nicely spiced South Indian recipe for tomato rice is endowed with incredible flavour and aroma. The secret? A bouquet of Keralan spices. Ranjini Menon made this tasty dish for us as part of our welcome dinner to The Turmerica. Writing the recipe now takes us right back to …
Caramelized bananas may use a French cooking technique, but the bananas themselves are a pure South Indian treat. There are about 20 varieties of bananas indigenous to Kerala. As far as we could tell, in our very serious banana connoisseur fact-finding mission, each is tastier than the one before. Our host at The Turmerica, Ranjini …
Puri – Deep-Fried Bread is a thin, round, and flat unleavened bread. It might seem daunting to deep-fry something but we promise, it’s easy and the only ingredients you need are whole wheat flour, water, salt, and oil. It’s fun to make and to eat – immediately from the pan. And, it’s highly entertaining, too, because …
Cherupayar is a green gram curry that uses whole moong beans. Moong beans are high in fiber, protein and antioxidants. They are also very tasty. After soaking the moong dal overnight, the recipe comes together quickly. Ranjini whipped this up for us early one morning as part of our South Indian breakfast at The Turmerica.
This Pumpkin Leaf Dry Curry recipe comes from Akila. Akila is a Paniyas tribal woman from Wayanad. She studied hospitality at school and now works with the Menon family at The Turmerica. Akila made this dish for Ranjini and Ranjini liked the Pumpkin Leaf Dry Curry so much she wanted to share it with us. …
This recipe for Royal Malabar Kalan is a vegetable stew made with key Keralan ingredients. There’s locally grown pepper, of course, and elephant’s foot yam, then raw bananas and chilies plus a little coconut to bring it all together. Our friend Ranjini Menon of The Turmerica in Wayanad loves to research the history of Keralan …
Read more about Royal Malabar Kalan – A Vegetable Stew with Yams and Coconut
Ethaka Appam or Banana Fritters are a favourite tea time treat. We’ve eaten them while floating through the Backwaters of Kerala, and they go beautifully with chai at our favourite roadside stops. They’re a great distraction from the perils and excitement of our road trips. No matter where we eat them, banana fritters are a …
There are as many chai masala recipes as there are chai wallahs in India and, that’s a lot. Our recipe reflects our favourite South Indian spices. There’s the cleansing note of cardamom followed by the sparks of heat from ginger, cloves, and pepper. Underneath these high notes are the warming tones of cinnamon, nutmeg, and …
A street food vendor we met outside Ooty’s Government Botanical Gardens inspired this recipe for Grilled Chilli Lime Corn. She roasted her corn over a charcoal spit. Then she rubbed it with lime, sprinkled it with chilli powder, and handed it over wrapped in the daily news. Our recipe is a little more decadent because …
We sipped Creamy Cardamom Tea on a tea factory tour in Ooty and got inspired to create this recipe for you. That tour also influenced the purchases we made in the tea museum’s gift shop. All purchases led to our ability to recreate that Creamy Cardamom Tea again at home. We made our way straight …