Skip to content
Faces, Places and Plates
Connecting with Cooks and their Cultures
  • Home
  • Faces
  • Places
  • Plates
  • About
  • Contact Us

Browsing Tag

spices

Red Ginger flower
Places

A South Indian Spice Primer from Mr. Abraham’s Spice Garden in Kumily

Our friend Mr. Abraham has a two acre spice garden surrounding his home and two more gardens nearby. They are completely organic and open for tours. Lunch can be booked. In our previous post, we described our day in the spice garden in his backyard. Now, with Pauli-Ann’s beautiful photos, we want to lead you …

Read more about A South Indian Spice Primer from Mr. Abraham’s Spice Garden in Kumily

Mr. Abraham of Abraham's Spice Garden.
Faces

Mr. Abraham and his Spice Garden

I’m excited to write this piece for you because Mr. Abraham’s Spice Garden is a must every time we visit Kerala. As a cook, it’s the kind of place that I dreamed of experiencing because it is chockablock full of spices. I had always longed to see where and how spices grew. I imagined a …

Read more about Mr. Abraham and his Spice Garden

Anna Zacharria's garam masala.
Plates

Anna’s Secret Garam Masala

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Receive Our Monthly Digest

SOUTH INDIA ROAD TRIP ROUTE MAP

South India map, Kerala, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, South India, India, Faces Places and Plates blog

Join our Journey

Award-winning writer and photographer Karen Anderson and Pauli-Ann Carriere spent over 40 days in South India in 2016 and 2017 travelling and researching this project to bring you closer to the people, food and rich culture of this place.

Instagram

  • The cook at Solitude Farm Café in Auroville, who simply goes by Sarah, builds recipes from a combination of taste instincts and trial and error. She knows how she wants something to turn out and tweaks as she goes. Her inspiration is the bounty from the farm. She uses fruits, vegetables, healthful oils, and flours made of pulses, grains and nuts to nourish her clientele. We were impressed with her freshly “unbaked” carrot cake. It was cool and refreshing with a golden orange body and silky white frosting accentuated with lime zest and decorated with edible purple flowers Sarah kindly shared her list of ingredients. Between that list and some basic instructions on the Auroville website, we are happy with the version we’ve created. We hope you enjoy this truly nourishing raw and vegan carrot cake. It’s not often you can say that about dessert. Recipe on the blog now. Link in our profile. #carrotcake #carrotcakerecipe #rawvegandessert #rawdessert #vegandessert #dessert #vegetarianrecipes #Auroville #SolitudeFarm #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood
  • Our Moong Dal with Spinach, Fennel and Ginger will satisfy any craving for classic South Indian flavours. This recipe is infused with favourite flavours of South India - fennel, ginger and coconut - and was inspired by a fresh-from-the-fields spinach dal we enjoyed as part of a lunch time thali at Solitude Cafe in Auroville. A thali is a multi-course meal usually served in small round cylinders on a stainless steel, copper or brass tray. Meals in South India are eaten with hands. The four fingers act as a loader and the thumb gently pushes the food forward into the mouth. The five fingers represent the five elements and remind the eater of our connection to the elements of life as they eat their food. Being mindful of the life in food as we consume it helps raise one's consciousness. And that's a very Aurovillian thing to do. Recipe up on the blog. Link in our profile. #moongdal #dalrecipes #thali #sidedish #vegetarianrecipes #Auroville #SolitudeFarm #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood #Indianfood #Indiancuisine
  • Our Cassava and Spinach Subzi recipe is inspired by the subzi we enjoyed so much in our thali lunch at Solitude Farm Cafe in Auroville. Subzi is a Tamil word referring to a dry curry. Spicing is still present but these recipes omit the fluids that make the usual curry or spicy gravy Indian dishes are so famous for. Subzis leave a dry combination of vegetables and spices instead. This recipe combines cassava's starchiness with fresh spinach for a hearty and nutritious side dish. You cannot eat cassava raw. You must boil it to remove the cyanide that accumulates in the plant while growing. The texture and taste results of this subzi are well worth the extra bit of effort in the preparation. Recipe up on the blog now. Link in our profile. #cassava #spinach #sidedish #subzi #vegetarian #Auroville #SolitudeFarm #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood #Indianfood #Indiancuisine
  • Happy New Year 2020! 🥂🎉 To all our friends, followers and partners around our 🌎🌏🌍, we wish you ongoing joy as you venture out to explore new culinary and cultural experiences. Food and friendship will keep us together ❤️. #happynewyear2020 #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood #Indianfood #Indiancuisine
  • We enjoyed a ragi dosa with spinach and cheese at Solitude Farm's cafe in Auroville, and marvelled over the nourishment that this six acre parcel of mother earth can deliver. Especially when the loving hand of a great cook like the cafe's Sarah is involved. We loved our lunch so much we had to come up with a recipe for ragi dosa to share with you. Ragi is flour made of finger millet. It's dense and high in protein plus it has 5-30 times the calcium content found in other cereals. Before going to India, we'd only seen millet used as bird feed. Now, we are hooked and look forward to eating it in these crispy dosas especially. Recipe up on the blog now. Link in our profile. #ragi #ragidosa #dosa #Auroville #SolitudeFarm #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood #Indianfood #Indiancuisine
  • We developed this recipe for Date Laddu with Cardamom and Sesame to replicate the delicately balanced dried fruit laddu we purchased in Auroville and proceeded to snack on for days after. They were fabulous for the long road trips we took in South India. The flavours of cardamom and sesame play off of each other beautifully in this recipe, which is up on the blog now. Link in our profile. #rawfood #vegan #rawveganfood #snacks #laddu #dateladdu #Auroville #SouthIndiaroadtrip #cooksandtheircultures #facesplacesandplatesblog #SouthIndia #Indianfoodtravel #culinarytravel #SouthIndianfood #Indianfood #Indiancuisine

Follow Us.

Tags

Accommodations Allepey Auroville Backwaters Bangalore Breads Breakfast Chennai Chennamkary Chettinad Chicken and Duck Chutneys coconut milk Cooking Schools Desserts Hyderabad Isha Kalarikovilakom Karaikudi Kerala Keralan cuisine Kochi Kozhikode Kumily lamb and goat Madurai Mahabalipuram Malabar Coast Mamallapuram Mysore Periyar Pondicherry recipes Seafood Snacks South India spices Tamil cuisine Tamil Nadu Thanjavur Thekkady Things to do Vegetarian Wayanad Yoga

© 2020 Faces Places and Plates

  • Contact Us