South Indian Recipes

If you go to India, you will probably notice some differences in the food choices some provinces have. Particularly in South India, most cuisine is rice-based. Combined with lentils, you can make dishes like dosas, idlis, vadas and uttapams. Dosas, or sometimes called thosai or dhosa, is the South Indian version of crêpe. It is rich in carbohydrates and protein. A typical Indian breakfast, this dish has batter made from rice and lentils mixed with water and fermented. Meanwhile, an idli is a kind of steamed rice cake which is about two to three inches in diameter. On the other hand, vadas are Indian snacks made from potato or lentil and is shaped like a doughnut. Also, uttapams are dosa-like food created by cooking the ingredients in the batter. It consists of tomatoes, mixed vegetables, coconut, or onion-chili mix.

Aside from rice, South Indian recipes also use much coconut oil and curry leaves. They also use seasonal ingredients and the substance geram masala is avoided. In South India's food history, there is one place famous for the pungent smell of its spices which also tempted the Dutch, English and French to invade them. This is the Malabar Coast in South India. Some of these spices include pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. Tamil Nadu is also the place where the foods dosas, idlis and vadas were popular.

South Indian recipes can tempt you with its oil, mustard seeds, red chillies, and curry leaves. Other tasty recipes include the Andhra cuisine, known for its spiciness, and rice with chutney powder. One known South Indian recipe is the Masala Dosa or Spicy Dosa. The ingredients you will need are one and a half cups of rice, half cup of urad dal, salt, and oil. For the Masala filling, you need two large potatoes, one medium onion, half teaspoon yellow split peas, half teaspoon mustard seed, half teaspoon turmeric, one to two green chili, one tablespoon oil and salt.

To do the recipe, you should first soak the rice and urad dal overnight in water. Grind them. Add salt, water, and mix them all together to form a batter. The next step is to leave them at room temperature the whole night. Then, combine onion and chilies to the batter and drop some batter into a heated pan with oil. Spread the batter to make thin dosas. For the Masala filling, you must add peas, onions, spice and mix them in heated oil. Fry them for around five minutes until they turn golden brown. Put in the potatoes and cook. You can now share this recipe with your friends or family members and have your taste buds turn Indian.