Dakshin Bhog: Flavours of South Indian Cooking

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Traditional South Indian cooking seems to be losing its popularity in today's hectic life. Celebrated chef Santhi Balaraman, however, believes that traditional recipes, time-tested by our elders, are tasty, healthy and nutiritious, and now, with modern kitchen gadgets, quick and easy to prepare.

In this book, Santhi Balaraman revives 200 traditional recipes from the four southern states of india, for all meals and occasions.

Beautifully presented and simply explained, these mouth-watering recipes will appeal as much to the beginer as to the seasoned cook.

Santhi Balaraman is well known in south india for her cookery shows. She has hosted a popular cookery show on Sun TV and runs a company called Chaturmukhi Production. She has written several cookbooks in Tamil and her cookery columns have been published in both English and Tamil magazines. She also holds live cookery contests and replies to Viewer queries on FM AIR.

She belives that cooking is both science and an art.

Health and happiness is wealth, most people would agree. Good food plays a very important part in this: A well-fed family is likely to be a happy and healthy family also.

Our traditional recipes have been time tested by generations and prov- en to be healthy, nutritious and very tasty. The invasion of fast food 1s slowly pushing our traditional cooking into the background. However, fast food caters only to one’s taste, not to one’s health. The preconcep- tion in young families today is that traditional cooking is tedious and time-consuming. While this might have been true until a few years ago, today modern facilities and gadgets have greatly simplified tradi- tional recipes. In this book, an attempt has been made to revive tradi- tional recipes, even if in a small way.

Indian cooking has a very rich history, as diverse and varied as its culture. Each region has its own unique cuisine with its special blends of spices and methods depending on location, climate and lifestyle. This book, of course, is not exhaustive; it includes about 250 traditional recipes, mostly from Tamil Nadu and a few from other southern states. Care has been taken to select only simple recipes, modifying the method if need be, and to cover all categories of cuisine: breakfast, lunch, tiffin, snacks and sweets. Ingredients have been selected keeping in mind their nutritional value and easy availability. Good food does not necessarily mean expensive and rich food. It means economical food. A cook should be able to produce interesting and nutritious meals with minimum expense and time. All the recipes are tested and measurements checked in my kitchen, which is also my lab.

Before you step into the kitchen, a few points should be noted. Tradi- tional preparations usually use local vegetables like brinjal, raw ba- nana, ladies finger, broad beans and a variety of greens. Any other vegetables can be added or substituted in the given recipes if desired. Measurements given in this book are to serve about four persons gen- erally, unless mentioned otherwise. Also, the names of all recipes are given in Tamil unless mentioned otherwise. I have added a glossary of terms used in English, Hindi, Tamil at the end.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages