South Indian Recipes – Food Habits, Main Ingredients, Famous Cuisines

Most of South India is coastal with hot and sultry weather. This area gets plenty of rainfall and consequently there is no scarcity of fruits and vegetables.Food in Andhra Pradesh is considered to be the spiciest in South India or for that matter the whole of India. The place, especially the capital City Hyderabad has had as big influence of the Mughals. Surely, the Kabas and Biriyanis from this part of India is particularly tasty and absolutely not to be missed. The papads and curry powders from the southern parts of Andhra and Tamil Nadu are part of the southern culinary tradition. Food in Tamil Nadu, brings to mind idlis, dosas, sambhar and vada. Beside these immensely popular classics, there are more tasty fares. In south India there are huge numbers of vegetarian dishes. The food in this region use generous amount of spices and coconuts. The final tempering with oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilies and urad dal is similar for most of the dishes.

Kerala is well-known for its sea food with plenty of varieties of recipes made using crabs, prawns, lobsters, oysters and dozens of varieties of fishes. The fish curry from this place is known to be one of the best in India.

Style of food: By and large, South Indian cuisines are possibly the spiciest of all Indian food. Meals are centered around rice or rice-based dishes. Rice is combined with Sambaar (a soup-like lentil dish tempered with whole spices and chillies) and rasam (a hot-sour soup like lentil dish), dry and curried vegetables and meat dishes and a host of coconut-based chutneys and poppadums (deep-fried crispy lentil pancakes). South Indians are great lovers of filter coffee.

Staple foods: No South Indian meal is replete without rice in some form or other – either boiled rice or Idlis (steamed cakes prepared from rice batter), Dosas or Uttapams (pancakes made from a batter of rice and lentil flour). Daals (lentils) are too a component of the majority of meals.

Cooking oils frequently used: Coconut oil is most commonly used for frying and cooking. Vegetable oils like sunflower and canola are also used and ghee is poured over rice to impart that special flavor and aroma.

Chief spices and ingredients: Curry leaves, mustard, Asafetida, pepper and peppercorns, tamarind, chillies and fenugreek seeds. Popular dishes: Idlis, Dosas, Vadas, Sambaar, Uttapams, Rasam, Payasam.

For more details on Indian dishes and other global cuisines please go to the food community at Indian Recipes. Those interested in South Indian food can take a look at South Indian Food

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