Classic Tamil Brahmin Cuisine (Winner Gourmand World Cookbook Award)
May 14, 2011 by admin
Filed under Indian food cookbooks
Classic Tamil Brahmin Cuisine (Winner Gourmand World Cookbook Award)
This book won a ‘Special Jury Award’ at Paris in July 2009. A one of a kind book ‘Classic Tamil Brahmin Cuisine’ is a rare documentary of life in a traditional Hindu home in Tamil Nadu. It has fabulous photographs running throughout the book. Highly appreciated ‘Classic Tamil’ was well written in a Croatian magazine and by the German press in Luxembourg. ANNAM or food is a form of the Almighty (‘annam parabrahma swaroopam’) according to the Hindu scriptures. All beings are born and live by foo
List Price: $ 23.95
Price: $ 23.95
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A Rare Manuscript on the Tamil Brahmin Cooking,
Review of Viji Varadarajan’s and Padmini Natarajan’s Classic Tamil Brahmin Cuisine
Jennifer Kumar
None of that westernized Indian food here! Viji Varadarajan and Padmini Natarajan recently released an updated version of their cookbook Classic Tamil Brahmin Cuisine: Pure Vegetarian South Indian Samayal.
With over 70 mouthwatering vegetarian dishes, having this book is a good place to start learning more about how Indian food gets its flavor. Of course, this `Tamil Brahmin’ cuisine is a specialized, regional cuisine from South India, and may be new to many Indian food lovers who are used to the rich butter, nut, tomato and other gravy-based dishes of North India. This cuisine offers a different approach to Indian food, with unique combinations of spices such as cumin, coriander, mustard seed, chili pepper, red and green chili, black pepper, curry leaves, fenugreek (methi), turmeric, ginger, and a host of lentils. Yes, it is true that lentils, known as dhals in Indian cookery and cuisine, become a spice! Lentils can be dry roasted and ground in with spices to make all-spice powders like sambar powder or pitlai powder, or roasted in hot oil to temper sambars (stews), rasams (soups) and chutneys (relishes, dips).
Viji and her co-author, Padmini, has divided the recipes into sections based on unique vegetables used in the culinary selections of daily housewives. The vegetables highlighted throughout are native to the areas of Tamil Brahmins. Having myself have lived in some Tamil Brahmin homes during my two year stay in India, the selections she has presented take me back to my friends homes and comfort foods made by their mothers, in-laws and grandmothers. It was the food I lived on in India for two years, and the food that inspired me when I returned to America to learn Indian cooking on my own and from Indians in America.
In some sections, the vegetables such as banana flower, banana stem or [fresh] jackfruit or drumstick can be a challenge to find in America, while most others can be found in typical American grocery stores (beans, eggplant, okra, spinach) or a trip to your closest Indian or Asian grocery store (bitter gourd and other gourds, and other types of beans). It is indeed amazing that over 70 dishes can be made from the small variety of vegetables and roughly 30 spice combinations. This may also seem overwhelming to a newcomer of this cuisine and culinary method, but upon closer inspection it is noted that about 7 broad categories – kari (11), kozhumbu (7), kootu (10), pachadi (5), sambar (6), and usili (4) of recipes comprise about 40 individual selections in the book! When looking at the book from this angle, South Indian Tamil Brahmin cookery can become even easier. Many recipes that fall under the same category have roughly the same method, minus the main vegetable highlighted. Once the method of “kari” or “kootu” is studied, for instance, a simple substitution of a vegetable may change the dish, but the method to get to it changes only slightly. In some such cases, with a touch of creativity and adventure, a substitution of other vegetables can be used – such as a squash for kootu, or potatoes for kari, or onions for sambar or kozhumbu (onions are traditionally not used in Tamil Brahmin food).
Many may still feel intimidated by Indian cookery because recipes may feel long or have many steps. When I learn a new recipe I try to have all the ingredients prepared before I start cooking and do each step slowly and complete each step before I go to the next. When I get more experienced at a recipe or method, I then can layer my approach to preparation and cooking- just like Indian food! The layering of flavors, blending of tastes, textures and aromas make Indian food- and particularly Tamil Brahmin food a unique draw. Once you try this cuisine, you will want more. You will crave it for the layers of taste, flavors, aromas and textures- and of course all the better that it’s totally made from scratch – no artificial flavors, colors, preservatives or ingredients you `can’t pronounce’ (or understand), because you have handled them all!
Like the layering approach to getting the tasty Tamil Brahmin dish, the cookbook also has its intriguing layers that draw me back into its pages again and again. This book comes in handy not only in the kitchen- but in the grocery store. I don’t know about you, but I often get intimidated when I am to go purchase fresh vegetables, regardless of if they are ones I have purchased before (such as bitter gourd or okra), or ones I have yet to buy (such as ash gourd or broad beans). Sometimes my fear for getting the freshest one stops me from buying at all because I fear I will pick up the rotten one. This book helps me to overcome this fear. It has detailed some strategies for choosing the freshest harvested vegetables and storing them. For instance, I never realized an easy way…
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Iron Chef material!,
I’ve never come across a South Indian recipe that would be so daring to actually compile a whole book with sections based on different vegetables! Very ‘Iron chef’ like concept indeed.
Ms. Varadarajan begins the book with a sneak peek to the typical, traditional Tam Bram (Tamil Brahmin) household (or Agraharam as it is referred to) of the recent past, something quite familiar & ‘taken for granted’ by most Tam brams reading this. For those of you who may not be so familiar with this, the orthodox Tamil Brahmin lifestyle is in many ways quite similar to the customs of the Orthodox Jews. Deeply religious, strict ‘kosher’ rules regarding food & the preparation thereof, segregation of women during ‘that’ time of the month to name a few. One major difference is that the Brahmins were (& still are, for the most part) strict lacto vegetarian, who do not touch eggs, fish or meat.
She devotes a couple of pages to little food related anecdotes & idioms that are so common in every household & yet elicit a chuckle when you read them in a book. Great touch in making the user comfortable with the book. How many of us have been drummed with the admonition ‘EAT YOUR OKRA, else You’ll never be good at Math’!!
What follows is a treasure trove of about 60+ recipes unique to South Indian Tam Bram households. As many of the vegetables referred to in this book may not be too familiar to the non-Indian reader, Ms. Varadarajan provides a short primer about their characteristics & thoughtfully includes buying and preparation tips. The hallmark of these recipes is that they are inherently healthy and bring out the flavour profile of the key ingredient of the dish, the veggies are prepared in a way so as to retain maximum nutrients, while keeping the oil in check. For those watching their sugar, she’s even experimented with using Splenda as a substitute!
There are sections dedicated to foods prepared for festive days as well as convalescence. These ‘healing’ dishes are usually prepared specially for the individual at home & may or may not be shared with the other members of the family, leave alone guests. But like any forbidden fruit, they are so divine!
If there is one thing that I would change in this book (I believe it would be something from the publishers end), It would be the tiny size of the photographs of all the ingredients listed in the glossary. They do not do justice to the information they represent.
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Just what your indian spritual guide would offer!,
It’s a great book with good recipes that are so light on the body. Very flavor oriented. But unlike books of today, it is without pictures.
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