Sunday, November 9, 2008

A South Indian Dinner

Trying to avoid feeling sorry for myself and my injured thigh, I threw myself into preparing a not-very traditional but typical South Indian feast yesterday; we had invited a few friends for dinner.

We took our usual places, DH at the chopping board, me behind the kitchen range. The entire meal took about 4 hours to prepare.

We started with ulundu vadai - an appetizer of black gram dal, deep fried in peanut oil (a little deep fried action never killed anyone).

In process...
The end product...golden brown ulundu vadai, with chutney and sambhar dipping sauces.

We used the dipping sauces for the appetizer as well as for the main course (pics of dipping sauces to follow).

For the main course, there was masala dosai with 3 types of chutneys (tomato, peanut and coriander chutney) and sambhar.

Dosai...a crispy pancake made of rice and black gram

Masala (potato and peas filling for the dosai)

Sambhar (dipping sauce)...

Tomato chutney (another dipping sauce)...

Peanut chutney (and another dipping sauce)...

Coriander chutney yet another dipping sauce).

The sambhar and tomato chutney were prepared by a friend....thanks, Priya.

Now, if we could have found a blue dipping sauce, it would have completed the colors of the Indian flag.
The main course continues...

Thayir sadham (seasoned curd rice)

Side dish 1: Gobi masala (cauliflower curry with peas and carrot)

Side Dish 2: Drumstick and egg plant curry

DH, in his anxiety that we would run out of food, bought some lamb and chicken curry to complement the meal.

Finally, dessert...paruppu payasam (a stew made of bengal gram (moong dal), jaggery and coconut milk, garnished with raisins and cashew nuts).


I felt like Barefoot Contessa (sans the elegance), serving up a near-perfect 3-course meal, with all the trappings.

Now do you see why I REALLY need to get back to running?

6 comments:

teacherwoman said...

Wow! I should have come to your place for dinner!

lauren said...

oh my goodness! Everything looks delicious!

Anonymous said...

I love the Barefoot Contessa! I wish I lived in her neighborhood. All the food you cooked looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....all this food is making me salivate. I would love to taste all those dips! I know what I will order for lunch tomorrow - Indian! Maybe chicken masala or veggie curry....

Heather said...

Have I mentioned before how completely jealous I am of your ability to make such fantastic meals???? Mac n' cheese is my specialty.

BeachRunner said...

Wow that looks and sounds delicious. I wish I was there to sample your amazing dishes.