These men and women who cater anywhere between a 1000 to 30,000 meals a day and don’t bat an eyelid when forecasts and actuals don’t match - “800nu sonnanga, 1200 vandaanga - samaalichitom”! (They said 800, but 1200 turned up, we managed!). Many have asked me which one I would choose as my favourite – the honest answer to this is “I don’t know”! I usually look at all three, start with one of the recipes that I think is closest to my memories, modify and double (and sometimes triple) test them until the final product is similar to what I remember from my childhood – and in the process annoy the young apprentice and my taste testers no end!Īs I slave over my recipe testing, I marvel at the skill and patience of the settu samaiyakarars (wedding cooks) of Chettinad. In no particular order, Solai's True Kitchen, The Chettinad Cookbook (by Meyammai Murugappan & Visalakshi Ramaswamy) and The Bangala Table (by Meenakshi Meyappan and Sumeet Nair) are my go-to references. As I have often said, Ayah made things difficult for us by not writing down her recipes and so, over the years, I have come to rely on a few books / blogs to fine tune my recipes. Juicy ribs of mutton, simmered to succulent perfection in a spicy gravy and then deep fried in a crispy egg batter, served with the rice mixed with the leftover flavoursome gravy – ah, heaven indeed and deserving of a short nap thereafter. The Chettinad Mutton Chops that Ayah made, learnt from the Settu Samaiyakarars (wedding cooks), was a delicacy indeed. Ayah’s Sunday lunches were something the darling daughters looked forward to and salivated over. While weekday dinners were for experimenting, Sundays were when the traditional recipes came out – Kepai Koozhu (ragi / finger millet porridge) with maangai paruppu (mango dal), rice with karuvaadu kuzhambu (dried salted fish curry) or uppukandam kuzhambu (a Chettinad special – dried salted mutton curry) or Mutton Chops. Sunday afternoons at the Muthiah household were meant for indulgent meals, followed by snoozes, a time for all of us to wind down.
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