CHENNAI: With an exciting line-up of authentic vegetarian dishes, Tamil Brahmin cooking is all about traditional culinary practices. They are comparatively less spicy and taste unique. The nutritional value of the ingredients is given prime importance.
The cuisine traces its roots back to the Vedic period and features traditional cooking methods like roasting, steaming, sun-drying (papad), pickling (mango, lemon), and roasting and grinding (idli podi, paruppu podi). The principles of Ayurveda are generally followed and the cuisine caters to the six essential flavours — sweet, salty, bitter, sour, astringent, and pungent. Focus is given equally to nutrition, flavour, texture and variety.
Generally, Tamil Brahmin cuisine has two different styles of cooking — the Iyer (Saivite) style and the Iyengar (Vaishnavite) style. Both have explored the infinite possibilities of vegetarian dishes with the Iyer cuisine alone boasting 27 types of sambar and more than 40 types of rasam. Some of these may overlap in both styles.
Even within these two sects, the recipes change depending on their place of birth. Hence, the food of Tirunelveli Brahmins would be different from that of Srirangam Brahmins. In general, onion and garlic are not included due to their pungent flavour, though the current generation has started including them. The Iyengar cuisine practices the Satvik tradition more strictly whereas in many Iyer weddings vengaya sambar with shallots is a delicacy.
This cuisine emphasises the use of sacred grains — rice, lentils, vegetables, curry leaves, coconut, cumin, and mustard seeds and this blend symbolises health, auspiciousness, spirituality, and tradition. Tam-Brahm cuisine is based on the concept you are what you eat. Hence, it is believed that the food we eat shapes our personality and mood and that a healthy vegetarian diet fosters serene qualities.
Every ingredient used has a purpose beyond taste is what they believe. For example, curry leaves and coriander leaves cleanse our intestines, fenugreek leaves aid in digestion, and are included in their diet along with legumes for protein; pepper is used as a remedy for cough and cold, and turmeric as a wound healer.
Brahmins are generally orthodox and give great importance to cleanliness before they start cooking. They usually have a bath and perform a puja before entering the kitchen as they believe God tastes the meal first. This belief makes them give great attention to the right mix of flavour, nutrition, and texture. They use amudhu (nectar) as a suffix to their dishes. Rasam is called sathamudhu, poriyal which is a stir-fried vegetable is called karamudhu, and payasam is thirukanamudhu.
The highlight of this cuisine is its strong, freshly brewed degree filter coffee. Most households buy and roast their coffee seeds and have their coffee grinder to grind it fresh every time. A hot fresh filter coffee served in a brass davara with that froth and a hint of bitterness has fans around the world and can brighten any dull soul.
Another important tradition of Tam-Brahms is combining breakfast and lunch to have a full-course meal from around 10 am to 11 am. They then follow it up with a tiffin and coffee at around 3 pm, and just a fruit or curd rice before bed. Modern-day pressures and diet have made many switch to a breakfast-lunch-and-dinner routine.
A typical ilai sapadu for lunch would include rice, ghee, dal, sambar, poriyal, kootu, rasam, pachidi, curd rice, and a payasam. Curd rice aka daddojanam with pickle is the highlight of every meal. Rice is cooked till mushy and mashed with milk and butter before adding curd to make it creamy and then tempered. The list of rice varieties in this cuisine is aplenty like puliyodarai, kadamba sadam, sambar sadam, vathakulambu sadam etc.
Even today, every city boasts of messes and canteens (particularly during the music season) that serve traditional fare starting from idli, vadai, bajji, bonda, meals, vazhaipoo vadai to sweets like Kasi halwa. Akkaravadisal is a hallmark dish of the Iyengars and is made during special days. Rice and moong dal cooked in milk till creamy, sweetened with jaggery, and flavoured with ghee, cardamom, and camphor...it is just irresistible.
Akkaravadisal
Ingredients
Raw rice: 1 cup
Moong dal: 1/4 cup
Ghee: 1/4 cup
Jaggery: 1 to 1.5 cup
Cashew nuts, raisins
Edible camphor: a pinch
Milk: 4.5 cups
Method
Wash the rice and dal together.
In a heavy brass pan, heat a tablespoon of ghee and add the rice. Roast till you get a good aroma.
Add the milk and cook on medium flame for around 15 to 20 minutes till mushy.
Make a syrup by adding 1/2 cup water and jaggery. Filter it and add it to the rice mixture.
Heat the remaining ghee, fry the dry fruit, add the rice, and cook for a few minutes till glossy. Serve hot.