HYDERABAD: Telangana regional cuisine is a gastronomic delight in its beautiful rustic way of cooking,” says Shravani Abhishek, a food blogger at ‘mycurryveda’, who was born and brought up in Nizamabad. Tamarind, spring onions, chillies, sesame seeds, peanuts have predominant use in this cuisine. She adds, “Red chillies impart a fiery flavour in the main course dishes and there’s this theory that food is deliberately made spicy to prevent people from eating too much as Telangana is not an agriculturally bountiful region.” Harsha Reddy from Telangana Spice Kitchen adds, “The reason for using red chili powder is that in the past we used to have water scarcity and red mirchi powder could be stored.”
Telangana food has influence from Maharashtra and Karnataka. The curries have quite bold flavours such as spicy, sour, nutty, shares Shravani. “We Telanganites love spicy-sour food, most of our dishes curry/stew/chutneys include tamarind,” says she.
Very few Telanganites are pure vegetarians, and meat, mostly mutton and country chicken is a mainstay of the dishes. “Telangana prefers mostly mutton and its spares such as boti, talakaya, paya, etc. On special occasions we make mutton dalcha with bagara annam,” shares Ravi Kumar Thumula, who runs a cloud kitchen, The Southern Chef, specialising in Telangana food in Madhapur. “Ellipaya karam majjiga charu and potlakai perugu pachadi,” are our specialties says Ravi.
Millets
Shravani says her parents never knew of idli and dosa until their mid-20s. She adds, “Ideally, our traditional breakfast includes millet flatbreads with pickle and buttermilk, poha (flattened rice) mixed with garlic-chilli powder and raw onions, and sometimes dry flour upma called uppudu pindi using maize or rice flour.” Jyothi Valaboju, home chef, author of ‘Telangana Ruchulu’, and an expert on Telangana cuisine says, “100 years back there was no rice in this region. Jonna rotte (jowar roti), other rotis made out of sajjalu (bajra), ragi, makkalu (maize) flour, and other millets were a staple of the Telangana cuisine and still are.”
Pachi Pulusu
“Pachi pulusu is a mandatory dish,” asserts Ravi. A thin kind of rasam made with tamarind juice, onions, dried red chilies, cumin seeds, curry leaves and jaggery, this recipe does not require any cooking except for the tempering. Jyothi adds, “It is a staple food for us. It is a cooler. We have it with steamed rice.” Shravani adds, “Tempering using oil, green and red chilies, curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, sesame seeds is made, and poured over the tamarind juice whose sharp tang is balanced with salt and jaggery.”
Difference between Telangana and Andhra cuisine
While there is a lot of culinary influence of neighbouring states on Telangana cuisine, there is also a clear distinction between Andhra and Telangana food.Shravani comments: “What makes Telangana cuisine distinct from Andhra cuisine is the flavours, ingredients, climate, and cooking techniques. Andhra food is spicy, but the Telangana food has a balance of spices and sourness. AP features more fresh coconut, lentils in their cooking, while Telanganites use dry coconut, peanuts, and sesame seeds. The tempering made in Andhra has a mixture of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, split urad dal, chana dal, red chilies, and curry leaves. Whereas here, typically mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, chilies, and
curry leaves are used.”Harsha agrees with Shravani and adds, “In TS we use whole spices, while in AP cuisine, they tend to use more pastes and spice powders.”
Sampath Srinivas Tummala, who owns The Spicy Venue says the ingredients make the difference, adding that, “Andhra food has more green chillies and is mildly spicy as compared to Telangana food. The core ingredient for Andhra is rice, whereas it is millets for Telangana.”Ravi laughs and adds, “In TS mutton is eaten with much relish, while in AP seafood is loved. However, it is chicken which stays neutral.” He adds, “In Andhra, people like melt-in-the-mouth meat, whereas here, we like it a little hard.” Seafood, though limited, has fish varieties such as “Korramenu (murrel), Bocha (catla), Chandhamamalu, naatu jillelu” are popular.
He shares an interesting tid-bit. He says, “In coastal areas, people like the slightly fishy smell in seafood, whereas here, if there is a fishy smell, people will conclude that the fish has got spoilt.” He further adds, “Gravies here are basically thin and rustic, we like the meat to cook in its own juices.” Even in the masalas, Ravi says that in TS only four main spices are used, unlike in Andhra which uses eight or more ingredients.
Shravani adds, “The famous Telugu mango pickles are also made quite distinctly in AP and TS. In the Andhra cuisine slightly dried mangoes in their pickles and raw sesame oil. In TS, in pickles, they use raw mangoes and peanut/sunflower oil which is heated and cooled down.” Similarly adds Shravani, “The instant vegetable chutneys, known as roti pachadi, are made distinctively in both regions; Andhra style has chana and urad dals, whereas the TS chutney has sesame seeds and peanuts.
— Tamanna S Mehdi
tamanna@newindianexpress.com
@tamannamehdi