Therakkal -- Chettinad Eggplant Curry

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Unused BM# 39 posts
Dish: Chettinad Eggplant Curry

My theme for the 3rd week of blogging marathon# 40 is 'Unused posts from BM# 39'. I think I speak for the whole group when I say that we were so enthusiastic in trying new dishes from the Indian States that we cooked more than we can post for last month. So Valli gave us a chance to post them this month.
As I was looking for Chettinad recipes to make for Tamil Nadu I found this Chettinad Eggplant Curry from Gayathri's space. As you all know, I see eggplant I make eggplant and that's what I made. I made the curry right away, but I wasn't too happy with the clicks, so I made Chettinad Vegetable Biryani later. These are the original clicks since I didn't get a chance to redo the dish, will definitely try to update the pics some time soon.

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Orissa -- Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 21
State: Orissa
Dish: Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali (Sweet Khichdi with Sweet Dal)

Today we are going to Odisha, formerly known as Orissa, located in the east coast of India. Orissa shares a border with Andhra Pradesh, but I never had a chance to visit it. My dad went there for work years ago and brought back a souvenir from Konark Sun Temple. I've seen his pictures at Puri Jagannath temple and Bhubaneshwar. That's the most I knew about Orissa.
Cuisine: Odisha has culinary tradition spanning centuries. I was really surprised to read that rasgulla actually originated from Odisha, I always thought it was from Bengal. Also Kheer or rice pudding, that is relished all over India, also originated in Puri 2000 years ago.
Oriya cuisine is rich and varied and relies heavily on local ingredients. The flavors are usually subtle and lightly spiced, unlike the fiery curries typically associated with Indian cuisine. Only 6% of the population of Odisha is vegetarian. Oriyas are very fond of sweets and no Oriya meal is complete without the dessert course at the end.
Specialties: Dali, Dalma, Khechedi, Mittha Dali, Pakhala, Chena Poda, Dahi Bara, Kalakand etc.

Today's Dish(es): After reading about the Oriya cuisine, I initially planned on making a dessert. But after making quite a few desserts for the marathon, I decided against it. I wanted to make something simple, yet traditional and authentic to Orissa. So after a lot of searching, I found this Oriya blog, Turmeric Kitchen, by Jagruthi. She has a ton of traditional dishes and I picked two that were simple and easy to make.

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