A-Z Dishes from around 4 corners of India (Journey through the Cuisines Recap)

We just completed our month long mega marathon, 'Journey through the Cuisines'. I picked 4 states from 4 corners of India and it was fun looking for recipes that fit into the alphabetical order and then cooking & enjoying the regional favorites. I have already added many of the dishes into my weekly rotation. Also I have so many of my fellow marathoners recipes bookmarked that I really really want to try ASAP.

This marathon would not have been possible without the amazing food bloggers that blog traditional regional recipes. They have truly inspired me to explore my own regional food and blog about it -- this will be a great learning experience for me. So BIG thanks to all the Indian food bloggers for posting the authentic and traditional dishes from around India.

Here's the Recap of Journey through the Cuisines.

Week 1: West Bengal Cuisine

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63.

An InLinkz Link-up

Zucchini Thoran (Kerala Style Zucchini stir fry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 25: Z for Zucchini Thoran

It is the last and final day of this month's mega marathon and time sure flew right by. For letter Z, I knew I had to make something with Zucchini, but it took me a while to finalize on what to make.

After discussing with Rajani about the possible zucchini dishes to make, I finally made this zucchini thoran from Kitchen Mishmash. Thoran is a very simple and basic Kerala dry curry that can be made with just about any fresh vegetable. I make cabbage thoran quite often, so I tried making zucchini thoran this time.

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Yam Fry (Kerala Chena Mezhukkupuratty)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 25: Y for Yam fry
Today's letter was probably the easiest to decide. Y for Yam curry, that's it -- I didn't even bother to look for more options. I love yam and always have a few frozen packets in the freezer.

There are quite a few different versions of yam fry online. Some were deep fried while some recipes needed marination, some had onion while some didn't. I settled on Maria's recipe with onion and garlic.

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Xmas Fruit Cake (Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 24: X for Xmas Fruit Cake

So here we are at probably the most difficult letter of all, X. There are very few dishes or veggies that start with the letter X, so this must have been a tough letter for everyone except for those cooking from Spanish or Chinese cuisines. I was initially planning to go with an adjective or a verb but finally ended up making this Kerala Style X mas Cake.

I was thinking of doing a post like xplore Malabar cuisine, xperience Kerala sadya or something on those lines. I even asked Rajani for her input and she said try a sadya meal by making dishes over couple of days. I was tempted but the amount of work involved seemed too tedious and with the husband traveling, it was way too much food for just me. It is one of my dream meal to make in my lifetime.

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Wheat Payasam (Kerala Style)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 23: W for Wheat Payasam

I went straight to Rajani's blog for today's letter. She did an A-Z Kerala Sadya recipes for one of the previous mega marathons and I knew she will have the perfect dish with the letter W. Rajani didn't disappoint me, this Wheat payasam, Kerala style with coconut milk was so decadent and delicious.

This payasam is made with cracked wheat or broken wheat, sweetened with jaggery and simmered in coconut milk. I used fine bulgur wheat and it worked just perfect for this recipe.

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Vellarikka Curry (Kerala style Cucumber Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 22: V for Vellarikka Curry

There were quite a few options for the letter V in Malayalam. Raw banana (vazhakai), eggplant (vazhuthananga), okra (vendakai) and garlic (velluthulli). I finally ended up picking Vellarikka or cucumber.

This Kerala cucumber curry is a simple side dish made with ground coconut and yogurt sauce. With all these coconut based Kerala dishes I probably ate more coconut in a week than I normally would in a month. I'm not complaining though, it's just that we don't use this much coconut in our everyday cooking. On another note, adding coconut to diet has many health benefits like improving heart health, improves digestion, quick energy boost and so on.

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Ulli Theeyal (Kerala Onion Masala Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 21: U for Ulli Theeyal

We are starting the final week of 'Journey through the Cuisines' mega marathon and I'm visiting beautiful Kerala -- God's own country this week. My plan for the marathon was to pick a state from each corner of the country -- so I started from the west with Bengali cuisine, then moved north to Rajasthan and then east to Gujarat. Finally this week I'm in deep south in Kerala.

Initially I wanted to do Tamil cuisine and even made 2 dishes, but somehow I wasn't happy with my choice of dishes, so I changed it to Kerala at the very last minute.

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Palak Methi Nu Muthiya (Gujarati Steamed Spinach Dumplings)

Here's a recipe for steamed Palak-Methi muthiyas. These are great as an evening snack or stirred into curries. Muthiyas are first steamed and then shallow-fried until crispy on the outside.

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Tameta Muthiya nu Shaak (Gujarati Tomato Curry with Steamed Dumplings)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 20: T for Tameta Muthiya nu Shaak

Recipe from Tarla Dalal.com:
Can't believe we are at the end of the 3rd week in our 'Journey through the cuisines' mega marathon. Here's the last of the Gujarati dishes in the series and it's yet another easy to make, simple everyday tomato curry with muthiyas.

I made Palak-Methi muthiyas -- steamed this time to add to the tomato shaak. Even the fried muthiyas would work just as good in this recipe. I made a similar Gujarati tomato curry with sev for one of the previous BMs.

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Sambhariyu Shaak (Gujarati Stuffed Mixed Vegetable Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 19: S for Sambhariya Shaak

Today's Gujarati dish is yet another traditional vegetable dish. Here the veggies are stuffed with a spicy coconut filling and then pressure cooked until cooked to perfection. Another amazing recipe from Tarla Dalal.com.

All of my recipes for this week are from Tarla Dala's site. It has been a great resource and I love watching her videos as well. She makes even a hard recipe sound very easy to make.

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Rotlis (Gujarati Rotis)

Rotlis are nothing but Gujarati paper thin phulkas. Being from the south, I knew only about phulka (puffed up roti), chapathi (pan fried roti) while growing up. But after coming to the US, I came to know about rotli, bhakri, thepla and so on, thanks to my North Indian friends.

The first time I had rotlis were at one of my Gujarati friend's cousins house while in Graduate school. The lovely couple invited us over for dinner and bhabhi (my friend's SIL) made a huge spread of delicious Gujarati dishes. But all I can remember from that day were her super soft freshly made rotlis. She even used to send a pack of rotlis with our friend for all of us. So whenever I think of rotlis, I think of bhabhi and her amazing hospitality.

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Rasawala Chana (Gujarati Saucy Chickpea Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 18: R for Rasawala Chana with Rotlis

Today's Gujarati dish is a simple, protein packed curry made with black chana or chickpeas. Rasawala means saucy and in this dish black chickpeas are cooked in a tangy and sweet sauce.

The only time taking part of this dish is the soaking and boiling the chana. The actual cooking time takes about 15 minutes. Served with rotis or even rice, this is a delicious and comforting dish. I made rotlis to serve with this chana.

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Quick Pan Handvo (Gujarati Instant Handvo)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 17: Q for Quick Pan Handvo

Q was one of the tough letters to find a dish in Gujarati cuisine (I guess it's difficult in many cuisines). I was almost tempted to make 'Qesar Shrikhand' but it seemed a little odd, so I finally ended up making Quick Pan Handvo instead.

Handvo is a popular Gujarati snack. It is a baked spicy lentil cake made with a fermented batter of rice, lentils and spices. It is crispy on the outside and soft inside. It has been on my to-make list for quite a long time. I was hoping to try the traditional version for this mega marathon, but Oondhiyu dictated the letter selection, so Handvo has to wait for now.

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Piyush (Gujarati Yogurt Drink)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 
Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 
Day 16: P for Piyush
Today I have a creamy and delicious dessert perfect for the summer. It is Gujarati version of lassi and is made with Shrikhand. Initially I had a savory dish planned for P, but then I saw this Piyush recipe on Tarla Dalal.com and since I already had Kesar Shrikhand in the fridge, I made it right away. Also with the sweltering summer heat in India, this is a perfect cooling drink.

Piyush is nothing but jazzed up version of shrikhand. It is mixed with more yogurt (or buttermilk) and thinned out with milk, then flavored with spices. This was one of the easiest and one of the yummiest yogurt based desserts I've ever made. Since I was the only having this at home, I thoroughly enjoyed making and drinking this creamy and rich Piyush.

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Oondhiyu (Undhiyu) (Gujarati Mixed Vegetable dish)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 15: O for Oondhiyu
We are starting third week of our mega marathon 'Journey through the cuisines' and my choice for this week is 'Gujarati cuisine'. The main reason for picking Gujarat is to cook today's dish. I wanted to try this delicious mixed vegetable dish called Undhiyu or Oondhiyu for the mega marathon and initially I was thinking of doing Gujarati cuisine for the last week (so U would have been Undhiyu), but I couldn't find dishes for most of the other letters, so it became Oondhiyu instead.

This was actually the very first dish I cooked for the marathon. Few months ago, I ate Undhiyu for the very first time at one of our Gujju friends and it was absolutely amazing. Since then I had it in my mind and when I sat down to make my list for the marathon, this was the first one on there.

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Nimki or Namkeen (Rajasthani Namak Para)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 14: N for Nimki
We are already at the end of Week 2 in our Journey through the cuisines and the last Rajasthani dish I made are these crispy, crunchy and very addictive Nimki aka Namkeen or Namak Para. Letter N was one of the tough letters to find a dish for. After a lot of googling and not finding any Rajasthani dishes, I ended up picking this dish that is quite commonly made across all the states.

My mom used to make them quite frequently while we were little and we used to call them 'chips' or 'namkeen'. After I started blogging, I learnt their other name, Namak Para and now with this BM, I learnt yet another name, Nimki.

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Makai Ki Subzi (Rajasthani Corn Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 13: M for Makai Ki Subzi

Today's dish is a very simple to make Rajasthani Makai aka corn curry. Corn is one of the extensively cultivated crops in Rajasthan. Corn is one of their staple foods and is used in various forms from flour to grits to whole corn.

My first pick for the letter M was Malai Mirch. Gayathri made this for one of the previous BM and I bookmarked to try it. It has very few ingredients and is very quick and easy to make. But my husband is not a big fan of creamy milk based dishes and the calories in the dish scared me to try the dish just for myself.

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Lehsun Chutney (Rajasthani Spicy Garlic Chutney)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 12: L for Lehsun Chutney

We are already in the middle of the week with Rajasthani cuisine. Today's dish is a super spicy and delicious Garlic chutney made in the Rajasthani style. It is a great condiment to serve with rotis or to use as a spread for sandwiches.

When I started researching for Journey through the Cuisines, the first step was to decide the 4 states I wanted to cook from. Then find the dishes in alphabetical order and the final step was to look for recipes from authentic sources. So I tried to cook from recipes that were posted by bloggers from respective states. Hence most of my Bengali dishes were from Bengali bloggers Sandeepa and Soma. I also tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible without many substitutions except for may be adjusting the ingredient quantities.

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Khoba Roti (Rajasthani Moti Roti)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 11: K for Khoba Roti
Today's Rajasthani dish showcases the artistic side of the desert state. Rajasthan is famous for all its handicrafts and colorful fabrics. This Khoba roti looks like a work of art and the good thing about it is that the technique is not too hard to do.

I saw this roti for the very first time on Valli's blog for one of the previous BMs. It looked so appealing and sounded so interesting that it went into my to-make list. It took all this time (actually 2 years) for me make these. Khoba means deep indentation in Rajasthani, hence the name for the roti.

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Jaipuri Vegetable Pulao

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 10: J for Jaipuri Pulao
Today I have a easy to make, colorful and delicious rice dish. Being a south Indian, I am attracted to rice dishes like a magnet and so J is for Jaipuri Pulao it is. This is a great dish to make on a busy weeknight or to serve at a fancy party.

Recipe is from this You Tube video by Ruchi Bharani. Cooked basmati is tossed with colorful veggies and a freshly ground spice paste. So once you have the spice paste ready, the recipe comes together in no time.

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