Namma Mane Oota – Tasty Treats from Karnataka

Namma Manege Swagatha – Welcome Home dear friends. Today I am going to take you through the cuisines of Karnataka and serving you some of the local delicacies from this state.

Namma Mane Oota  [The meal at home]is going be the menu for the whole day from the state I belong to. Though my fore fathers migrated to Tamil nadu several years ago, this state still is my mother land.I have never lived in this state but have visited quite a few places there.Yet, I feel a strong connection to this state.

Since Srivalli put up a clause that the post for the state from where we belong has to be extra special, I decided to invite you all home and serve you delicious food for all the three meals.

So you can be assured that this is a very long post.But please fell free to just drool over the meal.No offence taken.But if you do stay back and virtually taste the dishes I made for you today, you will be making me very , very happy..And the ‘Behind the scene‘ thing that most of you said you enjoyed is at the end of this post 🙂

Karnataka was earlier called the State of Mysore and got its present name in the year 1973.Karnataka was the house of the most powerful empires both in ancient and medieval times.Since I have a lot to talk about the cuisine of this state, I will stop with this intro and you can read more about this state  by following that link…

Now let us move on the most interesting part of this post – The cuisine!

There are several cuisines in Karnataka – The North Karnataka cuisine, The South Karnataka cuisine,The udupi cuisine, Manglorean cuisine,Kadagu cuisine. Malenadu cuisine, Navayath cuisine. Each of these cuisine have some similar / common elements and plenty of differences and varieties.

You can read more about the cuisines and the specialities here.Since this is a rather long post, I will save the elaborate details on the cuisines for a later date and will take you straight to the table.

The next item on our menu is a simple juice.Well, if were under the notion that only fruits and veggies could be juice, the people of Udupi will prove you wrong with this recipe. Yes , a juice made of green gram!

Hesaru Kaalina Paanaka / Green Gram Sherbet :

For lunch I will be serving a dish that is a hot favourite and very common dish – Huruli Saaru.[ Huruli is horse gram in kannada].This popular gravy can be eaten with steamed rice drizzled with ghee or with Ragi Mudde which is a common breakfast dish in rural Karnataka.

Let us move on to our lunch menu…..

1. Salt – The first thing to be served on the plate / plantain leaf.
2. Lemon pickle
3. Majjige menusu / Uppachidha menisinkai – Sun dried chilies fried in oil.
4. Kobbari pudi and sesame oil – Lentil and dried coconut spice mix
5. Happala – Pappad
6. Alugedde Palya – Potato Curry
7. Tomato Bhath – Tomato rice
8. Molake huruli Kaalu Saaru – Sprouted horsegram gravy curry to go with rice
9. Bellulli Saaru – Garlic rasam
10. Anna – Steamed rice drizled with a little ghee
11. Majjege – Butter milk

Since there were a lot to indulge on since morning, I chose a simple dinner recipe-Akki Shavige uppitu . It is nothing but seasoned rice noodles, karnataka style….

Now that the culinary tour of Karnataka is over, I am sure you are all eager to get back home. Before you leave, a small parting gift –Elay adikkay. In our custom / culture, when some guest / friends / relatives visit home, a small parting gift sort of thing is given. It is like honoring the person / people who came home and a small way to thanks them for keeping in touch or can be a gesture of good will.

1.  First, the married ladies are offered kumkuma and flowers.
2. Then a plate with betel leaves, betel nuts, fruits,manly banana, coconut, a small piece of dried turmeric root,money is given. The money depends on how much you can give/ want to give. There are no hard and fast rules in this one.
3. Some give dress also when the guests leave. Sarie and Dothi are given to the couple .Along with this things like a packet of Bindi, bangles,[any other cosmetic items can also be given],a container of turmeric powder and kumkuma are given.
4. This click shows all that I would love to give you when you visit us 🙂

Behind the scene :

Karnataka was one of the last states that I listed down to make. Until the day I began cooking for this state, I had no idea what to do!

And coming to the choice of recipes, The ones from Udupi Cuisine  were a breeze to prepare . Sumana, who blogs there was such a dear in answering my questions.She wasted no time in replying my mail.Thanks Sumana 🙂

I cooked all this in a day and the whole day was Karnataka meal at home. There were no negative remarks, as this was a South Indian meal and my folks were truly happy to be served a feast. But I guess, I was too tired from cooking and clicking all these to really enjoy the meal cooked.

A special mention for the breakfast items~ While I was clicking the breakfast recipes, hubby as usual was hovering around the food.The moment I took a snap of the dosay, he gobbled it up with the curd. Then he suggested that it would be nice to eat this with coriander chutney! And for the Sherbet, it was gulped down in a second! I just got a spoonful to taste!!He gave a big thumbs up for these two dishes!

And the Mangalore Bonda too deserves a mention.The kids were happy to munch on these and they disappeared very fast!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 39