TIRUNELVELI RECIPES
Tirunelveli also called Nellai is a big city in the South of Tamil nadu. It is situated on the banks of the famous river Tamirabarani. It is also known as Halwa city after the sweetmeat it is famous for.
A popular recipe of Tirunelveli is Sodhi which is usually given as a treat for the newly-weds. The cuisine of Tirunelvei is a mixture of vegetarian and non-vegetarian. It has its influence from the Kerala cuisine as well. Instead of sugar people use much of palm-sugar.
AKKARA ADISAL RECIPE 
Ingredients
Rice
1/2 cup
Milk
6 cups
Sugar
1 3/4 cups
Ghee
4 tbsp
Cashews
Badam
Raisins
Elaichi powder
Method
- Cook rice in the cooker directly, with 1 cup water and 2 cups milk.
- Once the cooker can be opened, add more milk and keep cooking, till it becomes creamy and thick.
- Add sugar and cook for a few more minutes.
- Finally add the fried cashews, raisins and badam and all the ghee and sprinkle elaichi.
ADHAI RECIPE
Ingredients
Rice
1 1/2 cup
Urad dal
Toor Dal
Channa Dal
Whole green moong
Red chillies
Green chillies
Hing
Salt
to taste
Method
- Take ½ cup each of the dal and soak for a few hours.
- Grind coarsely with the chillies, add salt and chopped curry leaves.
- Add hing finally and mix well.
- Finally, spread on tawa like dosa and serve with chutney or yoghurt.
VAZHAKKAI KOOTU RECIPE
Ingredients
Raw Bananas
3-4
Coconut
1/4 lid
Channa Dal
1 tbsp
Tamarind
small ball
Sambhar Powder
2 spoons
Curry leaves
Method
- Cook the dal in a bit of water and when half-done, add chopped raw-bananas.
- Add hing, turmeric powder, sambhar powder and the tamarind paste.
- Fry the coconuts in a little oil and when the bananas are cooked add the coconut to it.
- Finally temper with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- This makes a nice side dish for more-kuzhambu, especially if the more kuzhambu is made with ripe mangoes.
TIRUNELVELI SAMBHAR RECIPE
Ingredients
Lentils
1 cup
Onion
1 big
Tomato
1 small
Tamarind
small ball
Asafoetida
1 pinch
Green chillies
2
Sambhar Powder
2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder
little
Salt to taste
Sliced Radish
1/2 cup
For Seasoning
Vegetable oil
3 tbsp
Mustard seeds
1/4 tbsp
Urad dal
1/4 tbsp
Fenu Greek
6-7 seeds
Curry leaves
little
To Grind
Grated Coconuts
6 tbsp
Cumin Seeds
1/2 tbsp
Method
- Pressure cook the Thuvar dhal with Radish until it becomes mashed. Keep it aside. (3 whistles will be enough).
- Cut the onion, tomato, & green chillies. Extract the juice from the tamarind.
- In a pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds, fenu greek seeds, urad dhal. Let them to crackle.
- Add curry leaves.
- Now add the onion, tomato, & green chillies.
- Fry them until it becomes little soft.
- Add the tamarind extract, turmeric powder,asafoetida & sambhar powder.
- Add the salt to taste. Let it to boil for 3 minutes.
- Add mashed thuvar dhal, & radish. Mix it well. Then add the ground paste. Boil it for 5 - 10 minutes.
- Sambhar Ready!
- Garnish with some corriander leaves. Serve hot with plain rice (or) Idli (or) Dosa (or) Vada.
TIRUNELVELI HALWA RECIPE
Ingredients
Whole wheat
250 gms
Sugar
1 kg
Ghee
350 gms
Boiling Water
8 cups
Cashew
1/2 cups
Cardamom powder
1 tbsp
Saffron Powder a pinch
Method
- Wash & soak whole wheat or rawa in plenty of water for 5-6 hrs. Drain & grind with 1 cup of water in a mixi.
- Squeeze to get the milk.
- Repeat this procedure 3-4 times more with a fresh cup of water every time & squeeze the milk thoroughly.
- Allow the liquid to settle, undisturbed for 6-8 hrs. Then pour out the clear liquid as far as possible, retaining only the thick milk. Make a syrup of the sugar with 2 cups of water. Add 2 tbsp milk, boil .
- When one-string syrup is reached, add the thick milk, stirring well.
- Add saffron colour mixed in 1 tsp of water to get the required shade of colour. Keep stirring the mixture on a low fire. Keep water boilng ready .
- When the mixture starts thickening, add 1 cup of boiling water & cook. Add 2 tbsp of ghee.
- The mixture will again start thickening .Repeat the above procedure in the same order till you have used up all the 6 cups of boiling water.
- The halwa gets thoroughly cooked to a very soft texture. Now it will become a mass .
- Add cardamom powder & cashewnuts.
- Stir continuously so that ghee starts gradually oozing out. Now empty on a greased plate.
- Serve hot or cool & cut into pieces.
SODHI RECIPE
Ingredients
Coconut milk
1.5
Ginger grated
2 tbsp
Moong Dhal boiled with one pod of garlic
1/2 cup
Lime/Lemon juice
1 tbsp
Carrots
1
Drum stick
1
Potato
1
Onion
1
Cabbage
1/4 medium size
Ground Mixture
Grated coconut
1 tbsp
Cumin seeds
1/4 tbsp
Green chillies
2-3
Method
- Take the 1/2 can of coconut milk and dilute it in water to make one can and let the vegetables cook in the diluted coconut milk.
- In the meanwhile take the juice of the grated ginger and set it aside.
- Grind the ingredients of the ground mixture.
- When the vegetables are tender add the ground mixture and 1/2 can of coconut milk and let it cook for some time. (remember to cook all this in medium to medium low flame).
- Now add the cooked dhal ( mash the dhal and garlic well) and the remaining 1/2 can of coconut milk.
- Just before you switch off the stove add the ginger juice and cook for a minute and take it off the stove
- When Sodhi cools down add salt and lemon juice and temper with mustard and urad dhal
- Note: Try not to heat the sodhi and have it with piping hot rice.
- Sodhi is normally made for lunch as it is a very heavy dish, but it taste awesome the night it is cooked and goes well with plain idiyappam.
GINGER RELISH RECIPE
Ingredients
Ginger cut int tiny pieces
A handful
Tamarind
size of lemon
Corainder leaves
1/4 tbsp
Red Chilly
4
Grated coconut
4 tbsp
Method
- In oil saute the ginger till it turns brown
- Fry the red chilly, Coriander seeds and coconut gratings separately
- Grind the ginger along with the items that were fried separately.
- Add the thick tamarind extract and salt and let it blend for a second. In a pan with 2 tbsps oil, temper mustard seeds, Uradh dhal and add the mixture and let it boil for a atleast an hour in medium low.
- Just before you take it off the stove, add a tbsp of jaggery.
- This relish is definitely made with Sodhi not only coz they pair up well, but because ginger is good for digestion.