Kongu Nadu - Kongu Nadu Cuisine

Kongu Nadu Cuisine

The Kongu Nadu cuisine is basically a collection of exotic recipes being created by the people residing in the Kongu region. The cuisine is quite extensive for a simple reason that the region is very vast. Some of the aspects that make Kongu Nadu cuisine very special are:

• The recipes have their own nativity and style.
• Unlike other cuisines, Kongu Nadu cuisine does not involve marination of any raw material. As a result the food has a different taste and unique texture.
• Addition of roasted groundnut paste in curries and Khormas creates a very different flavour
• Turmeric is always added into curries as freshly grated and ground after roasting. This gives the product a deep yellow color and an aromatic substance
• Kongu Nadu cuisine is not very oily, which is not the case with other cuisines
• The cuisine is healthy and nutritious owing to use of considerable amount of pulses
• The recipes had no sort of standardization and the recipes found their origin based on the specialty of that particular city of Kongunadu.
• "Arisemparupu" is famously known only in Kongu region.
• This is evident from the following instances:
  • Use of copra (dry coconut) due to the abundance of coconut trees in the region.
  • Pickles happens to form an important part in the food
  • The traditional Kongu people were mostly vegetarians for religious reason. The word for a slaughterhouse is Kacāppu kaṭai (Tamil: கசாப்பு கடை), where kacāppu was borrowed from Urdu: کسائ‎ kasāy "butcher", because Muslims were the first to butcher for commercial purposes. Beef is taboo; cows are considered divine.
  • Sweets like Teluvu Halwa,Teluvu Payasam, Elanir Halwa, and Elanir Payasam formed part of the regular food in Kongu Nadu."Oppitu" or "Vazhai" is a type of sweet made with the basic ingredients rice, karupatti (Palm Jaggery) Cardamom, Ghee.