SWC-Karnataka Round UP 1 -Republished for TOM

Karnataka, land of mother Cauvery/Kaveri, land of beautiful palaces, land of varied cuisine style from rustic raagi mudde of South Karnataka to Jowar/Sorghum rotti/flat bread of North Karnataka, land of rich coast line which boasts some best fish dishes; we have Mangalooru Cuisine, Coorgi/Kodava cuisine which stands out different and distinct of them all while Malenadu Cuisine is a cocktail of Coorgi and Mangalooru styles.

I believe that every cuisine depends on the availability of food grains locally. Karnataka cuisine revolves around Rice, Ragi and Millet, you can call them staples.
An agricultural map of Karnataka for you all to show the influence of food grains on cuisine style:
You can see a bigger & original version of the map here

It would not be wrong if I say, SouthKarnataka is rice bowl for Karnataka and North Karnataka is a basin of Millet. As we move from south to north rice consumption starts reducing and millet takes over in the form of flat breads/Jowar rotti, Sajje Rotti, chapathi with vegetables like aubergines/brinjals, peppers etc., Ragi and Rice enjoy popularity among the people of South Karnataka.We grow abundant sugarcane too and hence you can see many sugar factories and ಆಲೆಮನೆ/Aalemane/आलेमने/ a place where jaggery is made :-) You can see the pictures of Jaggery making on Flickr here and here . A pictorial presentation of Jaggery preparation with memories attached to it is very well written by Anil P here . Although South Indian states share common culinary tradition, one needs to have good taste buds to differentiate between their subtle flavors.

Since SWC was initiated for our Women’s club members, I take this opportunity to thank non-members and bloggers who became part of this event and for their enthusiastic participation. Thanks to Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine for her brilliant idea of Regional Cuisine of India which is very popular in Blogworld and much appreciated too. Do pay a visit to the previous round-up of RCI-Karnataka done by our dear Asha of Foodies Hope. You can see an exotic round-up in 4 episodes.

Thanks to Sheetal of My Kitchen who is a Kannadiga by heart for hosting this SWC-Karnataka event and allowing me to republish this article for TOM. You can visit her to see round-ups done by her in two episodes.
Round Up Part 1- A complete Meal

Let me walk you through the round up in an order in which dishes are served on a platter in Karnataka. First item which is served after salt and pickle from the left hand top corner of a banana leaf (tip of the leaf facing to left) is :

S - Salt ; P-Pickle, K-Kosambari, Pa - Palya, To - Tovve, Pay - Payasa

ಕೋಸಂಬರಿ /Salads

Kosambari of Karnataka is a mixture of freshly grated vegetables like carrot, coconut, Kohlrabi..with lentils like ಹೆಸರುಬೇಳೆ /split mung beans/moongdal, sprouted mung beans/sprouted saboot moondal, split bengal gram/chanadal.
Deepthi of Vegetable Platter has sent us yummilicious Raw Carrot and Lentil Salad

You can take a peek at sprouted moongdal kosambari on TOM here

Carrot Kosambari from Priti of Indian Khanna

Next on plate is Palya...

We have Sia's Carrot-Beans-Chanadal Palya, SMN's Southekayi/Cucumber Palya, Kaalu Palya from Smitha, Batata Song from Home Cooked and pictures are in the order mentioned above :

Tovve:

Tovve is a a mixture of Split pigen peas/Togaribele/Toordal with vegetables like ridgegourd, bottlegourd, snakegourd, tomato...any one of these vegetable is used to make tovve.

Meera sends us her Daal-Palak, Dalithoy from Mangala(a non-blogger, picture of this can be seen in Sheetal's round-up)..

The serving on top part of leaf is ended with Payasa

Hesarubele Payasa from me :

Chaler-Paysam from Sudeshna of Bengali Cuisine

Purva has sent us Kheer from her lovely Daawat

Other variety Sweets that we make on festive occasions are :

Maledi Unde for Shravana Somaravara Vrata from Sheetal of My Kitchen

Chigali from me for the occassion of Nagara Panchami

Tambittu Unde from Sheetal of My Kitchen

Besan Unde for any occassion from Veda Iyengar of Iyengar's Kitchen

Chitranna/Lemon Rice /Rice Varieties which are typically served on Banana leaf :

Lemon Rice from Priyanka of Asan Khana

Instant Puliyogare from Deepthi of Vegetable Platter

Puliyogare from Sheetal of My-Kitchen

Have you heard of heralkayi aka rough-lemon? Deepthi brings us rough-lemon/heralekayi chitranna :

Sireesha sends us a platter of Nimmakayi Pulihora aka lemon rice to us

Vangibath from Vani's 'Illatharasi' :

Vangibath from Divya Vikram of 'Dil Se'

As I thought earlier, we did get quite a few BBB yes Bisibelebath entries ...here they are to feast your eyes :

Priya Evani's way of BBB making :

Sowmya sends us BBB with papad as accompaniment..yeee..

Sireesha loves to eat BBB with Chips and Raita and that is exactly how I love to eat :-) too..

Sukanya feels that BBB is the most exotic tasty rice treat of Karnataka...

Anuradha Kashi, a non-blogger makes BBB from Pressed Rice..you must check out her recipe....

Saaru/Huli

Plain rice is eaten with Saaru and /or Huli. Kannadiga style saaru is made of 1 vegetable and split pigeon peas. It is more watery than Huli. Huli is often made with 2 or more vegetables with split pigeon peas and the masala is often grinded with coconut and onion. Different households have different methods of preparation so let us discover the styles from various bloggers around :

Simple Bele Saaru from me :

Mixed Vegetable Huli from Priyanka of Asan Khana

Pepper Rasam from Veda-Iyengar's Kitchen :

Priti of Indian Khana has re-created Huli and Garlic Rasam from Taste of Mysore and she has given Thumbs up for Huli and double thumbs up for Garlic Rasam..in case you wish to try it out :-)

We have a recipe for Dalithoy from Mangala Prabhu (non-blogger)

After showing those items in separate category I am sure you would love to see a whole platter..few of our bloggers feasted on K-style thali and they have shared their FULL PLATE MEALS with us.. take a look..

Gowri Oota Sheetal of My Kitchen presents festive platter ......

Mysore Oota from Priyanka of Asan Khana

Priti of Indian Khana presents Karnataka style meal ..

A simple south K-style dinner from me

Before you burp away to fullness..let me serve you with little Curd Rice. A south Indian meal does not end without eating curd and rice, so does Karnatka meal.. so do enjoy curd rice ...

Mosaranna from me :

Curd-Rice from Sheetal of My-Kitchen

Isn't it fantastic to have wonderful ladies around cooking variety of cuisines accross India and getting to know the cuisine of their neighbouring states ? I think it is awesome :-) Do check back for hot hot Breakfast and crispy and yummy snacks in Part-2