As I mentioned yesterday, I am doing a month long marathon starting today, with A-Z regional cooking as the theme. For this theme, we have two options to choose from. Option one is cooking from a region in India or one country and the other is to pick 4 regions from India or 4 countries, and cook from a region or a country every week. So it is either one region from India or one country for 4 weeks or 4 weeks of 4 different regions or countries. The only rule is that the dishes cooked should be in an alphabetical order, in local dialect.

I opted option one, cooking from a region in India for 4 weeks. I chose my home state of Telangana as my region. Often times my virtual friends and some of my cousins remark that I do not have many Andhra/Telangana/Telugu food on my blog. And my virtual friends even ask if I cook Indian food at home. Yes, I do cook Indian food at home and in fact, we eat only Indian food and to be more precise, we eat only Telugu home cooked food. However, when we go on low carb diet, I do make lot of grilled/ baked meats and salads at home.

Keeping that remark in mind, I chose to do Telangana cuisine and I narrowed it down to Telugu Telangana cuisine. You might ask isn’t Telangana cuisine Telugu cuisine? Yes it is but it also includes Hyderabadi cuisine and both the cuisines are influenced by each other. When preparing for this blogging marathon (BM), at times I even contemplated removing my self imposed Telugu cuisine clause as it would have been a breeze coming up with dishes, specially for some of the tough letters. We do have an extra clause for tough letters and shall talk about it when we get there.

This mega marathon is a good way to showcase some of the traditional Telangana food. I am glad I chose my home state as I have cooked some of the dishes for the first time just for this BM, though these are a common fare back home. Though some of these dishes are very simple, I hardly cook because husband is not interested or some of the dishes I never considered worth blogging as those are very simple.

Today I have a classic Telangana curry, Attu Tunukala Koora. Attu is dosa or crepe, tunukalu are pieces and koora is curry. This is a curry prepared with pieces of crepe or dosa. I think pancake would be a better word because this attu is not as thin as a crepe and dosa, but thick like a pancake. It is prepared with gram flour. This is a rustic curry prepared a lot at my maternal grandmother’s place. It is also a must preparation for some of the pre and post wedding rituals.

Here are few vegetables and dishes that start with letter ‘A’.
Vegetables:
Aaku Kooralu – Leafy vegetables
Aalugadda – Alu ~ Potato
Anapakaya – Avarekalu ~ Surti Papdi ~ Hyacinth Beans
Anyapakaya – Sorakaya ~ Lauki ~ Bottle Gourd
Aratikaya – Plantain and Fruit Banana

Ingredients:
Aavalu ~ Rai ~ Mustard Seeds
Atukulu ~ Poha ~ Beaten or Flattened Rice

Dishes:
Annam is cooked rice, aalugada koora, anapa gudalu (sauteed avarekalu or hyacinth beans), anapa kudumulu (steamed rice cakes with avarekalu~hyacinth beans), aratikaya koora, atukulu

Attu
Ingredients:

• ½ cup Gram Flour
• ½ cup Water
• ⅜ tsp. Salt
• ⅜ tsp Chili Powder
• ¼ tsp. Coriander Powder
• ⅛ – ¼ tsp. Cumin Powder
• 1 ½ – 2 tsp. Oil

Preparation of Attu:

• Mix all ingredients listed under attu, except water and oil.
• Gradually add water and make a thick batter.
• Heat a nonstick pan. Smear some oil. Pour batter on the hot pan and slightly move the pan around to spread it evenly.
• Drizzle about tsp of oil around the attu and smear a little on top.
• Cover and cook for about 2-3 minutes on medium to medium high flame until the attu is firm and the bottom is light golden yellow in color.
• Flip the attu, if needed drizzle more oil. Cover and cook for another minute or two.
• Remove the cover and cook until the bottom is light golden and both sides are cooked.
• Transfer to a plate and let cool.
• Once cool, cut the Attu into small pieces.

Attu Tunukala Koora
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. Oil
• ¼ tsp. Cumin Seeds
• 4-6 Curry Leaves
• ½ cup Onions
• 3 small Green Chilies
• 1 tsp. Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp. Coriander Powder
• ¼ tsp. Chili Powder
• ⅛- ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¼ tsp. Turmeric Powder
• Attu Tunakalu (recipe above)
• Cilantro to garnish

Preparation:

• Heat oil in pan. Add cumin and let the seeds roast lightly in oil.
• Add onions and sauté until translucent.
• Add garlic and roast until garlic changes color.
• Add salt, chili powder, coriander powder , turmeric and give a good stir.
• Add attu tunukalu and give a good stir until spices coat the attu.
• Reduce the flame to low and cook until spices blend in and attu is crisp and roasted, about 5 – 8 minutes. Keep stirring for even roasting of the attu tunakalu.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Note:

• Be liberal with oil and curry tastes better when cooked in more oil.
• For more masala (curry), use more onion.
• Garam masala can be sprinkled over the curry before removing the curry from fire.

This day in 2014: Hyderabadi Haleem
This day in 2015: Chocolate Chunk Blondies
Events: Apart from Journey Through the Cuisines, I also signed up in A-Z Challenge. The rules for this challenge are simple, we need do a blog post everyday in alphabetical order, taking a break on Sundays. This is a very large group with very diverse group of bloggers participating. It is going to be interesting reading some of their posts.

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

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