Tag Archives: Mamallapuram

Chapattis

Ingredients :

  • Wheat flour
  • Water
  • Salt
  • Oil

Preparation :

Mix with hands until a kind pie batter consistency, make balls, roll into small pancakes and cook in flat pan putting oil on both sides. 

Chapati on banana leaf

Chapati on banana leaf

Accompaniment :

Ingredients :

  • 2 onions
  • 2 tomatoes
  • Fresh coriander
  • Leaves Curry
  • Mustard seeds
  • Chilli powder

 

Preparation :

Heat oil in frying pan, add in the order :

  • Mustard seeds
  • Curry leaves
  • Fried onions
  • Tomatoes
  • Chilli powder
  • A little water
  • Salt

Palak Panir

Ingredients : 

  • Spinach
  • Cinnamon, 3 sticks
  • Paneer
  • Butter
  • Oil
  • 1 onion
  • Garlic
  • 1 chili
  • Mustard seeds

Preparation :

  1. Boil spinach in hot water with cinnamon sticks
  2. Heat a little oil and butter in a frying pan, and add in order :
    • Mustard seeds
    • Mustard seeds
    • 1 onion, fry it
    • Garlic
    • Chilli
    • Paneer
  1. When the spinach is cooked, drain and remove the cinnamon.
  2. Blend spinach
  3. Put them in the frying pan
  4. Salt

IDLI (For 12 idlis)

  1. Buy ready-made dough: idly/dosa batter

Put it in a pot and dilute with a little water

In a idly saucepan

  1. Put a shallow layer of water (1 to 2 cm) and heat
  2. Oil the idly shapes, and then pour the dough in and stack them in the saucepan.
  3. Close and boil +/-15 minutes (if the pan whistles ‘no problem’ leave it like that for 15 minutes)
  1. Accompanying « Chutney ».

Ingredients : 

  • ½ coconut that you empty (white) with a knife; cut into small cubes
  • 1 green chili
  • Dal, 2 tablespoons
  • Garlic (2 cloves)

 Preparation :

 

Grind this mixture in a blender with a little water until it is completely liquid.

Heat in a saucepan with a little oil, and then add in the order

  • The mustard seeds (1 to 2 teaspoons; heat strongly until seeds pop!)
  • Curry leaves
  • Blended mixture

Remove from the flame after +/-30 seconds

  • Add salt

” Indian cooking ”

Indian cooking is wonderfully tasty. Annapurna Goddess always inspires it.

  • Anna = food
  • Purna = complete; abundant; total; full

You will find many restaurants in Mahābalipuram, vegetarian and non-vegetarian and also western-style cooking at the “Nautilus”, run by a Frenchman who has been living in India for a very long time, and at the “Au Yogi” run by a former Indian yoga student, married to a Belgian. There is also “The Blue Elephant” et le well known “Moonrakers”, run by our friend Ramesh, and “The Gecko Café” held by Mani in a nice place with a view on the lake, 14 Othavadai Cross Street. For a kitchen dining room, very cheap: The « Mamalla », S. Mada Street, near the Bus Stand and the « Sri Ananda Bhavan », on the corner of E. Raja Street and Othavadai Street.

If you are invited to eat with an Indian family, you will be greeted with the “Namaskar” (Namaste in the North), the welcome made with both hands together. In India you never wish happiness to someone, it is considered to be in your hands and depends only on you. For a meal you generally bring your host sweets or fruit. You do not say thank you in Indian languages but you can say “Shukrya” (to say thank you in Sanskrit you say “dhanyavaad” or “shukrya” which means “thanks and be prosperious”).

In the large international restaurants, your cutlery will consist of a spoon, fork and knife while in more modest restaurants you are likely to have only a spoon for the semi-liquid dishes. You eat with your fingers of your right hand in India and only with them as those on your left hand are considered impure. In the North you may take the food with your whole hand, but in the South it is considered more polite to use only the end of your fingers. Bread or pancakes are used to help you eat.

In many restaurants in India, the cold chain is not necessarily respected. Fridges or freezers are often turned off to save money, so avoid eating food that has been frozen.

In the temples, saffron powder, blessed water from the Ganges, and sometimes blessed food are offered to visitors as a sign of “Prasad”, blessing of the Gods. It is considered impolite to refuse such gifts.

It’s cuisine

The types of food served in the North differ significantly from those served in the South. Southern cuisine is quite different from the northern culinary habits in that it is much more vegetarian in most of the hotels, with the exception of the international hotel chains. On the other hand, you will more often find fish either grilled or in sauces, in the South.

Southern cooking is generally spicier than that of the North. For those with sensitive palates, you can ask the cook to reduce the spices (“No chilli, please”).

During the meal, our Indian friends drink water or “lassi” which is a diluted dahi (yoghurt), salty or sweet, sometimes with a taste of rose water.

You will often find local beer in the restaurants. Tea and coffee are almost always drunk outside mealtimes in the morning or afternoon, and are served with milk (reminder: alcohol is not sold in the general stores in Tamil Nadu, but only in specialised stores). 

Dishes that you must discover for a heavenly tasting experience … 

At breakfast

  • Idli(s), a sort of steamed rice ball served with a spicy sauce and coconut chutney.
  • Plain dosa, lentil flour pancakes served with a spicy sauce and coconut chutney.

At midday

  • Chapatti (ćapātī): kind of unleavened wheat wafer or thin pancake cooked on a “tava” (metal hotplate), which is served with spicy cooked vegetables and coconut chutney.
  • Masala Dosa: lentil and rice flour pancake, stuffed with spicy vegetables served with a spicy sauce and coconut chutney.
  • Nann or naan: in Indian cooking a kind of large leaf-like flat “bread” cooked on the vertical side of an earthen oven, and made with flour and a little yoghurt as leavening, oil and salt, served with each course. It comes down from the 16th century Muslim tradition in India. It is delicious.
  • Parata(paratha): in Indian cooking a kind of “bread” served with the main course or or with the first course. Paratha(s) should be about 3 mm thick. They are made with flour, dal, ghee (clarified butter), salt and a little water. The pastry is flattened with a rolling pin and cooked on a “tava” (metal hotplate) with butter and ghee. They are served with spicy cooked vegetables and coconut chutney. A paratha stuffed with potatoes is called “aloo paratha”.
  • “Thali”: in the South of India traditionally served on a banana leaf, the thali is a complete meal where first course, vegetables, dal (lentils) chutney, and dessert is served at the same time, with rice and chapatti or paratha. 

Other additional information:

  • Travel information: “flights” and “transfers”
  • “Visas”
  • Finding an “hotel” in Mahābalipuram
  • Taking photos in India
  • Information on “health” in India

Masala Dosa (for 2-3 people)

DOSA (S) :

Dough made from rice and dal powder

Ingredients :

  • 2 onions
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 2 Green Chile
  • 2 or 3 potatoes
  • Curry leaves
  • Mustard seeds
  • Dal, a handful
  • Turmeric, a pinch
  • Salt

Preparation :

1.  Boil potatoes

  1. Cut the vegetables into cubes
  1. Heat oil in a frying pan then add in the order :
  • Mustard
  • Small curry leaves
  • Dal
  • Onion and chilli
  • Tomatoes
  • Turmeric
  1. Cook dosas in a pancake pan
  1. Crush the potatoes by hand and add them to the preparation
  1. Warm all by adding a little water to make a sort of “paste” a bit sticky !

Put preparation on dosa and serve

Biryani Rice (for 4 people)

Ingredients :

  1. One onion
  2. One potato
  3. One carrot
  4. 5 to 6 green beans
  5. Peas (a good handful)
  6. Chilli
  7. 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes
  8. Coriander (a good handful)
  9. Fresh mint (a good handful)
  10. Cloves (+/-12)
  11. Cardamom (3)
  12. Cinnamon in pieces
  13. Laurel leaves
  14. ½ «Biryani masala» packet {brand: Aachi}
  15. ½ packet of “ginere garlic paste” {Aachi}
  16. 2 cups of biryani rice
  17. 4 cups of water
  18. Salt
  19. A pressure saucepan

Preparation :

Cut all the vegetables into small cubes, remove the mint leaves from the twigs (not cut), chop the Coriander into small pieces

  1. Heat oil in pressure Pan + / _ 1 minute then put in order stirring in, all the time :
    1. Cloves, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Laurel leaves.
    2. Onion and chilli
    3. Ginger paste and garlic
    4. Tomatoes
  2. Boil while stirring for 2 minutes then add in order
  3. Cut coriander and mint leaves
  4. All vegetables diced
  5. 4 glasses of water
  6. 2 glasses of washed rice
  7. Salt
  8. ½ packet of biryani masala
  9. Cook until the pressure saucepan whistles, turn off the gas, wait for the pan to cool down and serve

Raïta (en accompagnement du plat) Voir la recette 

Vegetable Upuma (for 2 people)

Ingredients :

  • 1 tomato
  • 1 onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 potato
  • 5 to 6 green beans
  • Green peas
  • Dal, 1 hand full
  • 1 Green Chilli
  • Curry leaves
  • Fresh Coriander
  • 250 gr roasted Rava (powder)
  • Sunflower oil (vanaspati oil)

Preparation : 

1 cut the vegetables into small cubes

  1. Put in a saucepan cold-water onion, carrot, beans, potato, and peas.
  2. Bring to a boil and Cook for +/-10 minutes (1/2 of cooking time)
  3. In a frying pan, heat the roasted rava without any fat
  4. Put the oil to heat in another saucepan then add in order :
  • Mustard seeds
  • Curry leaves
  • Dal
  • Onion
  • Chilli
  • Tomato
  • Vegetables that have been cooked
  • 3 glasses of water

6.  boil all for 5 minutes
7.  Add the roasted rava gently stirring
8.  Add fresh coriander
9.  Book to boil
10. Stir in the oil (vanaspati)
11. Add salt

This forms a kind of vegetable porridge

Photos of India (Ashtanga Yoga workshop in India Mahābalipuram)

South India and Photos

A journey to India is at the same time an inner journey, intimate and dazzling and an outside journey during which each moment may offer a discovery, a deep encounter.

For photographers, India is a real paradise, one of the best spots for those who like colorful pictures full of emotion.

To take photos in certain places you will have to pay a tax for your camera or video camera (more expensive) but then you will be free to catch a beautiful ray of light, to make the best of each magnificent place. India is an unbelievably visual country, where anything can become a subject for a photo.

Often people spontaneously ask to be photographed, they nearly always say yes, if asked. 

Other complementary information :

  • Journey information, airplane, and transfer
  • Visa
  • Finding a hotel in Mahābalipuram
  • Indian cooking
  • Information: Health in India

Hotels in Mahābalipuram

In South India, the old village of Mahābalipuram, today known, as Mamallapuram is located in Tamil Nadu. It is an old historical town that used to be an animated seaport at the time of the Palava(s). There are various historical monuments, most of them having been built between the 7th and 9th century AD. UNESCO has classified the site as part of the World Heritage; there are many exceptional monuments, walking to meet them is allowing oneself a moment of self-discovery.

There are many accommodation possibilities in Mahābalipuram, you will find hotels at an affordable price and also luxury hotels where you will be treated as a royal guest.

Thousands of flavour lovers are attracted to Mahābalipuram for it’s lovely Indian cooking.

Below, is the hotel selection made by the Ashtanga Yoga Institute :

  • Les hotels Daphnés
    1. Daphne Hotel
    2. Blue Elephant Guesthouse
    3. Daphne Beach Hotel
  • Pallava Dynasty Comfort Cottages
  • Green Woods Beach Resort
  • Siva Guest House
  • Sri Murugan Guest House
  • Breeze Hote
  • Radisson BLU Resort Temple Bay

Security for a stay without worries :

Always keep your suitcases locked, leave your valuables in the hotel’s safe, never leave your passport in your luggage and always have a photocopy of it with you. 

Other complementary information :

  • Travel information « flight » et « transfer »
  • The « Visa »
  • « Indian cooking »
  • « Photos » India
  • Health information in India
  • Dressing advice