Thalippu Vadagam

[Monica Bhide]

Ah yes.. I found a packet of Thalippu Vadagam in my local grocery store in Vienna, Va. Made in New Jersey no less! Okay so anyone want to share a recipe? For those who dont know.. I do know a small bit -- Thalippu vadagam are small balls of spices made of curry leaves, fenugreek, turmeric etc and are used in South India to prepare specific dishes..

anyone care to share recipes? tell me more...

The lady at the Indian store told me sales of this produce were not good cos people not only did not know how to cook them, most took a bite out of the raw vadas and were NOT pleased

[FaustianBargain]

never heard of it..but translating it, it seems as if its the south indian version of tempering for making vegetable dishes, sambhar etc...

i am not surprised that people didnt like the raw version. i am guessing that the spices are ground, made into a paste and dried in the sun...so when added to hot oil, it will..well..temper/flavour the oil..

can you name all of the ingredients, please?

Ah yes.. I found a packet of Thalippu Vadagam in my local grocery store in Vienna, Va. Made in New Jersey no less! Okay so anyone want to share a recipe? For those who dont know.. I do know a small bit   -- Thalippu vadagam are small balls of spices made of curry leaves, fenugreek, turmeric etc and are used in South India to prepare specific dishes..

anyone care to share recipes? tell me more...

The lady at the Indian store told me sales of this produce were not good cos people not only did not know how to cook them, most took a bite out of the raw vadas and were NOT pleased

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[Peppertrail]

Ah yes.. I found a packet of Thalippu Vadagam in my local grocery store in Vienna, Va. Made in New Jersey no less! Okay so anyone want to share a recipe? For those who dont know.. I do know a small bit   -- Thalippu vadagam are small balls of spices made of curry leaves, fenugreek, turmeric etc and are used in South India to prepare specific dishes..

anyone care to share recipes? tell me more...

Monica:

Thalippu is basically seasoning with spices. But that made into vadagam? Haven't heard of this thing before. I can understand why people don't like its taste when it is raw.

Ammini

[FaustianBargain]

Peppertrail: maybe its a convenient/compacted/dried/travel friendly version of thallipu. isnt innovation wonderful?

Monica:

Thalippu is basically seasoning with spices. But that made into vadagam? Haven't heard of this thing before. I can understand why people don't like its taste when it is raw.

Ammini

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[Monica Bhide]

Yes I know this thing raw and is not to be eaten like that . I have never heard of it as vadagam either.

It belongs to the Chettinands I believe,

so any recipes?

Lalitha - the packet indicates it has gram dhal, salt and some other stuff I dont remember offhand. I will try to post a pic tomorrow.

[Geetha]

I've mentioned it in one of the posts in a hurry though thinking other might just figure out what I spoke of when I said vadagam. I have lots of those sent from mil I've been happy to use it and about the contents I know there are lots of onions and mustartd and deep fried chana dal karri patta(curryleaves), all sundried ..

Idon't know the sequence but can guess that they are definitely sundried aftr or before they are deep fried or roasted.. or they are just sundried and after sufficient time while they still all retain some of the moisture that they had been given by nature to them they are made into a ball of the size of the inner palm.. they are used year round until they last and to start of the next glorious summers..

Love this it helps me to makethe tadka and helps to give of the typical smell to the curry like puli kolumbu or the vath kolumbu.. it is the best seasoning need no morre thatn that to give the authentic taste to it .

[Geetha]

Monica thalippu in tamil translates to tadka in hindi. So talippu vadagam is indeed the vadagam used to talippu or tadka ..

You might be wondering what other vadagams are there I'll give you a list they are all my favourites and are the best part of the meal to me..

1. Rice vadagams (fry em to get rice crispies like the corn puffs)

2. Vathal Vadagams ( chilli vadagams make then by sundrying the soaked milagai in curds for a week ) mmmm...

3. Sundavathal Vadagam (made from a bitter tasting neem fruit type fruit in buttermilk or curd and sundrying them - Sundakka is the name of this veggy or fruit as you make discover it to be )

Okay there may be others that I miss but you can go to a store and look for vadagams and their different names attached to them and query me for it if you want love to give answers if at all possible to them

Geetha

[Monica Bhide]

Geetha - what an informative post. thank you.

So tell me specifically - do I just use it for tempering? Can you tell me a bit more on a recipe that I can use it with

[Geetha]

Geetha - what an informative post. thank you.

So tell me specifically - do I just use it for tempering? Can you tell me a bit more on a recipe that I can use it with

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Sure, its used for most south dishes or rather tamilnad dishes - I think..

List :

Sambar, dal, puli kolumbu/vathal kolumbu. Even chicken curry you get the ideal..

Well I think since puli kolumbu is my favourite I'd like to use it in so I ll just put the recipe of puli kolumbu. As I know it :

1 onion

1-2 tomotoes(depends on your preference od the source of sourness)

1 half lime size tamarind ( the tamarind jiuce is okay if you like the sweetness to it)

11/2 to 2 tbsp of sambar powder

1 tsp red chillie powder

1 cup coconut milk or 1/2 dessicated or fresh cup (this is an optional ingredient for me in US since coconut is a rarely found ingredient I use dessicated coconut for fancy only not much for taste as there is not much it can offer to taste here unlik the fresh taste of fresh ground coconut

thats all .. you may choose any vegetable of your choice (only one though)

I'll quickly give the prep here :

Add onions to oil, just as they are getting to become shiny and all nice add the tomatoes no worry for cooking to a certain level. Then the tomatoes, nad vegetable, stirred for a short time add the desired amount of cooking water to it boil just for 5-10 min, add to the water the spices sambar powder and chilli powder, boil a little time like 2 mins then add the tamarind juice of the type you desire, boil 2-4 min in average heat, add the coconut milk just 2 min before you're finishing it off.

Now comes the point or the main part the vadagams, take desired amount out of the ball you have and then break it to pieces like churan or powder and then prepare hot oil in another pan after it is heated add this to it, now how long is a good and vital quality question to be answered .. if you keep on low flame the heated oil and let the flavours develop until the mix you added to it is browned no darkedned there is no fear to it as the more darkened it is the more flavour to it but shouln't ne burnt which my connotation isto charring there is a fine line only as long as there is more and more flavour developing don't remove it from the low flame and let it .. just hover over it ensuring the flame doesn't over heat the oil after 2-3 min of sirring it is ready to be poured to the already prepared pului kolumbu.

There is also a simple recipe though and it uses just 2 main ingredients.

It is called Kalusu koorai. (Telegu)

1 onion

1 vegetable like lauki I use the coyote the spanish small green one there is one illustration one of the eG members I think it is SethG who uses it to illustrate a caricature in his avatar photograph, it looks like the size of a small papaya green one

2 tbsp or more of sambar powder

2-4 cups of water

1/2 cup chana dal

Very simple p[rep but very tasty mmm and the vadagam is essential last step to it. Here goes:

Shallow fry in oil the onion, let it reach the translucent stage, add the vegetable chopped to it, add the dal and sambar powder and then water all together at same time, close with a suitable cover let it come to boil and then lower flame let simmer for ages and reach a good syrupy consistence for the gravy and the vegetable is cooked to a nice bite juicy bite, it takes 15 to 20 min to boil and simmer to the state described so this a slow cooking type leave it to do other work in your kitchen keeping in mind to add water when it desires more

Then after cooking is over add the tadka using the vadagams. It is more like a clear texture with lot of flavour to it is not the thick curry but a simple and clear one you get the idea.

Hope you will make and find out you liking to it too

Geetha

[worm@work]

Hi Geetha,

thanks for the recipe for the koorai. I plan to make it over the weekend since it sounds wonderful :)). However, I don';t have any thalippu vadagam with me but will look for it in the Indian stores!! Wish me luck :p.

-w@w

[Geetha]

You know if you're are for quality you'd want to have vadagams on hand and add it to what ever comes to youre mind. I guess it enhances a lot of other dishes too, and I've not yet made em all. All the best in you're finding I'm sure most south indian store stock it up, especially if you are near a temple and the nearby shop is south indian then it is sure to be there, I got mine from near the temple in queens.

[whippy]

there's a great new grocery here in pdx! for the moment, we can get fresh tindora, methi, pooi, turmeric, etc. finally found some dried kachri to experiment with. enjoyed a tasty khus-sicle. and perchance, thalippu vadagams:

THANKS for the recipes and ideas Geetha!

[Geetha]

Looks like mine too, sometimes they are hard to break open and you may need a hard thing like a hammer to break them and then crush them, but the hardness is not a measure of quality may be it will last longer that way more than a year too, but that doesn't mean you'll not make use of it till then ;)

Yours look very fresh and well made, congrats, good luck cookingwith them I'm sure you'll like the end result they give and also try out for chicken curry etc challenge your self to use em more..