Kongunadu Cuisine

Kongunad 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 Kongu region is very vast and includes places like Ooty, Coimbatore (the present headquarters of Kongu Kingdom), Pollachi, Tiruppur, Udumalpet, Avinashi, Palladam, Kangayam (the previous headquarters of Kongu Kingdom) to Karur, Erode, Aathur, Salem, Palani Mettur and Dharapuram.

Some of the aspects that make Kongunad cuisine very special are

• The recipes have their own nativity and style. Besides, Kongunad cuisine is a collection of recipes from more than 50 cities n Tamil Nadu, (unlike Chettinad cuisine, which is the food of only one city of Tamil Nadu, called Karaikudi)
• Unlike other cuisines, Kongunad 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 colour and an aromatic substance
• Kongunad cuisine is not very spicy and 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 speciality of that particular city of Kongunad. This is evident from the following instances:

• Use of copra (dry coconut) was due to the abundance of coconut trees and coconut oil refineries in the kongu region.
• Pickles happens to take an important part in the food, due to abundance of gingelly seeds which is a key ingredient in preparing pickle
• There are numerous mutton and beef slaughter houses and thus the fried mutton accompaniment
• Chicken finds its place in the daily menu as gravies and curries because chicken farming was the key occupation
• Sweets like 'Pathaneer Halwa','Pathaneer Payasam', 'Elanir Halwa', 'Elanir Payasam' formed part of the regular food in kongu region again thanks to abundance of coconut and palm trees.

I would list down the various recipes of the dishes that form the kongu cuisine.