Salem Thattuvadai Set (சேலம் தட்டுவடை செட்)

This is a delicious street food that is unique to my home town Salem in Tamilnadu. It is easy to prepare and a delicious party or tea-time snack. You can buy Thattuvadai (Indian crackers) from your local Indian grocer. You can also make it yourself. Or you can use any good brand of multi-grain crackers.

Salem Thattuvadai Set

Ingredients:

For stuffing
Carrots	4-5	Washed, skin peeled, and shredded
Beetroots	2-3	Washed, skin peeled, and shredded
Raw green mango (optional)	1	Washed, and shredded
Big red onion	1	Finely chopped
For red chutney
Dried red chilli	5-7	–
Tamarind paste	1/2 tsp	–
Tomato	1	Chopped
Red onion	1	Chopped
Garlic	3-4 pods	Peeled and chopped
For green chutney
Cilantro	1/3 cup	Cleaned and chopped
Mint	1/3 cup	Cleaned and chopped
Fresh coconut	1/3 cup	Shredded
Raw mango (optional)	1/2 mango	Chopped
Green chilli	4-6	–
Cumin	1/2 tsp	–
Lemon juice	1 tbsp	–

Procedure:

• Grind the ingredients for the chutneys into a fine paste using a blender. Add salt as desired and set aside.
• Take two crackers. Spread green chutney on one and red chutney on the other (only on one side of the cracker).
• Take a generous amount of vegetable stuffing and sandwich it between the two crackers.
• Enjoy with masala chai.

Here’s a video of a street food vendor preparing ‘Thattuvadai set’.

Tamil Chicken Soup (கோழிச்சாறு)

This is my mom’s recipe for a Tamil style chicken clear soup. She made this when my brother or I had cold. Traditionally, the dish is prepared with Red jungle fowl (நாட்டு கோழி). I used organic chicken for my soup. It is easy to prepare, nutritious, delicious, and has lots of medicinal properties that helps with the cold/flu symptoms. You will definitely feel your sinuses open up before you finish a hot bowl of this soup. Hope you like it.

Tamil Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

Chicken	1.5 lb (approx. 750 grams)	It is the bones that give the flavor to this soup. So I prefer using chicken legs.
Shallots	7 – 10	Chopped. If you do not have shallots, use 1 big red onion instead.
Ginger-garlic paste	1 tbsp	–
Cooking oil	1 tsp	I like to use sesame seed oil for this soup.
Black pepper corns	1 tsp	Crushed
Cumin	1 tsp	Crushed
Turmeric powder	1 tsp	–
Salt	–	–
Cilantro	2 tbsp	Finely chopped (optional)

Procedure:

• Clean and chop the meat into bite sized chunks.
• Heat a deep sauce pan and add the oil.
• When the oil is hot, add the chopped shallots along with the crushed pepper and cumin. Add a pinch of salt (salt pulls out the water in the onion thereby caramelizing it faster) and fry the onions till they start turning translucent/pink.
• Now add the ginger-garlic paste and turmeric powder. Fry for a minute. Make sure you stir regularly since garlic tends to ‘stick’ and burn easily when using metal pans.
• Add the meat along with two cups of water.
• Cover the saucepan with a lid and let the meat cook well.
• Once the meat is completely cooked, add salt as necessary and put off the flame.
• Transfer contents to a serving bowl, garnish with chopped cilantro, and enjoy it while it’s hot.
• If you want more spice, you can add more crushed pepper to the prepared soup.

Tips:

• I like to leave the skin and fat on the meat for this soup.
• If the bones are too big, just crack them a little while cleaning. The marrow provides fantastic flavor and lots of nutrients.
• Remove meat/bones from the soup for clear soup. I use the cooked meat for curry.
• The same recipe can be used with goat meat.