A meal as beautiful as it is delicious? Yes please! A Chettinad meal is usually served on a banana leaf with each well-spiced dish interspersed with cooling flavours to create a feast for the eye as well as for the palate.
Chicken (including the favourite Chicken Chettinadu), fish, seafood, pulses, vegetables, rice, and sweets will all be part of the presentation. Chillies, shallots, coriander seeds, tamarind, cinnamon, star anise, pepper, and cardamom form the soul of the cuisine. These spices are roasted and freshly ground on a special granite stone for each dish.
© Laurielle Penny
The Chettinad region is in South India’s Tamil Nadu state, about 80 km east of the great temple town of Madurai. A peculiar set of circumstances has created an area renowned for its lavish mansions and tantalizing cuisine borne from an early international outlook.
The cuisine reflects the lifestyle of the Chettiar business and financial community that travelled to Burma, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia in the 19th century from their base in the 74 villages known as Chettinad. They traded salt, precious stones, and textiles and during British rule, added banking and moneylending to their activities. With the end of the colonial era, Chettiar wealth began to dwindle but not before they had built close to 15,000 mansions between the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These opulent villas, each of which contain as many as 50 storerooms, showcase materials and furniture from their travels; massive doors of Burmese teak, Venetian glass chandeliers, and delicate Italian tiles. Most of the homes are empty now as generations have moved away to Chennai and beyond. The opulent mansions are in various states of elegant ruin, but the sumptuous food is as fresh as ever.
When we’re in the area we stay at Visalam, a palatial Chettinadu mansion transformed into a 15-room hotel filled with antiques and vintage photographs and decorated with hand painted Attangudi tiles and local textiles, overlooking a bougainvillea filled garden (how perfect is that?). We come to explore this less-discovered part of India, for the warm welcome we always receive, and, yes, for the delicious cuisine.
Chef Latha
© Laurielle Penny
Chef Latha at Visalam taught me how to prepare her Chettinadu chicken. While I’m waiting to enjoy the original with her, it’s a recipe I enjoy preparing at home and I hope you will too:
Chef Latha’s Recipe for Chicken
Ingredients and method for 2
Ingredients and method for 2
Heat around 2 Tbsp of sunflower oil, then add:
3/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
A large pinch of kalpasi*
1 bay leaf
1 star anise
Fresh curry leaves from 1 sprig
1 small chopped red onion
Sauté, then add:
1 chopped Roma tomato100g approx diced skinless chicken
1&1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp salt
Sauté, then add:
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder** (for colour)
1/2 tsp chili powder (for heat)
1&1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 large tsp fresh grated coconut with fennel seeds ground to a paste
Add water to a soup like consistency (about 3/4 cup)
Simmer until chicken is cooked and gravy is reduced and thick
Garnish with fresh cilantro
*Kalpasi is hard to find outside India and, in my opinion, can be skipped without impacting your enjoyment of the dish.
I hope you enjoy this taste of South India at home. For more South India, join us on our November 2021 trip to South India and Sri Lanka. Good flavours guaranteed!!
Bonus Recipe! A South Indian favourite
Chef Jerry Mathew (middle) with his team member
and Worldwide Quest traveller
© Laurielle Penny
Spiced Coconut Chicken Curry
From Chef Jerry Mathew, Executive Chef at Spice Village, Periyar
From Chef Jerry Mathew, Executive Chef at Spice Village, Periyar
Ingredients for 4 servings
Chicken pieces cut into cubes 300g
Coconut oil 50g
Cardamom (pod) 2g
Cinnamon (stick) 2g
Cloves (whole) 2g
Onion (sliced thin) 100g
Garlic (sliced thin) 20g
Ginger (julienned) 20g
Green chili 10g
Curry leaves (if available) 2 sprigs
Turmeric (ground) 2g
Chili (ground) 10g
Coriander (ground) 20g
Garam Masala 2g
Tomatoes (chopped) 50g
Fennel (ground) 2g
Pepper (ground) 2g
Salt to taste
Coconut milk 120ml
For garnish
Coconut oil 20ml
Mustard seeds 2g
Shallots (sliced thin) 10g
Red chili flakes 2g
Curry leaves 2 sprigs
Heat the coconut oil in a pan and sauté cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, onions, ginger, garlic, green chili, and curry leaves till light brown in colour. Add ground turmeric, chili, coriander and garam masala. Sauté it for a minute and add the chopped tomatoes. Sauté for another few minutes and add the cubed chicken with salt and a little hot water (to keep the dish moist). When the chicken is cooked through, add the coconut milk and heat well. Finish with the ground fennel and pepper.
For the garnish, heat the oil in a pan and add all ingredients at once. Sauté until golden brown and add to the chicken dish.
