I’ve decided to take up Indian cooking! Not just any kind of Indian cooking, but South Indian cooking — specifically foods from Tamil Nadu. The foods of India are as varied as the regions and the languages, so what makes South Indian foods so special? The preparation, the ingredients and most importantly the love!

First up, iddyappam and sambar. Iddyappam is rice flour that’s made into noodles. I must admit, I’m going to cheat. I have a bag of iddyappam rice flour. All I need to do is measure the amount of flour I want and add water. However, the difficult part is pressing the mixture through the iddyappam press. Thankfully, my husband is here to help! He’ll do the pressing for me.

Sambar is lentil soup or chowder with black mustard seeds, tomatoes, fresh curry leaves coconut and other spices.

See the pictures below. Not bad for my first try!

Stay tuned for more adventures in South Indian cooking!