Salna Recipe Street Style Empty Parotta Chalna Whiskaffair

on Feb 07, 2021, Updated Aug 09, 2023 Here are some more South Indian curries: Vegetable Stew, Veg Kurma, Mor Kuzhambu, Kadala Curry, and Moru Curry. They are not wrong when they say traveling shapes you as a person. Traveling exposes you to so many new experiences, perspectives, and cultures. I am very grateful that I could travel a lot in India and abroad; it truly made me the person I am today. Whenever we travel to a certain place, I like to try the local cuisine. On our trip to Madurai, we went to Madurai Kitchen to try their parotta salna. The spicy coconutty gravy differed greatly from the North Indian curries or the Hyderabad salan. It had a unique taste that lingered.

About Salna

Salna (Empty Parotta Chalna, Plain Salna, Empty Salna, Veg Salna) is a street-style thin gravy famous in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Going to Tamil Nadu, you will find street carts and roadside street food shops selling salna and hot parottas. A huge crowd gathers around the carts, relishing this humble combination. Restaurants sell this combination, too. Empty Salna is a tomato-onion-based gravy with a prominent flavor from fresh coconut. It comes together in under 40 minutes and uses pantry staples. It is very similar in color and consistency to a Hyderabadi salan or a biryani gravy, but its tastes are very different and unique. Traditionally, it is served with flaky Malabar parotta, but I even enjoy this curry with appam, neer dosa, or ghee roast dosa. Try my Chicken Salna as well. You can adjust the green chilies as per your taste. Skip adding poppy seeds if they are not available. Buy already grated fresh coconut from the freezer section of an Indian grocery store to save time.

For The Curry

To make the curry, you will need everyday ingredients such as oil, fresh curry leaves, onions, green chilies, salt, ginger-garlic paste, fresh tomatoes, and cilantro (fresh coriander leaves). You will need whole spices like bay leaves (tejpatta), cinnamon (dalchini), cloves (laung), black peppercorns (kali mirch), and star anise (chakr phool). To enhance the flavor further, add some spice powders such as coriander powder, Kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder, and garam masala powder.

½ cup chopped or grated fresh coconut 1 teaspoon fennel seeds 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick 2-3 cloves 2-3 whole green cardamoms 1 teaspoon white poppy seeds 8-10 cashew nuts 1 green chili

Add ¼ cup of water and blend to make a fine paste. Add the following ingredients once the oil is hot, and let them crackle for 4-5 seconds.

2 bay leaves 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick 2-3 cloves 2-3 black peppercorns 1-star anise

10-12 curry leaves 1 cup of thinly sliced onions ¼ teaspoon salt 1 green chili (slit into half)

Cook until the onions are slightly browned (4-6 minutes), stirring frequently. Now add 2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes. Add the following ingredients and cook for another minute.

1 teaspoon coriander powder 2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder ½ teaspoon turmeric powder 2 teaspoon garam masala powder

Close the lid of the cooker and pressure cook for 2 whistles on medium-high heat. Check for salt and add more if needed. Garnish with 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro and serve hot. Now press CANCEL and then press PRESSURE COOK. Set the timer to 4 minutes at high pressure. Once the timer goes off, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. Then, manually release the remaining pressure and open the lid. If you are a vegetarian, be careful when eating salna in a restaurant. Restaurants usually cook it with added chicken or mutton pieces, remove them, use them to make other dishes, and serve the salna plain. You can also add vegetables like eggplant, gourd, carrots, potatoes etc to this recipe. You can swap cashew nuts with peanuts or roasted gram. I made this salna recipe in my 3-quart instant pot (or a 3-liter stovetop pressure cooker). If you want to scale it, use a 6-quart instant pot (or a 5-liter pressure cooker). The cooking time will remain the same. To make this dish more inviting, temper it with 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon of Kashmiri red chili powder.