Traditional recipes

A thin, crisp crepe of ground whole green moong, flecked with ginger and chilli, often served with upma folded inside.

A sweet, sour and hot chutney of ginger, tamarind and jaggery, the classic partner for pesarattu.

Crisp, round fritters of rice and urad dal batter, a popular evening snack on the streets of Vijayawada and Guntur.

Ring-shaped fritters of ground urad dal, crisp outside and soft inside, made for Sankranti and other festivals.

Large mild green chillies stuffed with a tangy filling, dipped in gram flour batter and fried: a favourite street snack of Guntur and Vijayawada.

Crunchy rings of rice-flour dough studded with moong dal and sesame, a classic Telugu tea-time snack.

A sour, fiery chutney of roselle (gongura) leaves and red chillies, one of the signature tastes of Andhra food.

Raw mango pieces, cut with the hard seed shell, preserved in mustard powder, red chilli and sesame oil: the best-known Andhra pickle.

A fresh, tangy chutney of raw yellow cucumber with mustard and chillies, eaten with rice.

A roasted powder of toor dal, chana dal and red chillies, mixed with hot rice and ghee: the 'gunpowder' of the Andhra meal.

Plain toor dal cooked soft and mashed with salt and turmeric, eaten with hot rice, ghee and avakaya.

Toor dal cooked with spinach, green chillies and a little tamarind, finished with a garlic tempering.

A thin, tangy dal soup with tamarind, vegetables and a sweet hint of jaggery, eaten with rice.

A dark, slow-cooked soup of horse gram with tamarind and spices, a speciality of the Krishna and Guntur region.

A light curry of sour buttermilk thickened with coconut and chana dal paste, cooked with vegetables like ash gourd or okra.

Small brinjals stuffed with a roasted peanut, sesame and spice paste and cooked in their own juices.

Thinly sliced ivy gourd fried until crisp and tossed with a spicy roasted spice powder.

Cubes of raw banana cooked with mustard, curry leaves and red chilli until golden at the edges.

Rice mixed with a thick tamarind paste, peanuts and a hot tempering: a temple prasadam and festival favourite in Andhra.

Finger millet flour stirred into cooked rice to make soft balls, the staple of the dry Rayalaseema region, eaten with spicy curries.

A hot, thin curry of free-range country chicken with freshly ground spices, the classic partner for ragi sangati.

Tender mutton cooked with sour gongura (roselle) leaves and red chillies, one of the best-known Andhra meat dishes.

A fiery chicken curry made with plenty of Guntur red chillies, from the chilli capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Fish simmered in a tangy, red tamarind gravy, traditionally in a clay pot; it tastes best the next day.

Prawns cooked down with onion, red chilli and fennel-spiced masala until the gravy clings to them.

Spiced chicken packed into a green bamboo tube, sealed with leaves and roasted over an open fire, a dish of the Araku hills.

Boiled eggs simmered in a tangy onion and tamarind gravy, an easy everyday curry in Andhra homes.

Soft, chewy discs of rice flour and jaggery syrup, deep-fried and pressed: the most important sweet of Telugu Sankranti.

A soft flatbread stuffed with sweet chana dal and jaggery, roasted with ghee for Ugadi and other festivals.

Laddus of roasted urad dal flour bound with jaggery or sugar and warm ghee, valued as a nourishing sweet.

Balls of sweet chana dal and jaggery dipped in rice and urad batter and fried, served with a spoon of ghee poured inside.

Paper-thin sheets of rice starch layered with ghee and powdered sugar or jaggery, a sweet made famous by Atreyapuram village in the Godavari delta.

A fried pastry of folded wheat-flour dough soaked in sugar syrup so that it is juicy inside, a famous sweet of Kakinada.

A ritual chutney of six tastes, eaten first on Ugadi, the Telugu New Year, to accept the sweet and bitter of the year ahead.

A cooling jaggery drink with dry ginger and pepper, served with soaked moong dal on Sri Rama Navami.