Curry Leaves
The Tamil language name for Curry Leaves is "Karuvepillai".
Photo of strings of curry leaves:
Just by looking at the word "Curry" in "Curry leaves", you may imagine this is a must ingredient for making curries, but that is not the case.
In present day, Tamil cuisine and in general Indian cuisine, Curry Leaves plays a major role.
Curry leaves are important in Sri Lankan cuisine too.
In Tamil cusine, there are various ways of using "Karuvepillai":
1
Curry Leaves:
We use Curry Leaves for mainly for seasoning or tempering. Almost all dishes will have a seasoning done by curry leaves. Some times curry leaves are grinded as part of other ingredients. Some times curry leaves will get added during the frying process for example as in Kaadai fry or Fish Kuzhambu.
Curry leaves are also used to make side dish for breakfast - chutney and thuvayal.
Dried and powdered curry leaves are used as a main ingredient to mix with rice to make Karuvepillai rice, a variety rice.
Image of Curry leaves with garlic and chilli:
Image of Curry leaves with Onion and garlic for making Fish Kuzhambu:
Image of curry leaves, onion, tomato and garlic for making Japanese quail fry:
Photo of 1 string of curry leaves.
Popular dish where Curry Leaves is used:
Seasoning for almost all main dish and side dish irrespective of veg or non-veg
As one of main vegetable
ingredient in making masalas for example in Kaadai fry
Spelling variations in Tamil name for Curry Leaves:
Karuvepilla, Karuvepillai, Karu vepillai, Karvu vepill thazhai, Karu vepillai kothu