Traditional vegetarian dishes that are widely popular among the natives of Kurnool district stole the show in the eleventh of a series of cookery contests held at Kurnool on Saturday.
The top three prizes went to the popular “Uggani Bajji“, a most sought after dish made with puffed rice and coupled with mirchi bajji, “Nethi Kudumulu“, rice balls cooked in ghee, and “Gutti Vankaya“, stuffed brinjal curry, in that order among a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes prepared by the participants. Pootharekulu and Kakinada kaja , that are popular in coastal Andhra region, were also prepared by a couple of contestants.
The “Our State - Our Taste“ cookery event conducted by The Hindu in association A.P. Tourism at Maurya Inn Hotel here to identify the signature dish of the State attracted a sizeable participation of 182 competitors, including half a dozen men. There were several participants who prepared uggani bajji , gutti vankaya , ragi sangati , gongura pachadi and sweet dishes palakova , oligalu , paramannam and payasam .
Munakkaya jeedipappu , ulava charu , bendakaya pulusu , mamidikaya pappu , muddapappu , akukoora pulav , alasanda vada were among other vegetarian dishes prepared. The non-vegetarian dishes like Nellore chepala pulusu , natukodi pulusu , bongu chicken , vetamamsam pulav , thotakoora liver fry , were the specials apart from the usual biryanis prepared.
The cookery event went on in a lively manner with girl students of Vasavi and St. Joseph degree colleges, who constituted a sizeable number of contestants, interacted enthusiastically with the anchor Bhaskar and the master chefs, jovially cheered the guests and other contestants by clapping and sang songs enlivening the atmosphere.
Criteria
Master chefs K.R.K. Raju of ETV Abhurichi fame, B. Chinnam Raju, who conducts cookery classes, and S. Kiran Joel of Pioneer Institute of Hotel Management, all from Hyderabad, tasted the dishes and judged them by their form, flavour, nutritional value and the way they were presented.
Grand finale
C. Kamakshi who prepared uggani bajji bagged the winner trophy, followed by S. Akhila, who made nethi kudumulu , who was adjudged first runner-up and T. Sumathi who prepared gutti vankaya was second runner-up. They were presented trophies and winner certificates on behalf of The Hindu besides gifts from the sponsors. The winning trio from Kurnool district would participate in the grand finale at Amaravati on March 9.
Kurnool District Revenue Officer C. Sashi Devi and guest of honour Anuradha, PA to Special Collector of Srisailam project, lit a lamp to inaugurate the cookery contest and went round tasting various dishes and interacting with the participants. The DRO remarked that The Hindu cookery contest drew more participants than the Sankranthi cookery contest conducted last month. Women were given respect in scriptures as they serve food like a mother, wife and sisters, Ms. Anuradha said.
Premier Cookware and Appliances and Gopuram Food Products powered the series of cookery contests, HDFC Bank was the exclusive banking partner and TV5 the television partner, Red FM the radio partner and White Thoughts and Branding was the creative and digital partner.
