`Sadya' - the typical Kerala feast served
on a banana leaf, is a sumptuous spread
of rice and more than 14 vegetable dishes,
topped with `payasam', the delicious sweet
dessert cooked in milk. A typical Kerala
breakfast may be `idli' ,sambar, dosai
and coconut chutney.
As in much of South India, there is a
tendency towards vegetarian food. However,
the Muslims and Christians excel in non-vegetarian
cuisine like `pathiri' and kozhi curry(chicken),
biriyani and fish dishes. There are many
restaurants serving sea-food - prawn curry
in coconut gravy is exceptionally good.
Curries are eaten usually with plain steamed
rice. Almost every dish prepared in Kerala
has coconut and spices to flavour the
local cuisine giving it a sharp pungency
that is heightened with the use of tamarind,
while coconut gives it its richness, absorbing
some of the tongue-teasing, pepper-hot
flavours. Tender coconut water is a refreshing
nutritious thirst quencher.The crunchy
papadam,banana and jackfruit chips can
give french fries a run for their money
any day.
Indian food is spiced up with cinnamon,
cardamom, ginger, cloves garlic, cumin,
coriander and turmeric. Spices are used
in India to tone up the system the way
wines aid the digestion of Western Cuisine.
As for the Cuisine of Kerala, it is midly
flavored, gently cooked and has a certain
genteel delicacy on the stomach. An example
is the rich biriyanis of the northern
parts of Kerala. The Malabar Biriyanis.
Pulaos, pilaffs and biriyanis are meats
spices and onions slowly steam cooked
in boiled rice. Malabar biriyani was brought
across the Indian Ocean by Arab Seafarers.
It should be eaten hot with crispy, crunchy
pappads.
A favourite breakfast dish is Pootu.
Rice flour dough is lagered with gated
coconut and steamed in hollow bamboo cylinder.
It is eaten sprinkled with sugar or with
mashed bananas or with a spicy curry made
of channa or chic peas. Iddlis or fluffy
white steamed cakes and dosas which are
thin golden pancakes are popular in Kerala.
They are made up of yeasty rice and lentil
batter. They are not strictly Malayali
Cuisine. They came across from the vegetarian
kitchens next door in the State of Tamil
Nadu.
Kerala does have its own well developed
vegetarian cuisine. If you visit the State
during post harvest Onam season lunch
with thoran or kaalan or pachadi or olen.
Thorans are gravy-less dishes of finely
chopped boiled vegetables and possibly
meet and sea food. The mustard seed used
in thorans gives them a pleasantly assertive
flavour, while the lightly fried grated
coconut adds the church. Avial, on the
other hand, is mixed vegetable gravy dish
thickened with coconut and yoghurt. Drumsticks,
jack fruit seeds and slices of mango are
foten used. Olen is also a very gravy
dish made of ash gourd and drum beans
where the predominant flavour is that
of coconut milk. It is a fairly thick
liquid squeezed out from the white flesh
of a fresh coconut.
Bananas are very popular in Kerala Cuisine.
Sliced finely and deep fried as chips,
they are chewy snacks. Cut into bits,
fried and dipped in jaggerey or sugar
syrup, they are sweets. Cooked in thick
yoghurt and seasoned with chilly, turmeric
cumin seed and curry leaves, they become
Kaalan accompainment to the main meal.
Malayalee Pachadi is a fairly thick sauce
made of sugar, yoghurt, grated coconut,
mustard seed and a wide spectrum range
of spices including green and red chillies.
Sambar is a cross between a sauce and
a broth. It contains smashed lentils,
cooked vegetables and apices including
the exotic and edible resin asafoetida.
For desert, there is the Pradhman or
Payasam, porridge like sweets with a vermicelli
of rice base, cooked in milk and sugar
or jaggery.
A favourite dish of Syrian Christians
residing at Kottayam is stew. Chicken
and potatoes are simmered gently in a
creamy white sauce flavoured with black
pepper, cinnamon, cloves, green chillies,
lime juice, shallots and coconut milk.
The stew is eaten with Appams. Appams
Kallappams or Vellayappams are rice flour
pancakes which have soft, thick white
spongy centres and thin golden crip lace
like edge. Meen vevichathu or fish in
fiery red chilly sauce is also another
favourite item. Besides the chicken and
fish there is also red meat, erachi orlarthiathu.
Beef (or lamb) is boiled with roasted
cirruabder seeds, red chilles, cloves,
onions, cummins garlic, ginger, fried
coconut chips and a little vinegar. Then
with the water reduced, the, meat is almost
fried dry in a little oil that has been
flavoured with sliced shallots and highly
aromatic curry leaves.
Kerala cuisine is an ideal mix of influences
of the Syrian Christians, Moplah's and
Hindu's. It is also a homogeneous mix
of yester years foreign influences as
well which has gelled well with the present
Kerala Cuisine.
