Kerala Cuisine
Kerala Cuisine is of peculiar type and of tongue-watering delicacies. A full-course meal has over a dozen items. All the items are quickly digestive.
Kerala cooking offers the vegetarian gourmets a true feast. Keralan cuisine truly embraces the rich opportunities that vegetarian cooking offers and it is no surprise that coconuts are a key ingredient. Grated coconut and along with coconut oil is widely used in almost every dish which gives Keralan cuisines a distictive flavor and aroma. Below we list some of the key ingredients in Keralan cooking as well as recommended specialities to eat during your visit.
Rice : Rice is savoured with all the other dishes in sadya, rice too has a variety with major ones the white plain rice and the other the red one matta rice with bran.
Sambar, Avil, Elussery, Erupuli, Olan, Thoran, Pulinji, Achar(Pickle), Pine-apple curry, Istu, Rasam, Buttermilk and so on. Except Rasam and buttermilk all are vegetable curries. Rasam being vegetable soup.
Sambar : A watery curry. About 2” length cut-pieces of ladies finger and drumstick, chilli, coriander and asafoetida are the main ingredients. (Ready made concoction mix except vegetables are available in the market).
Avial : Drumstick, beans, banana, yam etc with about 2” length and 1/8” thick cut-pieces and coconut form main ingredients.
Elussery : Banana, coconut and coconut oil – main ingredients.
Erupuli : Curd, banana, coconut, turmeric mix-up.
Olan : Cucumber and coconut, major ingredients.
Thoran : Cabage and coconut preparation, it also can be made of green papayas.
Kaalan : Made using Banana and curd mixed with coconut paste and green chilly.
Pachadi : It is mainly made of Pumpkin, Coconut milk and curd with green chilly. A pleasing way to finish the meal.
Pulinji : Tamarind, chilli and jaggery concoction.
Achar : Citrus or mango, chilli, coriander, asafoetida and gingelly oil constitute main ingredients.
Pine-apple curry: Pine-apple and coconut form with minor ingredients.
Istu : Green piece, potato, beetroot are the core ingredients. Rasam : Tamarind, tomato and coriander plants constitute major items.
Papadam : Papadams are a type of Kerala wafer which is a prominent part of any Kerala feast. It is made of rice and is served as an accompaniment to a meal and can also eaten as an appetizer or a snack
Payasam (A sweetmeat Drink):
There are over half a dozen varieties of payasam in Kerala. Each variety has its own taste. Once tasted, the mind will go after it. Look at some and ensure at least some of them are tasted.
1 Palpayasam: Concoction of milk, cured rice powder, sugar,cashewnut and dried grape. Requiring minimum 6-hour boiling.
2 Adapradhaman: Cured rice powder, jaggery, coconut milk, cashewnut, dried grape.
3 Parippupayasam: De-husked blackgram, coconut milk, jaggery, cashewnut dried grape.
4 Pazhapradhaman: Yellow long variety banana(Nendran), coconut milk, jaggery, cashewnut and dried grape.
Full-Course Meal : Rice, sambar, avil, elisseri, thoran, erupuli, olan, pineapple curry, istu,pulinji, achar, rasam, moru (buttermilk), pazham (banana – yellow,small size), 2 or 3 types of upperi (banana chips), pappadam (urid flour-made, 4 to 6” dia and fried in oil) and one or two types of payasam. Rasam helps speedy digestion.
Full-Course Meal Occasions :Weddings and Onam.
All the meal items are served in a plantain leaf, and eaten by hand
Breakfast – Kerala :
Like Kerala meals, Kerala has its own breakfast item. The popularity of this item is far beyond Indian borders.
Kerala’s breakfast menu, puttu – kadala, is a universally acclaimed delicacy. Once tasted, the tongue will resist any other heavenly good breakfast.
Puttu is made of rice-flour and coconut. Rice-flour thoroughly mixed with scraped coconut fills in a coconut shell-die or 10” long 1.5” dia hollow metal-die (stainless steel or aluminium) and get steam cooked for about 10 minutes. Puttu is ready. Bengal gram stew is what we call ‘kadala’. Kadala means Bengal gram. The Malayalam word for stew is swallowed for making ‘puttu – kadala’ more appealing.
Food and Eating in Kerala
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