Kerala sample meal

Kerala beef varattiyathu with vegetables

Mexican chicken fajitas starring in a simple Kerala meal

A lot like one of our sides for rice, one of our so called dry curries. Lot of home grown bell peppers this year. So made this and served with our own payarukari/red chori/ lentil soup. With some yogurt and tomato chutney, a nod to the Mexican beans and tomato rice, this meal is fabulous.

Malabar kozhi nirachathu and neela pulav Blue rice pulav and stuffed roast chicken Malabar style

Pazhamangaakari - Kerala ripe mango and lentil

Another delicious ripe mango dish with lentils and coconut.

Mambazha pulissery - Kerala ripe mango in mildly spicy coconut sauce

One way of cooking ripe mangoes back home. Delicious with rice.
With a side of fried fresh fish, or fried salted fish, or beef varattiyathu or fried, and chick pea mezhukkupuratti, or on its own, you will eat a bushel of rice. 😀

Kerala varutharacha meenkoottan - Kerala fish in seared spice sauce

Another Kerala special, this dish is heavenly with rice. With the nostalgic aromas of coconut and spices browned in oil along with shallots and curry leaves, this is sure to delight you.

Aviyal

Another vegetable dish from Kerala. A medley with a coconut-cumin-green chili-shallots-yogurt sauce. A staple in sadya. Excellent with rice and sambar or rasam. Add a piece of fried fish, it is a comforting meal.

Kinnathappam

A childhood favorite, this steamed rice cake is another Kerala staple. But while many make this flavored with cumin or cardamom, I always prefer the one that my grandmother and mother used to make -- with pieces of banana on top. you will need the sweet naadan Kerala plantain to make it awesome.

Oalan

One of the staples in a Kerala sadya, I love this mildly spiced coconut milk based vegetable dish. Usually use cucumber, but I have used zucchini here. Cn be made with or without the little red beans. Both versions are delicious with rice.

Paal cake

A Malabar tea shop special, this tastes better the next day, and then, it is addictive. Kind of like donuts.

Old style Kerala sponge cake- I still haven’t achieved that old taste!

Growing up, we used to get these yellow flower shaped cakes back home. I loved the taste and the aroma of those. They still make something that looks like those cakes, but sadly, not at all the same taste or texture. I couldn't find a recipe online either! I tried to recreate that and came up with this. This is delicious, but not that old cake. Wonder what flavoring or essence they used back then. Same with the plum cake that we used to get back then. Today's plum cake is not at all like the old ones.

Yellow split pea soup - sample Kerala meal

My favorite combo. Forgot to add yogurt to the plate. Yellow lentil soup, spicy, fried fish, and a little lime pickle with rice.

Christmas 2015

The year I went crazy on my love for the British and European culinary traditions .
For the first time, I made steamed pudding in the pudding basin. With the roast duck dinner, it was almost a Dickensian Christmas. Almost, because there was no goose, just a duck.

mince pies

steamed plum pudding

American cinnamon roll ready for the oven

Swedish julbullar

French kouign amann

Austrian Linzertorte

For Christmas eve, a roast duck dinner with red cabbage and pear-cranberry relish and sambar and rice pulao/pilaf for mom

On Christmas day, a typical Nazrani dinner -- with fish, in coconut milk sauce and fried, Kerala style,  roast chicken, braised and fried beef,  beef croquettes, lamb stew and paalappam

Granola Ellunda -- Rolled oats- sesame seeds balls

Sweet sesame seed balls were a childhood favorite back home. Last week, there was some leftover coconut-jaggery filling which begged to be used. Heated some ghee and pan seared the rolled oats and the sesame seeds -- can use black and white or both -- and mixed it with the melted jaggery-coconut filling And this was the result. Granola balls! Delicious!

Kozhukkatta and Peecham pidi

Nazrani Palm Sunday specials. Kozhukkattas are rice flour dumplings with a sweet coconut filling . The sweetener can be regular sugar or jaggery. and Peecham podis are made with mildly sweet rice-flour-coconut dough, steamed. 

Sambar

Sambar is one of the staples in our house. There will be some always. It goes well with rice, rotis, dosa and idli and vada etc etc. And it is healthy and spicy delicious and aromatic. It has a lentil base, and all kinds of vegetables, all kinds of spices including turmeric, coriander, asafoetida, and a few others.  One of the basic food item of South Indians. A soup, a stew, a so-called curry.

this one is special because I used a mandolin to prep the vegetables. Till now I did everything by hand, as I realize that I am kind of a perfectionist. Each vegetable piece had to certain shape and size.
But once I used the gadget, things looked different, but somehow easier. Tasted the same, anyway.

final seasoning with mustard seeds, dried chillies, spices

rice and sambar and ground beef

Chicken biryani

Any Indian worth his/her salt would swear by a favorite Biryani. So, in my case, I am rather partial to the Malabar Chicken biryani. Still hanker for the biryani served in my University hostel. The preparations in the yard, the aroma of the spices, of the onions frying in ghee, of mint and coriander leaves, the huge vessel on top of the wood fire, the embers on the huge lid glowing, .... .

There are so many different biryanis particular to each region, each community, each family in India, that this dish is versatile. But I have to write something down here or rather rant. Recntly I read while looking through the biryani recipes given by non- Indians, that Indian cuisine is very forgiving, unlike the Western baking, which is a science. Maybe true. But -- just let us take biryani. Suppose you cook the rice to a mush, or undercook it , or the same with the meat or the vegetables or the fish. Yes, we have seen that in some restaurants and takeouts around here. Mushy veggies, little bony pieces of chicken scattered around in the rice,-- bt that is not the real thing, is it? Indin cooking is a science and an art. It is intuitive, instinctive, and imaginative -- and most of all, full of flavor. Not just of salt, or of tomato, but of a million nuances. But then that is just me talking!

prep:

Okra/lady's finger bonanza

The summer of 2016 was okra/lady's finger/vendakka time for us. The five or six plants that I grew from seeds bought from the Kitasawa company produced so much!
 This is what I did with them.

 Our basic mezhukkupuratti

Punjabi mode:

Kerala Kichadi:

A stirfry with home grown tomatoes:

Another Punjabi dish:

Pakodas:

Kerala Pachadi:

Kerala Theeyal:

Gumbo: