A typical Kerala feast, referred to as sadya, is spread out temptingly on a clean green banana leaf. And the food is to be eaten with the fingers. Even the dessert, payasam, that tastes like rice pudding, is served on the leafy plate.

The culinary efforts of the different communities of Kerala result in distinctly different dishes of great variety. While Hindus specialise in delicious vegetarian food such as sambar, rasam, olan, kaalan, pachadi, kichadi, aviyal, thoran and so on. The Muslims and Christians excel in non vegetarian cuisine. The pathiri, a sort of pancake made of rice flour, and biriyani which is a mouthwatering dish of rice cooked along with meat, onions, chillies and other spices are Muslim culinary delights. Christians have interesting recipes to make an array of fish dishes such as meen pollichathu, fish molee and so on. Christian cookery specially caters to people with a sweet tooth – crunchy kozhalappam, achappam, cheeda, churuttu etc.

A typical Kerala breakfast may be puttu, which is rice powder and grated coconut steam cooked together, idli and sambar, dosai and chutney, idiappam (string hoppers), or the most delicious of them all, the appam. Appam is a kind of pan cake made of rice flour fermented with a small amount of toddy (fermented sap of the coconut palm) which is circular in shape, rather like a flying saucer, edged with a crisp lacy frill. It is eaten with chicken or vegetable stew. Kanji (rice gruel) and payaru (green gram), kappa (casava) and fish curry are traditional favourites of Keralites.

Almost every dish prepared in Kerala has coconut and spices added to it – spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric etc. Spices are used in Kerala to tone up the system the way wines aid the digestion of western cuisine. The juice of tender coconut – ‘world’s safest natural soft drink’ – is a refreshing nutritious thirst quencher. The staple food of the masses is rice. Kerala cuisine also has a medley of pickles and chutneys. And the crunchy papadams, banana chips and jack chips can give french fries a run for their money any day.

Food at the hotels we recommend will not only be very good but interesting as well. Below is a menu from Malabar House in Cochin together with two examples. Seafood is obviously a speciality in Kerala.

Keralan Recipes

Roasted Okra
Courtesy of Emerald Isle Homestay

250g Okra
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
2 onions - chopped
2 tomatoes – chopped
1 stem of curry leaves
Masala powder
Salt

Put oil into pan and sauté the onions for 3 minutes. Add the curry leaves and then the tomatoes and then 1 tbsp of massala powder. Then add the okra and season with ½ teaspoon salt. Cover with lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

Beetroot Bachada with curd
Courtesy of Emerald Isle Homestay

1 onion - chopped
7 small green chillies – chopped
½ stem of curry leaves
1 inch of ginger – chopped
1 beetroot – grated
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Salt
1 cup natural yoghurt

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the ginger and onion. then stir for 1 minute. Add chillies and curry leaves and then beetroot. Season with ½ a teaspoon of salt. Cover and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and cool, then stir in the yoghurt.

Cabbage Thoran
Courtesy of Emerald Isle Homestay

1 tbsp sunflower oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
250g white cabbage – grated
3 tbsp coconut – grated
1 onion – finely chopped
6 curry leaves
3 green chillies – chopped
salt

Mix together all the ingredients except oil and mustard seeds in a bowl. Heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds until they pop. Then add the rest of the mixture, stir well and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes.

Fried Chicken
Courtesy of Emerald Isle Homestay

To Marinate:
1kg chicken pieces
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp chilli powder (kashmiri) – use less if different type of chilli powder
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp ginger/garlic paste

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, then add the chicken. Mix well and leave to marinade for 30mins – 2 hours. Fry in oil until chicken is browned

Kozy Mappas
Courtesy of Brunton Boatyard, Cochin

200g chicken
15g ginger
10g garlic
5g turmeric powder
25g coriander powder
5g garam masala
5g fennel powder
50ml coconut milk
20ml coconut oil
25g onion
2 green chillies
5 curry leaves
Chicken stock
Sliced shallots
1 red chilly

Heat the oil in a saucepan, add ginger, garlic, green chilly, curry leaves and onion, sauté until brown. Now add the turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Mix with the chicken and pour in the chicken stock and cook the chicken well. Finally add the coconut milk and tempering (Coconut oil, mustard seeds, sliced shallots, red chilly curry leaves and fennel powder).