Home Made Cuisines of Kerala

Beside its vast network of backwaters, long shoreline that is hemmed by azure Arabian sea, Kerala is a land to embrace. Kerala, the God's own country is truly a picture perfect portrait. Globetrotters from various parts of world comes to Kerala to explore every aspect of this exhilarating land.

Apart from its natural and artificial treasures, Kerala is well known in the entire world for its mouth-watering cuisines. The unusual cuisines of the state has highlighted the culinary expertise of Keralites to the global fraternity. The people of Kerala are very fond of hot and spicy cuisines. Their delicacies are mostly fresh, aromatic and flavoured.

Keralites love to use coconut, curry leaves, mustard seeds, tamarind, asofoetida and chilies in their lip-smacking dishes. People of this coastal land apart from their veg curries, love to gorge on various kinds of fishes with plain or puffed rice.

Kerala has endless array of sumptuous dishes that are very popular among the holidaymakers. Most Keralite restaurants have these dishes on their menu cards. But, apart from these popular cuisines, there are some more dishes that are very common in every Kerala household.

Sambhar: The most common curry which is an integral part of a Keralite meal is Sambhar. It is a vegetable stew or chowder based on a broth made with tamarind and toovar dal. People love to have it with plain rice.

Parippu: It is also a form of curry which is prepared with masoor dal (red lentils) . At first, masoor dal is boiled in water. After some time grated coconut, jeera (cumin) and garlic paste is added to this dal and cook it for some more time. Thereafter, it is tempered with onion paste and served hot with rice.

Aviyal: It is a fine blend of vegetables with grated coconut, jeera, garlic paste and lots of green chillies. It is tempered with raw curry leaves, sprinkled in the fresh coconut oil . After mixing it well with the curry, the Aviyal is served.

Thoran: It is not a form of curry. All kinds of leafy vegetables like cabbage, spinach leaves are used to prepare Thoran. At first, these vegetables are clean and chopped finely. Mustard seeds are sprinkle in hot oil. Chopped onion, green chillies, curry leaves are add to it and saute well. Thereafter, grated coconut are added and is sauted in low flame. Chopped cabbage or spinach leaves are added to it and cook in low flame by covering the pan.

Kappa(Tapioca) with fish curry: It is a famous Keralite cuisine which is mainly prefer for lunch and dinner meal. Kappa is a tubular, rich in carbohydrate. It is like a root and grows underground. At first, after peeling its skin, it is cut into pieces, washed and boiled in lots of water with pinch of salt. After,
draining off the water, it is fry in oil with mustard seeds, jeera, curry leaves, small onion slices and green chilies. Coconut masala and salt are added to this mixture and cook it for some more time on a low flame. It is serve hot with fish or meen curry.

Apart from these curries and vegetable stews, there are some cuisines that are used for breakfast. Some such dishes are idlli, sambhar, dosa, utpam etc. These are very common and easily available. But, there are some more dishes that are not so popular. Some such dishes are Puttu and Upma.

Puttu: It is a steam cake. To prepare this salt and grated coconut is added to rice flour. Water is added to this mixture. Consistency of water should be maintained. Puttu maker is used to make this dish. Layer the Puttu maker with some grated coconut first, then the rice mixture and then the grated coconut again. It is steam for few minutes and than serve with Kadala curry( black chana curry) or bananas.

Upama: Upama is a breakfast dish and prepared with refined wheat grains(suji) or vermicelli or thick, brown wheat grains. At first the semolina is roasted dry till it turn brown. After than, mustard seeds are added to hot oil. So, that they splutter. Than finely chopped onion, garlic, ginger, jeera and curry leaves are added to it and fry till onion became soft and little brown. Thereafter, sliced vegetables, salt and few cups of water is added to the above mixture and bring to boil. After some time roasted semolina is added and mix well, so that lumps formation can be avoided. When it cooked, grated coconut, chopped cilantro leaves and lemon juice are used to garnish it.

Home Made Cuisines of Kerala
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