Contest: Traditional Food|| Kerala India

Hello!

Let me give you a small insight into the traditional food of Kerala, India. India is a very diverse country with many regions where each region has a plethora of festivals and traditions. Here I am going to talk about a southern Indian state called Kerala. It is also know as God's Own Country. Kerala has a very diverse multi-cultural community and is blessed with abundant natural beauty. In Kerala you can find lush green hills, thick forests and beautiful beaches. With this range of geographic conditions Kerala is also known for its ability for growing various types of food.

Kerala is most popularly known for its spices, you can find cinnamon, peppercorn, vanilla, cloves, cardamom among other spices grown here. Due to this fact it also became a very busy trading port especially with the Middle East and then the rest of the world. With so many cultures coming in contact the food habits of the region were also shaped by these communities. The ingredients used vary from area to area in the state and the community as well. With it's long coastline seafood and fish is popularly used. Meat such as beef, pork & lamb are favorites too. Poultry like chicken and duck forms the staple of many household. A large part of the community is vegetarian as well and they have a plethora of vegetables to choose from, jackfruit, cassava or tapioca also very popular. Coconut because of its abundance is also widely used through cooking oils or as coconut milk to flavour curries or even just grated into dishes to enhance the flavour.

While a single post will never do justice to the food on offer from Kerala, for this post I will stick to the traditional Onam Sadhya meal that is had during the festival of Onam. Onam is a harvest festival which is held every year. Another belief is the festival is held to honour the King Mahaballi. He is believed to return to Kerala during this festival. According to mythology King Mahaballi defeated the evil to then rule over the 03 realms. The festival is celebrated every year with much grandeur in every home in Kerala with major attractions such as snake boat races, various dances by men and women, decoration of houses with flowers etc.

Examples of decor at home

Another festivity symbolic of the festival is Onam Sadhya - which literally means Onam Feast. And Feast is not a word that's used lightly here as there are around 18-25 dishes on offer here. All the food is served on a banana leaf and is especially prepared for this day. The food served is all vegetarian and is multi course meal all served together on a freshly cut banana leaf. The dishes include :-

• Kaaya Varuthatha (banana chips),

• Chenna Varuthathu (yam cut into slices and fried with spices),

• Sarkara Upperi (jaggery coated banana chips),

• Pulinji (tamarind-based chutney),

• Buttermilk and papad

• Pachadi (pineapple or bitter gourd in yogurt),

• Olan (ash gourd with beans in a thick coconut milk gravy),

• Avial (vegetables made with coconut milk),

• Kalan, (yam and plantain yogurt based curry)

• Sambar (lentil and vegetable curry)

• Rasam, (stock which sour and usually prepared with either tomatoes, kokum, pepper, tamarind, garlic and other spices, it can be drunk straight or paired with hot steamed rice)

• Thoran, (mixed vegetable dry preparation with grated coconut)

• Mor Curry, (yogurt based light curry flavoured with turmeric, mustard and curry leaves)

• Choru (Boiled Rice),

• Ada Pradhaman

• Pal Payasaam

A small example of what the feast would look like

Traditionally the tables are set as long tables with chairs on one side where after you sit the food is served dish wise on to your banana leaf. Once all the food is served on the leaf then you start eating. The servers will walk around the tables offering repeat servings of any dish you would want. It is not surprising to see 100s of people eat this meal together and the cooking is done in bulk for these festivals. However, many household recreate this setting at home and take the time and energy to make these delicacies.

All the food here is vegetarian and made with ingredients found everywhere in Kerala. Coconut is used in all the dishes in some form or the other like coconut oil, coconut milk, grated coconut. The popular dishes which Kerala shares with other South Indian states are Sambhar - which is a lentil and vegetable curry, Rassam - which is a stock which sour and usually prepared with either tomatoes, kokum, pepper, tamarind, garlic and other spices, it can be drunk straight or paired with hot steamed rice.

This is what our meal looked like

This past year at home we also tried to make these dishes at home, though we did not go for the full spread of 25 dishes we still did manage to cook up 15 items. The total prep time for this was around 09 hours which includes all the vegetable prep of cutting and chopping, cooking and dishing out the food. Yes, we did it traditional too and served it on a banana leaf.

Pal Payasam

Poriyal

Kalan

Thoran

Sambar

The entire spread

This was our first attempt at recreating this feast at home, though most the dishes came out on point, there were a couple of dishes that we need to work on for it to be labelled as authentic. Though it was a tiring experience, at the end of the day it definitely was worth the effort and we ended up having one satisfactory meal.

Cheers hope you''l enjoyed reading this.

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