Known as God's own country, Kerala
is a wonderful holiday destination in India. Kerala is known for its alluring
landscape, long coastline and tranquil backwaters, wildlife sanctuary and every
year Kerala draws numerous tourists. Apart from its natural and artificial
treasures, Kerala is well-known for its wide range of dishes both vegetarian
and non-vegetarian.
Spices
and Ingredients
Spices play an important role in
Kerala cuisines. The main spices used are cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, green
peppers, red peppers, cloves, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander and turmeric. Few
fresh herbs, tamarind and lime are also used. Coconut in the form of coconut
kernel (sliced or grated), coconut cream and coconut milk are used in dishes
for thickening and flavoring. Due to the weather of Kerala and wide
availability of spices the dishes are spicy.
Popular
Cuisines
Sadhyas
Sadhya is a traditional vegetarian feast
of Kerala served on a banana leaf. Kerala is known for its customary feast served with boiled rice and a host of side dishes served during festivals
specially onam. The sadhya has steamed rice as the main ingredient served with
many side-dishes. A sadhya can have 24-28 dishes served as a single course. Sadhya consists of Boiled Rice, Sambhar, Parippu, Aviyal, Kaalan,
Pachadi, Kichadi, Poduthol, Thoran, Pulisherry, Olan, Puliinji, Pappadam,
Mooru, Kaya upperi, Sharkara upperi, Achar Pickle, Banana, Paayasam
Parippu
Curry
This is a typical Kerala dish it is
basically dal curry with ghee drizzled over parippu. Dal used is specially moong dal and spices
used for seasoning is turmeric powder, garlic, grated coconut, cumin seeds,
dried red chilly, shallots and curry leaves. This dal curry goes well with
pappad, ghee and rice.
Sambhar
Sambhar
is a south Indian dish made toor daal and vegetables and
served with rice, idlis or dosa optionally topped with ghee or butter. The
common types of Sambhar that can be made with different vegetable combinations
are onion sambhar, drumstick sambhar, raddish sambhar, raw mango sambhar, potato
sambhar etc.
Aviyal
Aviyal
is a dish that is made with mixture of vegetables cooked with coconut. Aviyal
can be made with any combination of vegetables. Commonly used vegetables are
elephant yam, plantain, pumpkin, carrots, beans, brinjal, cucumber, drumsticks,
snake gourd and avarai. It is seasoned with coconut oil and curry leaves.
Kaalan
Kaalan
is a dish made of yogurt, coconut and one vegetable like nendran plantain or a
tuber like yam. It is very thick and more sour than Aviyal.
Pachadi
It is
made of fresh vegetables and is served as an accompaniment for rice.
Ingredients used are vegetables, Yogurt, coconut, green or red chillies and and
garnished in oil with fried mustard seeds, ginger and curry leaves.
Prathaman
It is a
sweet dish in the form of a thick liquid, similar to payasam, but with more
variety in terms of ingredients and more elaborately made. It is made with
white sugar or jaggery to which milk or coconut milk is added.
Rasam
Rasam
is a curry made using tamarind, tomatoes, pepper, cumin, garlic and lentils.
Different types of rasam can be made based on ingredients such as pineapple
rasam, Mango rasam, Neem Leef rasam, Lemon rasam and ginger rasam.
Olan
Olan is
a dish prepared from Ash gourd, Pumpkin, Red cowpea beans, coconut milk and
ginger seasoned with coconut oil.
Injipuli
It is a
dark brown curry made from ginger, green chillies and jiggery. It is also known
and Puliinji in some parts of Kerala.
Pazham Nurukku
It is boiled sweet plaintain. Plaintain is cut in to
three pieces and is boiled with jaggery till the plaintain is cooked.
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