Did you know that the rich culture and natural beauty of Kerala is accompanied by a nutritious and tasty cuisine? Kerala is famous for a variety of traditional recipes – here are some you could sample the next time you are visiting God’s own land. As in most of Southern India, Kerala is known for its coconut and rice plantations. Rice is a staple food of Keralites and so the cuisine of the state incorporates a variety of rice recipes. Rice is nice You can begin your day with nutritious foods like idli, upma, appam, ela ada, chiratta puttu or idiyappam. Most of these dishes are made from rice soaked overnight and ground to a paste. Coconut milk is also used abundantly. The appams are made in a special pan designed for the purpose. Some of these recipes are tedious as the complete process of making the batter takes two days. Sambar is a lentil curry usually eaten with these breakfast dishes. Lemon rice is a well-known nutritious and wholesome dish in which rice is cooked with lentils, lemon juice and curry leaves are added for flavor. Kai pathiri is an ideal snack made from rice powder. The rice powder is mixed with water to make dough, small rounds of which are fried and served with curry – most commonly the nadan kozhi curry. Currying flavors Kerala cuisine offers a variety of curries like parippu curry made with green gram and the versatile nadan kozhi curry. Kerala chicken curry and fish curry are popular with meat lovers! A Kerala style lunch or dinner menu would often include Kottayam fish curry and rice. Njandu curry, chemeen fry or Cochin meen moiley are some of the other curries you could try. Erucheri, a dish made from plantains is also a Kerala specialty. Vegetarians will love avial that includes healthy ingredients like cucumbers, eggplants, carrots, gourds, bananas and more. For those with a sweet tooth The best-loved dessert of Kerala is its payasam, which is made from thin vermicelli, clarified butter, sugar, milk and dry fruits. You can add flavors of your own choice to it. For example you could make carrot payasam by adding carrot to the recipe. Achappams are another sweet delicacy of Kerala. Only experts can handle this recipe that involves frying and using molds to keep the shape of the achappams. Do you like Kerala’s food? Which is your favorite recipe? Which places would you recommend for visitors to sample authentic Kerala cuisine?
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