I have a continuous love affair with Malayali food that began in 1992 when I joined PiCA as a founding faculty. There was a sudden explosion of Malayali people in my life- colleagues, neighbours, students and now former students.
A traditional Onam meal, for instance, was a revelation of entirely new flavours and combinations. I was also struck by the sheer number of items served on the Banana leaf. Over the years, I have become adept at eating from a banana leaf- including Payasam which tastes much better that way as it absorbs the aroma of the leaf and mingles with the remnants of previous curries. I have also learnt the trick of crushing ripe banana and papadam into hot payasam while scooping it up with fingers. After such a meal, only thing to do is go to sleep and dream of being in heaven. Surprisingly, upon waking up, you again feel quite light as the ingredients don’t sit heavy on the stomach.
I try my hand sometimes in rustling up a quasi-Kerala meal. I particularly relish combining the flavours of kadi patta and adrak with coconut milk. Today I made the ‘Pineapple banana curry’- a recipe I had picked up from the Jamie Oliver show- my all time favourite on the tele. It is so simple and quick to make and the result is absolutely lip smacking.
Here’s the recipe:
Heat oil in a pan and crackle some mustard seeds. Add hing, thinly chopped adrak (a lot of it), a couple of green chillies, kadi patta and sauté for a minute. Dice up one medium sized pineapple and add to above and saute for 5-7 minutes. Add chunks of banana, mirchi powder and roasted jeera powder. Mix everything and saute for a minute. Finally add coconut milk and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with coriander if prefer.
The sweet- sour combination is so unique. The trick is to choose a tender pineapple whose pith is not very hard and one that is properly ripe and juicy; and bananas (ordinary, not elaichi) that are firm and not squishy. Packaged coconut milk is freely available which makes this dish very easy and quick to cook.
As accompaniment, I made pumpkin pachadi which is also very easy to make. Choose golden ripe pumpkin and grate it fine. Lightly steam- this is important- as should cook but still retain some bite. After cooling it a bit, add beaten curd and salt. Temper with tadka of oil, mustard and jeera, hing, grated adrak, slit chillies and torn up kadi patta. This tampering works with many other things also as the oil gets flavoured with green chillies and kadi patta. I can’t eat chillies as I find them too hot to handle but love it’s flavour. I also prefer the popatiya green variety as it is less hot and more flavourful.
For desert, I mixed ripe, sweet papaya and firm banana tossed with some lemon juice and topped with sour cream. Sour, not sweet. And lemon juice is very important as it so totally combines with papaya.
To wash down all this, the only thing to do was to open the Rhododendron wine bottle which we had picked up from Manali a few months back.
I had really really hectic last two weeks. Cooking this meal was so soothing for the nerves. Wolfing it down had such happy heady feeling. My head was swimming- I don’t know whether that was the wine or the curry.
A traditional Onam meal, for instance, was a revelation of entirely new flavours and combinations. I was also struck by the sheer number of items served on the Banana leaf. Over the years, I have become adept at eating from a banana leaf- including Payasam which tastes much better that way as it absorbs the aroma of the leaf and mingles with the remnants of previous curries. I have also learnt the trick of crushing ripe banana and papadam into hot payasam while scooping it up with fingers. After such a meal, only thing to do is go to sleep and dream of being in heaven. Surprisingly, upon waking up, you again feel quite light as the ingredients don’t sit heavy on the stomach.
I try my hand sometimes in rustling up a quasi-Kerala meal. I particularly relish combining the flavours of kadi patta and adrak with coconut milk. Today I made the ‘Pineapple banana curry’- a recipe I had picked up from the Jamie Oliver show- my all time favourite on the tele. It is so simple and quick to make and the result is absolutely lip smacking.
Here’s the recipe:
Heat oil in a pan and crackle some mustard seeds. Add hing, thinly chopped adrak (a lot of it), a couple of green chillies, kadi patta and sauté for a minute. Dice up one medium sized pineapple and add to above and saute for 5-7 minutes. Add chunks of banana, mirchi powder and roasted jeera powder. Mix everything and saute for a minute. Finally add coconut milk and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with coriander if prefer.
The sweet- sour combination is so unique. The trick is to choose a tender pineapple whose pith is not very hard and one that is properly ripe and juicy; and bananas (ordinary, not elaichi) that are firm and not squishy. Packaged coconut milk is freely available which makes this dish very easy and quick to cook.
As accompaniment, I made pumpkin pachadi which is also very easy to make. Choose golden ripe pumpkin and grate it fine. Lightly steam- this is important- as should cook but still retain some bite. After cooling it a bit, add beaten curd and salt. Temper with tadka of oil, mustard and jeera, hing, grated adrak, slit chillies and torn up kadi patta. This tampering works with many other things also as the oil gets flavoured with green chillies and kadi patta. I can’t eat chillies as I find them too hot to handle but love it’s flavour. I also prefer the popatiya green variety as it is less hot and more flavourful.
For desert, I mixed ripe, sweet papaya and firm banana tossed with some lemon juice and topped with sour cream. Sour, not sweet. And lemon juice is very important as it so totally combines with papaya.
To wash down all this, the only thing to do was to open the Rhododendron wine bottle which we had picked up from Manali a few months back.
I had really really hectic last two weeks. Cooking this meal was so soothing for the nerves. Wolfing it down had such happy heady feeling. My head was swimming- I don’t know whether that was the wine or the curry.
