Recipes for Kerala cousine

gianni66

I am a fanatic lover on Indian food, trying to learn as much as possible to cook by myself in the main Indian cousine styles.

I am looking for some recipe from Kerala, in particular fish recipes; knowing that Kerala cooking style is VERY hot and spicy, but surely different from all the other kinds of Indian gastronomy.

Any suggestion?

Bye: Gianni

p.s.: "Death by Curry" is a great website for Indian food, but I found nothing particularly from Kerala

jyotirmoy

Hello fanatic lover of Indian food,
Its not just Kerala but the whole long coast line of India is full of wonderful fish based cuisine. If Kerala is your choice here is one:

1/2 Kg of firm white fish slices
1" piece cinnamon stick
3 green cardamoms
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
1 tablespoon ginger juliennes
4 green chillies slit, depends on how potent they are.
1 medium onion sliced finely
1 tomato chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup water approx
½ teaspoon coarsely & freshly crushed black peppercorns
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 sprig curry leaves
2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoon bland oil
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan till hot and fry the cinnamon and cardamoms briefly. Add the garlic, ginger, green chillies and onions. Saute for about 3 minutes or till the onions have become translucent.
Add the fish and rest of the ingredients except the coconut milk and mix gently. Cover and cook on low flame for another 10 minutes or till the fish is tender and cooked.
Reduce the heat to very low and add the coconut milk. Coconut milk doesn’t like much heat so be careful. Mix gently and simmer for a minute or two & not more.
If you can lay your hands on appam have them with this or simple boiled rice.
Good luck.

gianni66

Thank you very much jyotirmoy, I will try it as soon as possible!
What's the name of this recipe?

dreamer

Hi Gianni

I was in Kerala recently and went on a great cookery course there. It is run in a restuarant called the Lonely Planet ( no link to the book). They also do a good buffet every night where you can help yourself to as much yummy veggie foood as you like The chef is quite well known locally and you get can buy his book there (don't think it is published nationally). The course was RS 300 and the book was RS 300 if anyone is interested. I think they run it twice a week. At the end of the seession you get to eat what you have made
I can now make a masala dosa
Anyway I didn't find food in Kerala particularly hot - it is more spicy and tasty and there is a lot of coconut milk used which softens the flavour.
I will try and dig out the book and post a few recipes.
Any requests?

Sarah

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gianni66

Where it was? I will visit Kerala probably next summer, it would be nice to have a similar experience!

If you can provide some suggestion for fish, it would be another source of experiment for me!!

Thanks!

Gianni

kalyani68

I once came across a cookbook with lots of Keralese recipes in it. Its called "Savoring the Spice Coast of India". Sorry I don't know the author's name.
My experience is also that Kerala food is not hot/spicy but does have lots of coconut in it and anything fried is done in coconut oil. If you want really spicy stuff, try food from Andhra Pradesh.

kiranlal

this is what one fisher women told me . and it was my first fish curry i made in in my life, it seemd better than my mothers recipe

half kilo fish , soaked in tamarind juice (50 Grams in 250 ml of water)
red chilly and coriander powder 2 table spoons, one tea spoon of turmeric powder fry them together till it get slight brownish colour (5-10 minutes), keep it for 20 minutes and then cook for 30 minutes, it willbecome soem what thick gravey ,

garnish it with curry leafes, garlic, small onion and mustard seeds,

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A big world and small people

dreamer

Hi Gianni

I was in Kovalam which in about 20 minutes south of the main airport of Kerala (Trivandrum). There are lots of restuarants there and all do lovely fish meals as the fish is caught every day so is always really fresh. I enjoyed it there, though some people find it a bit commercial. It is a fairly small beach resort and I stayed there and did some yoga. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and felt very relaxed. Not much night life so it depends what you are looking for but certainly the food was good I don't like really hot food so found this perfect. Having said that they will always cook to your requirements. All the restuarants along the beach were fantastic - the LP restuarant I mentioned is set about 5 minutes back. They also have a weekly dance evning and buffet which is quite entertaining

I will certainly go back to Kerala later on this year - it was beautiful and the backwater trips are not to be missed.

I will dig out that recipie book tonight...
Sarah

jyotirmoy

We had gone to Vico Equance invited by a lady who is an Indian fan. After visiting Scavi Pompeie the railway called Circum Visuvious we went to eat our dinner. Ordered lobster pasta. Found a gang of gentleman & ladies singing an Indian song Jara Hate ke jara bache ke ehe Bombay mera nam. I was approached by some one who said that Boss was calling me. The next day after we came back from visiting Pompeie & Harculeum a limosuine was waitingfor us. The driver drove along the fertile lands winding up the roads thru fertile lands & he said oh villa garnde! Fantastic cherries & great home made Pizzas. Next day went to Naples cooked shrimp & a great salad long live the Salamis.....

iwanttogoback

gianni
i have a much loved and well worn copy of madhur jaffrey's 'flavours of india' in which she devotes a chapter to kerala. some of my favourite recipes are from this chapter. if you can find a copy grab it.in fact i cooked a chicken dish based on one of her keralan fish recipes tonight. and i think that i posted a recipe for a squid curry on the 'recipe of the day thread.' and if i remember correctly lonelyaztec and others may have posted some as well. i think that there are even pictures - go check it out, there are lots of good recipes there.
don't have time tonight, but i will post a few recipes when i have some more time.

jyotirmoy

The sqiud must be cooked in its own ink. The stew is a very interesting thing. It means something at Karims some thing much different at the dekkers lane in Kolkata & in Kerala, somethng in Ireland!

iwanttogoback

indeed, here we would call it a curry. a stew would be a very different thing - usually something awful that your mother cooked when you were young

jyotirmoy

A common belief is that a old english man ate his curry & every one here thinks you eat beef steak I am eating a Dum aloo(spicey stuffed potato) & veal meat cooked in Kolkata style!

gianni66

Great!!!! I have tried it yesterday and it has been of of the best Indian dinner I ever cooked!!! Thank you very much for your suggestion; however, I have made some slight modifications to your recipe: I added more cardamon (10 in total - I love it!!), no tomato and I kept the coconut milk longer (I used the one ready in a can, it was very thick when I opened the can, so I had to cook it longer than the time you indicated).
Actually, it has been a very different Indian dish compared to the usual ones I have used to; it resambled me more the Thai cousine (which I also like very much), maybe for the coconut milk (although I use the coconut milk for the Chicken Korma too, but the final result is very different). The Curry leaves give a lot to the perticular taste of this dish.
I am lucky to live in Rome, there is a big community of people from Bangladesh in the town with several shops selling every kind of Indian and south-east Asian food - my favourite food shops definitively!!
Bye: Gianni

jyotirmoy

gianni66,
Happy to know that you enjoyed the dish & wrote back with your feedback I greatly appreciate that, it helps me to fine tune the recipes.
When we were in Rome we went to a street called Via Bengali & went to a restaurant run by Bengalis. We all chatted in Bengali & were very embarrased as the owner refused to take money. We travelled back to our hotel in cab driven by a Bengali driver, the next day he drove us to Vatican city. Visiting the Sistine chappel is an experience we will never forget.
You are right about the Thai connection. In distant past Indians sailed to these places & trading took place as well as migration. So there is a lot of common stuff & way of living.
I will post one meat recipe from Kerala soon. My notes are in my mother tounge, translation is very time consuming.