Traditional recipes

Mixed vegetables in coconut, curd and coconut oil. A must on the Onam sadya leaf.

Lacy, bowl-shaped pancakes of fermented rice and coconut with a mild coconut-milk stew, a Kerala breakfast and a Christmas and Easter favourite.

Steamed cylinders of rice flour layered with grated coconut, served with a spicy black chickpea curry, one of Kerala’s best-loved breakfasts.

Fine strings of rice dough pressed through a mould and steamed into soft nests, eaten with coconut milk, stew or egg curry.

A flaky, layered flatbread of maida dough stretched paper-thin, coiled and pan-fried, sold in tea shops and hotels across Kerala.

A gentle sadya curry of ash gourd and red cowpeas simmered in coconut milk and finished with raw coconut oil and curry leaves.

Finely chopped cabbage stir-fried with a coarse paste of coconut, chilli and cumin, the everyday dry vegetable of Kerala homes.

Sweet pumpkin and red cowpeas cooked with ground coconut and topped with coconut roasted until brown, a favourite of the Onam sadya.

A thick, tangy curry of yam and raw banana cooked in sour curd and coconut, which keeps for days and improves with time.

A light buttermilk curry with coconut, cumin and green chilli, often with ripe mango or cucumber, poured over rice.

A sweet, sour and hot relish of ginger, tamarind, green chilli and jaggery, served in a small spoonful on the sadya leaf.

A thick curry of black chickpeas, yam and raw banana with ground and roasted coconut, one of the richer vegetable dishes of the Onam sadya.

Thin flakes of rice ada slow-cooked in milk and sugar until pink and creamy, often called the queen of Kerala payasams.

Rice flakes cooked in jaggery and three extracts of coconut milk, flavoured with cardamom and dry ginger, the classic payasam of Onam.

Small round fritters of rice, jaggery and banana fried in ghee in a special pan, a temple offering and festival snack.

Slices of ripe nendran banana dipped in a light batter and deep-fried, the favourite teatime snack of Kerala’s tea shops.

Thin rounds of raw nendran banana fried in coconut oil and salted while frying, Kerala’s best-known snack and a sadya item.

Thick pieces of fried raw banana coated in jaggery syrup with dry ginger and cardamom, a sweet snack of the Onam sadya.

A jaggery and coconut-milk pudding made with bamboo rice, the seeds of flowering bamboo gathered by forest communities in Wayanad and other hill districts.

A fiery red fish curry soured with kudampuli (Malabar tamarind) and cooked in a clay pot, without coconut; it tastes better the next day.

Pearl spot fish from the backwaters, marinated, wrapped in banana leaf with a thick spicy masala and pan-roasted.

Prawns cooked down with shallots, chilli and coconut slivers until dark and dry, finished with curry leaves and coconut oil.

Home-style chicken curry cooked with roasted coconut and whole spices in coconut oil, eaten with appam, parotta or rice.

Duck from the backwater farms of Kuttanad, cooked with pepper, spices and onions and finished in coconut milk, a Christmas and Easter speciality.

A Malabar biryani made with short-grained, fragrant kaima (jeerakasala) rice and a mildly spiced chicken masala, layered and sealed with dum.

Paper-thin, soft rice-flour rotis of the Mappila kitchen, cooked on a tawa and softened with coconut milk.

Spindle-shaped dumplings of mashed ripe plantain stuffed with a sweet egg, coconut and nut filling and fried, a Malabar teatime treat.

Green mussels from the Malabar coast tossed in a spicy masala and fried crisp in coconut oil.

Fresh sardines rubbed with a red chilli, pepper and ginger-garlic paste and fried crisp in coconut oil, everyday fare along Kerala’s coast.

Boiled tapioca mashed with a crushed coconut, chilli and shallot mix, eaten with fish curry or chammanthi.

Soft-cooked red rice in its own water with a simple dry green-gram dish and a dab of chammanthi, Kerala’s traditional light meal.

Thin buttermilk crushed with green chilli, ginger, shallots and curry leaves, offered to travellers and guests to beat the heat.

Black tea brewed with cardamom, cloves or cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon, sweetened lightly and served after a biryani in Malabar.

Thin rice-dough parcels filled with coconut and jaggery, folded in banana leaf and steamed, a simple sweet for tea and festivals.

Steamed rice-flour balls with a sweet coconut and jaggery filling, made by Kerala Christians on the Saturday before Palm Sunday and as a snack at other times.

A soft, sweet steamed cake of fermented rice and coconut, topped with raisins and cashews, made in Kerala Christian homes for Christmas and Easter.

Small pieces of raw mango in a red chilli, mustard and fenugreek masala with sesame oil, the pickle served with sadya and everyday rice.

Boiled eggs coated in a thick roast of onions, tomatoes and spices cooked in coconut oil, a classic partner for appam and parotta.