Love and Calories!!

Its been 4 years now since I left India & I have always made it a point to try to follow all the rituals & customs of my Native which will not make me miss India & also follow the traditions. Luckily, if you are a Malayalee, then no much customs are there to follow except for FOOD ;) There are 2 main festivals (Onam & Vishu) & 2 star birthdays (Arun's & Mine) which come in a year where I try to make the traditional Feast or a Sadya. I have made almost all the Sadya vattams, here at my home except for "Erissery". The reason is not because, I don't like it...it's because I never got good Yellow Pumpkins. All I used to get was those culinary Halloween Pumpkins which was not at all fit for cooking!! ;( Back home in India, I never used to even touch Erissery, because I was so fed up of eating it Day after Day. But when I came here & was aloof of all the tasty Veggie dishes of Kerala, the eagerness to make Erissery at Home & have it w...

"Sambar" is the most popular dish of South India which actually helped the South Indian cuisine gain its recognition & popularity within the North Indian belt. Sambar is a vegetarian chowder, cooked almost daily in every household of South India. A great accompaniment to have with rice, idlis, dosas, vadas and other South Indian tiffin items. The main ingredients of Sambar are the lentil & vegetables. Carrots, potato, shallots, okras, drumsticks are used with different combinations. I however like Sambar with shallots & okras. This vegetable-lentil chowder can be made with or without coconut. I being a Keralite, use & prefer coconut in it. And it's tasty too. :) Ingredients: 1 cup toor dal (red lentils / pigeon pea) 10 shallots (halved) or 1 medium onion (roughly diced) 1 medium tomato (roughly diced) 200 gm okra/lady finger (cut into 1 inch slices) 3 tbsp shredded coconut 3 tbsp sambar powder 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp heeng...

Today, the Keralites celebrate one of their biggest festivals of the year, Vishu! And I wish all of you a very Happy Vishu. May this year bring you good Health, Wealth and Prosperity. Yesterday evening I went to the supermarket and bought all possible substitutes for the things which you keep for the "Vishu Kanni". Honeydew Melon for Vellarika, Yellow grapefruits instead of jack fruit and so on...Well we managed to keep up our tradition in UK as well. :) Below are the pictures of our Vishu Kanni and the Sadya spread. Well didn't find a Plantain leaf though! :) Avial is yet another simple but delightful dish served in a Sadya. This is one of my favourite vegetarian dish of Kerala. I call it the Indian "Thai Green curry" as the ingredients and the way of cooking are quite similar in both the dishes. My granny used to tell me a story behind the invention of Avial. It was Bheema (one of the Pandava brothers in Mahabharatha) who first cooked Avial. He along with ...

A "Sadya" is a Banquet or a feast prepared for a special event such as Birthdays, Weddings, or festivities like Vishu and Onam. It is an authentic vegetarian meal comprising of atleast 12 to 24 dishes served on a plantain/banana leaf (see the below picture) and people eat together sitting cross - legged on the floor. There is a specific place for each dish to be served on the plantain leaf.I will try to share the recipes of some of the main dishes made for a Sadya without which any Sadya is incomplete. "Kaalan" is a one of the vegetarian delight served at a Sadya. It is a thick yoghurt - coconut based gravy cooked with tuber yam and raw plantain. It is a must have curry in a Sadya and is the only dish which is prepared the day before the Sadya as it tastes even better when served the next day. Almost all the Sadya gravies have yoghurt and coconut as their main ingredients but you need sour yoghurt to make Kaalan. Tomorrow is Vishu and I have prepared my Kaalan a...

A "Sadya" is a Banquet or a feast prepared for a special event such as Birthdays, Weddings, or festivities like Vishu and Onam. It is an authentic vegetarian meal comprising of atleast 12 to 24 dishes served on a plantain/banana leaf (see the below picture) and people eat together sitting cross - legged on the floor. There is a specific place for each dish to be served on the plantain leaf.I will try to share the recipes of some of the main dishes made for a Sadya without which any Sadya is incomplete. Coming Friday is VISHU, the Kerala New Year Festival. Now I can explain about Vishu in detail about its significance, stories behind the celebration etc but this is a food blog and am restricting myself to write only about FOOD!! So you can very well google and get all your answers. For now, let me stick to what am good at...EATING!! :) Vishu is also a day of feasting and I continue to share one recipe of Sadya at a time. Inji Puli or Puli Inji literally means Tamarin...

I am being biased here but I couldn't resist adding a separate category for Kerala Sadya dishes. I am from Kerala, the southern most state of India and it boasts some of the best vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes of the country. But this category will highlight only the main Nadan Sadya preparations . So let me taste you through the Kerala Nadan Sadya. A "Sadya" is a Banquet or a feast prepared for a special event such as Birthday, Weddings, or festivities like Vishu and Onam. It is an authentic vegetarian meal comprising of atleast 12 to 24 dishes served on a plantain/banana leaf (see the above picture) and people eat together sitting cross - legged on the floor. I will try to share the recipes of some of the main dishes made for a Sadya without which any Sadya is incomplete. Today's Sadya special is the very simple yet appetizing "Manga arinjadu". It literally means sliced Mango. It is one of the simplest and an important dish in a Sadya. Impor...

I am being biased here but I couldn't resist adding a separate category for Kerala Sadya dishes. I am from Kerala, the southern most state of India and it boasts some of the best vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes of the country. But this category will highlight only the main Nadan Sadya preparations . So let me taste you through the Kerala Nadan Sadya. A "Sadya" is a Banquet or a feast prepared for a special event such as Birthday, Weddings, or festivities like Vishu and Onam. It is an authentic vegetarian meal comprising of atleast 12 to 24 dishes served on a plantain/banana leaf (see the above picture) and people eat together sitting cross - legged on the floor. I will try to share the recipes of some of the main dishes made for a Sadya without which any Sadya is incomplete. And please keep some coconuts handy. :) I will start the Sadya with a dessert recipe called "Parippu Pradhaman". "Parippu" means dal/pulses and "Pradhaman" means...