Kerala: A Cooking Lesson

As easy as it is to get wrapped up in the wonderful tastes--and apparent relative ease--of Keralan cooking, one thing has to be kept in mind: the ingredients better be as fresh and natural as they are here, otherwise it just won't taste the same.

This goes especially for coconut, the uber-crop of the region that everyone grows in their backyards and that can be reaped every 45 days. The coconut is dried in the sun and can then be used to produce coconut oil--delicious-smelling and used for cooking as well as hair conditioning, or shredded coconut, to be used in multiple dishes, such as coconut rice.

Here are the three recipes I was introduced to that produce truly wonderful results:

1) Mezhukku--a potato dish (picture 1 from the top):

-put a pan on high heat; add coconut oil and fresh curry leaves (another ubiquitous ingredient, used everywhere in India and a source of the most wonderful flavoring), 2 teaspoons of fresh pepper and 1 teaspoon of turmeric, and a bit of green chillies, minced

-add salt to taste (a pretty large pinch)

-put 2 small sliced red onions and cook everything on high heat for 1 minute

-put in 250 g. of chopped potatoes

-when the potatoes are soft, add 2 teaspoons of pepper powder and fry for 1 minute more.

It's peppery! It's spicy! And it's very good.

2) Fish Curry (picture 2 from the top)

This dish mostly involves an elaborate mix of spices--the lady in question not only mixed but also ground everything by hand, so there is not much hope for us. Nonetheless...

For 2 small fish sliced as shown (these were mackerels):

-prepare 1 1/2 teaspoons chilli powder

-1 pinch garam masala (a mix sold in any Indian store, though she makes her own...)

-1 teaspoon ginger powder

-1 teaspoon garlic powder

-1 teaspoon pepper powder

-1 pinch turmeric powder

-1 1/2 teaspoons salt

-now mix everything into one and add water to make paste.

-let the fish absorb the spices for 10-15 minutes

-then add coconut oil and fresh curry leaves to a pan on high heat and fry the fish for 5 minutes on each side.

3) Thoran--a vegetable and coconut dish that can be made with beans, cabbage, beetroot or spinach and lentils, as here (picture 3 from the top)

-put 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in a pan set on high heat

-add 1/2 teaspoons of mustard seeds until they start to pop (this is another highly popular ingredient of Indian cooking

-add 3-4 shallots, minced

-and, of course, fresh curry leaves

-when the shallots brown, add some minced green chillis and stir.

-add 1 kilo (2 lbs) of minced spinach--use small leaves

-put on medium heat and cover; stew until soft

-to the spinach, add 100 g. of lentils that have previously been soaked in water (this is dal, one of the most popular Indian dishes) and mix

-add 1 full coconut, grated, 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and about 1 teaspoon of salt and stew some more

The Keralan diet does appear to be somewhat healthier than its very popular north Indian counterpart--while fresh vegetables are unknown here as well, sadly, there is more emphasis on vegetables and spices, as well as fresh seafood and fish, and less on greasy and heavy dishes. The coconut itself is not its cloyingly sweet American variant, but totally natural and light--now where to find all these ingredients back home?