BharatSangraha

Travancore & Kuttanad · Western Coastal Strip

Foodways

The souring agent is kudampuli and the fat is coconut oil, which puts this kitchen firmly on the Malayalam side of the line rather than the Tamil one. What separates it from the coast north of the lagoon is protein and register. Kuttanad has freshwater fish, freshwater prawn and duck rather than sea catch, because the paddy cycle produces all three; and the region runs two opposed kitchens at once — a temple and sadya kitchen that is deliberately mild, coconut-forward and often cooked without onion or garlic, and a toddy-shop kitchen that is the hottest cooking anywhere in Malayalam country.

Primary cooking medium

Coconut oil, used both as a cooking medium and raw as a finishing aromaticGhee for temple sweets, payasam and the sadyaRendered duck fat in the Kuttanad kitchen

Dominant sour agents

Kudampuli (kodampuli, Garcinia gummi-gutta) — smoke-dried rind, used only for fish and only in clayTamarind for meat and for vegetable curriesRaw mango, cut into the prawn and clam curries of the lagoonMoru — sour buttermilk, the base of kalan and pulisseryToddy vinegar, drawn from fermented palm sapLime, added off the heat

Spice register

Black pepper and fresh green chilli over shallot, curry leaf and mustard, with a heavier turmeric hand than the coast to the north. The sadya kitchen keeps heat almost to zero and works on coconut, ginger and jaggery instead. The toddy shop reverses it — dry red chilli by the handful, crushed pepper and kanthari, on the argument that the food is there to make the drink go down.

Staple grains and carbs

Matta — coarse red parboiled rice, the everyday grainPunja paddy from the Kuttanad poldersKappa (tapioca), boiled and mashed, the second staple and once the famine cropNendran plantain, steamed, fried and driedRice flour for puttu, appam, idiyappam and adaChakka (jackfruit) through the summer months

Preservation methods

Kudampuli smoked over the kitchen hearth until it is black and leathery, which is what makes it keepUnakka meen — ayala and chemmeen split, salted and sun-dried on the coastChakka varatti — jackfruit reduced with jaggery for hours until it will hold a year in a sealed bharaniSharkkara varatti — nendran slices fried and coated in jaggery and dry gingerUppilittathu — raw mango and gooseberry held under brine in a stone jarToddy allowed to sour deliberately into vinegar, then used to preserve meat

Signature techniques

Punja-cycle duck herding

Flocks are walked onto the polders as soon as the paddy is cut, to feed on spilled grain, snails and the small fish stranded in the drained field. The birds fatten on land that is otherwise idle between crops, and manure it while they do. This is why duck, not chicken, is the festival meat of Kuttanad, and why it is cheap here and expensive everywhere else.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala

Meen peera pattichathu

Fish is layered raw in a clay chatti with grated coconut, shallot, green chilli, turmeric and kudampuli, covered, and cooked with almost no added water. The pot is shaken rather than stirred, so the pieces stay whole and the coconut absorbs the liquor the fish gives up instead of the fish absorbing water.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala, Nanjil Nadu

Raw coconut-oil finishing

A spoon of unheated coconut oil and a few crushed curry leaves are stirred in after the pot comes off the fire. Heating the oil would drive off exactly the note the dish is being built around, so olan, avial and the sadya pickles are all finished cold. It is the one step that most reliably tells a Kerala cook from an imitation of one.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala, Malabar, Nanjil Nadu

Ada steaming for palada

Rice batter is spread paper-thin on a plantain leaf, rolled, steamed and cut into flakes, then simmered in milk and sugar for three to four hours until the milk caramelises and the payasam turns pink of its own accord. The colour is not added; it is the sign that the reduction went far enough.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala

Appakkara frying

A batter of ground rice, jaggery, ripe banana and coconut bits is dropped into the deep hemispherical hollows of a cast-iron appakkara and turned once, so each unniyappam cooks as a sphere in a small pool of ghee rather than being deep-fried loose.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala, Nanjil Nadu

Toddy-shop dry frying

Meat, offal or clam is cooked down with coconut slivers, crushed pepper and curry leaf until the pan is dry and the coconut has browned, then finished with a second tempering. The dish is built to be eaten in small quantities with a large quantity of toddy, which is why it is salt-forward and fierce rather than balanced.

Also found in: Kochi & Central Kerala, Malabar

The foodway signature of Travancore & Kuttanad — cooking medium, souring agents, spice register, staple grains and the techniques that define it. (6)