Onam Specials

'Onasadhya' is the grand feast served during the celebration of Onam in Kerala. It is served in Banana leafs. There is a way of placing the leaf and an order of serving the dishes. The picture given shows the serving order beginning from the left with 'Upperies'.
 

Rice is the main course. With rice, various kinds of dishes are served... curries, 'upperies' (things fried in oil), 'pappadams' (round crisp flour paste cakes of peculiar make), 'achchars' (pickles of various kinds), 'payasams' and 'prathamans' (Desserts). Fruits are also served, mainly plantain.

Palada Pradhaman

Ingredients : 1. Thick milk- 3ltrs 2. Par boiled rice (dried red rice)- 250gm 3. Water to mix flour Coconut oil- 1tbs 4. Sugar- 2tbs 5. Plantain leaf pieces- as required 6. Cardamom powder- optional Method of Preparation: Wash rice and drain the water. Dry grind the rice well. Add enough water to make a semi thick batter. Add 1tbs coconut oil and 1/2tbs sugar in it. Clean and wipe the plaintain leaf pieces and pour the batter in a thin layer evenly and roll the leaf pieces tightly. Boil water in a big vessel and steam the flour batter. Take the steam batter from the leaf and cut into small pieces. Wash the pieces and strain. Boil milk well and add sugar. Continue boiling till its colour changes to pale pink. Add the ada pieces to it. Boil again and remove from fire.

Olan

Ingredients : 1.Ash gourd( Pushnikkaai)       - 100gm Pumpkin          - 100gm Green chillies  - 4nos (split the edge) Red gram dal  - 1tbs (soaked in the water for about 6 hours) 2.Grated coconut - 1 / 2 quantity (Squeeze out 1 / 4 cup of the milk from the coconut without adding water. Take one more cup of milk from the coconut) 3.Salt                     - to taste 4.Coconut oil       - 1tbs 5.Curry leaves     - 1sprig Method of Preparation: Remove the covering of the ash gourd and pumpkin and cut it into small pieces.  Cook the vegetables and red gram dal in water. Add enough salt and the green chillies. When it is done, add 1cup coconut milk and boil. When it thickens well, add 1 / 4 cup coconut milk. Bring to a boil and remove from fire. Add 1tbs coconut oil and the curry leaves and mix well

Aviyal

It is prepared from many seasonal vegetables, coconut and curds. Ingredients : 1. 3 cups mixed vegetables (ash gourd, raw banana, yam, cluster beans, snake gourd, drumsticks, potato, cucumber, pumpkin and carrots) 2.½ cup sliced green mango (optional) 3.½ tsp turmeric powder 4.2 cups water 5.1 cup fresh grated coconut 6.1 tsp cummin seeds 7.7-10 green chilies 8.Salt to taste 9.1 cup sour curds 10.5 tsp coconut oil (uncooked) 11.1 sprig of curry leaves Method of Preparation: Boil the water in a pan. Add vegetables and turmeric. Simmer till the vegetables are tender. Mix well. Grind the coconut, cummin seeds and green chilies to a fine paste. Add salt to this paste. Now add this paste to the vegetables and mix well. Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes. Now stir in the curds and cook for 2 min. Then add the coconut oil and curry leaves. Serve with rice.

Pachadi

Ingredients : 1. Cucumber -½ 2. Coconut - ½ medium sized 3. Green chillies- 5 4. Tamarind - One marble sized ball 5. Asafoetida (kayam)- A pinch 6. Curd - ½ cup (thick) 7. Salt - to taste Method of Preparation: Remove skin of cucumber and cut into small pieces. Grind coconut, green chillies, tamarind, asafoetida and salt to a fine paste. Add the cucumber pieces to the ground coconut mix. Add curd and mix well.

Dry Fruit Kesari

Sweet dishes of Kerala are extremely famous for their wonderful taste. One of them is the Dry Fruit Kesari, a popular sweet dish of Kerala. Made of Rava and dry fruits as the primary items, Kesari is extremely scrumptious to taste. It is prepared in a very manner very similar to north Indian ‘Rava Halwa’, except for the fact that the Halwa is not cut into diamond shape later on. It is a special dish that is generally prepared on the festive occasions. It is served hot. If you also want to try this extremely delicious delicacy, scroll below for the recipe.

Dry Fruit Kesari Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dry fruits (chopped dates, raisins, cranberries and other nuts),
• 1/2 cup rava,
• 3 tbsp sugar,
• 2 tsp ghee,
• 1 pinch cardamom powder,
• 6 almonds,
• 1 cup water, and
• 3-4 drops food color optional (yellow, orange or red)

Method

• Stir-fry Rava with 1 tsp ghee on low flame till the smell of raw grain goes.
• Set it aside for later use.
• Sauté dry fruits for 5-10 seconds in a pan with 1 tbsp ghee on low flame
• Add water, sugar, cardamom powder and food color to them and increase heat to high flame.
• Add roasted rava to boiling water slowly and smoothen out any lumps and mix well.
• Reduce heat and keep stirring continuously till the mixture is cooked. One can know that the mixture is cooked when it starts coming off the pan easily.
• Grease a plate and pour 'kesari' into it.
• Let it cool and get set.
• Cut it into smaller pieces and garnish it with an almond.
• Kesari is now ready to be served.

Banana Halwa

Kerala recipes are extremely luscious. Apart from the variety of coconut dishes, the most relishing Kerala recipes are sweet to taste. Payasams, Uniyappam, Elayada, Achappam, Banana Halwa (Nenthra Pazham Haluva) are the most popular sweet dishes of the state. Kele ka Halwa (banana halwa) or the Nenthra Pazham Haluva is one of most relished Malayalee dish. As it is clear by its name, banana is the chief ingredient of this recipe. Extremely scrumptious and very easy to make, this recipe is worth trying once. Read on for the recipe, if you are interested in know how to make kele ka halwa. 

Banana Halwa Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg, ground
• 1 tbsp Pure Ghee
• 3 medium Bananas, ripe, peeled and mashed
• 1 cup Sugar

Method

• Heat the ghee in a heavy pan.
• Add bananas and cook over low heat, stirring to prevent the mixture from sticking. Cook for 10 minutes, or until bananas have browned and resemble soft toffee. Add more ghee as neccessary.
• Add sugar and continue stirring until dissolved.
• Add nutmeg and cardamom; remove from heat.
• Spread halwa into a deep, large plate. Allow it to cool and cut into squares.

                                                               Vada

Onam is very special for Malayalees all over the world, as it is the state festival for their homeland - Kerala. Celebrated with great fanfare, Onam is the wonderful opportunity for people to reconnect with their family and friends back home. Feasting is a prominent part of the merrymaking. Right from the snacks to the meal, everything served during the festive season of Onam has the unique flavor of Kerala. One of the popular snacks is Vada (doughnuts). Typically, a South Indian dish, a number of variations are there in the recipe of Vada. The two popular variants of the recipe are Uzhunnu Vada (made with Black Gram/Urad Dal) and Parippu Vada (made with Chana Dal). It is very crispy, delicious and served hot with Sambhar or Coconut Chutney. In the following lines, we have provided aneasy recipe of Vada. Let us know how to make the dish.

Vada Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Urad Daal (Black Gram)
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1 or 2 Green Chilies, finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• ¼ tsp Baking Soda

Method

• Pick, wash and soak Urad Dal for 3-4 hours.
• Make a smooth paste of the dal by grinding it in wet grinder. Make sure that you do not add too much water, because it should be a thick paste.
• Add onions, ginger, green chilies salt and baking powder to the paste, mix well and set aside for 5 minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan or kadhai and deep fry a spoonful of batter, till golden
• Serve with coconut chutney or sambhar as a snack. It can also serve as meal.

Palada Prathaman Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cup Milk
• 2 cup Water
• 1 cup Condensed Milk
• 2 tbsp Butter
• 1/4 cup Ada
• 1/2 cup Sugar

Method

• Boil ada by putting it in 2 to 3 cup boiling water. Keep it covered for 30 minutes.
• Drain water from the ada, completely.
• Heat butter in a pan and fry ada to a golden color. Keep it aside.
• Boil milk and water in a sauce pan.
• Add boiled ada and reduce heat to low medium, while stirring all the time.
• Keep stirring until milk is reduced by 2/3rd.
• It takes about 1-½ hours to prepare the dish and now, the color of pradaman should be golden.
• Add condensed milk to it and cook for 5-10 minutes more.
• Add sugar and mix it well.
• Remove from flame.
• Serve warm.

Mango Curry
Ingredients :  Ripe Mango - 1 or 2 Green chilli - 2 or 3 Mustard - 1tsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Chilli powder - 1tsp Coconut  milk - 2 cups Method of Preparation: Chop mango and green chillies into very small pieces. Grind mustard, turmeric powder and chilli powder and apply this paste to the chopped mango, keep it for some time. Season mustard and curry leaves, sauté mango, salt and green chilli, add coconutmilk and boil. when it thickens remove from fire.

Palada Prathaman
There are various kinds of Prathamans such as Ada, pazham, parippu and palada prathamans.  In 'Ada prathaman', rice flour mixed with molasses is formed into a paste, cut into small pieces and boiled in water. To these,coconut milk and molasses are added in proportion. It is then flavored with ghee. In 'pazham prathaman', plantain fruits of a special kind known as 'Nentra Pazham' are well boiled in water till the whole water is dried and the whole thing is reduced to a pulp by constant pressing. Then it is tempered with ghee. Coconut milk is added and the thing sweet in itself, is further sweetened with molasses. The kernel of a dried coconut, cut into small slices is boiled in ghee, and added to it. The main ingredient used in 'parippu prathaman' is pulse. Many more kinds of prathamans are made of other articles as with Bengal gram, pumpkins etc. In palada prathaman pieces of flour paste (ada) are boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar. No ghee or spices are added except some cardamoms. Ingredients : Thick milk - 3litre Par boiled rice (dried red rice) - 250gm Water to mix flour Coconut oil - 1tbs Sugar - 2tbs Plantain leaf pieces - as required Sugar - 625gm Cardamom powder (optional) Method of Preparation :  Wash rice and drain the water. Dry grind the rice well. Add enough water to make a semi thick batter. Add 1tbs coconut oil and  1/2tbs sugar in it. Clean and wipe the plaintain leaf pieces and pour the batter in a thin layer evenly and roll the leaf pieces tightly. Boil water in a big vessel and steam the flour batter. Take the steam batter from the leaf and cut into small pieces. Wash the pieces and strain. Boil milk well and add sugar. Continue boiling till its colour changes to pale pink. Add the ada pieces to it. Boil again and remove from fire. Note: 'Ada'  is now available in the market. You can boil 'ada' with milk and sugar and make Palada in no time.

Parippu Payasam
There are several varieties of 'payasams'.  One is in which rice, wheat or vermicelli is boiled with milk and sweetened with sugar. It goes by the name of 'pal payasam'. Another, is made of boiled rice or dal or wheat, to which is added jaggery and coconut milk. Both are flavoured with spices.  Ingredients : Parippu (Green gram dal)  - 250gm Sarkara (Jaggery) - 250gm Coconut milk  - From 2 coconuts Ghee - 2 tbs Cashew nuts, Raisins - As required for seasoning Method of preparation :  Fry dal till light brown. Clean and boil the fried dal well. Heat jaggery with some water and make a thick solution. Take milk from the coconut thrice. Keep the thick milk taken 1st, aside. Add the 2nd and 3rd milk and the jaggery solution to the boiled dal. Simmer on medium flame till thick. Fry the cashewnuts and Raisins in ghee. Add these and the 1st milk to the payasam . Mix well and remove from fire.

Pineapple Pachhady
Ingredients: Ripe pineapple cut into - 1/2" square pieces - 2cups Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - to taste Grated coconut - 1cup Dried red chilli - 1 Coconut oil - 2dsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Dried red chillies  - 3 (cut into 6 pieces) Curry leaves - 1sprig Crushed mustard - 1tsp Method : Boil pineapple, with turmeric and salt in 1/2 cup water. Grind coconut with dried chilli to a fine paste.  Heat the oil and season with mustard seeds. Saute the coconut paste and add the curry leaves and dried red chillies. When it is done, add the boiled pineapple pieces. The gravy should be thick and the cover the pineapple pieces. Add the crushed mustard just before removing the pachhady from fire.

Pal Payasam
There are several varieties of 'payasams'.  One is in which rice, wheat or vermicelli is boiled with milk and sweetened with sugar. It goes by the name of 'pal payasam'. Another, is made of boiled rice or dal or wheat, to which is added jaggery and coconut milk. Both are flavoured with spices.  Ingredients : Milk - 3litres Dried red rice - 180gm Sugar - 700gm Method of Preparation :  Boil the milk. Add sugar and mix well. When it boils again, add the washed rice in it. Simmer in medium flame. Cook till the rice is done. Serve hot.

Mango Curd Pachady
Ingredients: Grated mango - 1/2 cup Grated coconut - 1 cup Shallots   - 8 Green chillies - 6 Ginger 1" - 1 piece Curds - 1 cup Curry leaves - 1 sprig Mustard - 1/2  tsp Black gram dhall  - 1 1/2  tsp Dry chillies - 3 Ghee or oil  - 1 dsp Salt - to taste Method :     Grind the coconut, ginger, green chillies and shallots together. If the mango is very sour you can squeeze out a little juice. Mix the curds, ground things, mango and salt to taste. Fry the dry chilly cut up, the mustard, black gram dhall and the curry leaves till crisp. Pour into the curd mixture and stir well.