#the best 5 star hotels in kozhikode | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

currylangs · 6 years

Text

Malayalam Vocab - Spices and Base Recipe

Today we’ll cover spices (some history and farming) and teach you the basics to Kerala Cuisine.

Fun fact, കോഴിക്കോട് Kozhikode was called the ‘City of Spices’ because of spice trade with the Middle East and Europe. Spice and tea is basically what white people ruined Kerala and subsequently the rest of India for.

There are spice estates in Idukki district that you can tour, for most malayalees especially those that farm even a little, things like pepper, chilli etc grow in our front yard.

Obviously, spices are very important to our economy, our culture and our cuisine! Most of these spices are actually used for remedies and medicine as well!

It should also be noted that learning this vocab is extremely important because a large portion of the Malayali population does not know the English alternative, no matter how fluent they are. (This includes me and my entire family, even though we don’t live in Kerala,,, - Mrin)

On to the Vocab and Cooking! DO NOT EVER FORGET THE STARRED INGREDIENTS, if you do it’s no longer Kerala food ;P

Dry Spices

*കടുക് kaduku mustard seed (black color)

*കുരുമുളക് kurumulaku - pepper (was called black money at one time, pepper grows on vines for those that have not seen them, usually people let it latch and grow on mango or coconut tree trunks and pluck them when they start turning red to black, they look like and hang on the vines like really tiny grape bundles)

*ഉപ്പ്‌ uppu salt

എള്ള്‌ ellu sesame seeds (mostly used as sesame oil for cooking നല്ലെണ്ണ nallaenna)

വെളിച്ചെണ്ണ velichenna Coconut oil

ജീരകം perum jeerakam cumin (just ‘jeera’ will do in some places, just like in Hindi/Urdu)

പെരുംജീരകം jeerakam fennel seed(?) (chewed on for breath freshener and also boiled in water for boosting flavor and health, also sanitizes water, as ജീരക വെള്ളം jeeraka vellam and no you cannot make this from cumin it will taste terrible and smell like sweat and yes I made it once cause I didn’t know there was two different kinds of jeerakam since everyone calls both jeerakam- taniya)

കരിഞ്ചീരകം karinjeerakam Black Cumin (Also boiled with water for same purpose, red in color, കരിങ്ങാലി വെള്ളം karingali vellam)

തക്കോലം thakkolam star anise

ഉലുവ uluva fenugreek

ഏലക്ക elakka cardamon

ഗ്രാമ്പൂ grampu cloves (have a toothache? Bite a clove, home remedy)

കറുവാപ്പട്ട karuvapatta cinnamon

കറുവയില karuva ila bay leaves

മഞ്ഞൾ പൊടി manjal podi turmeric powder (you want that glow, tumeric paste mask/scrub all over before bath. Also if you want to clean meat products a tiny bit tumeric to your cleaning mix will do, like with yogurt or vinegar)

മല്ലി പൊടി malli podi coriander powder

കയം kayam asafoetida (gum powder from roots of perennial plants) commonly used in sambar and rasam

ജാതിക്ക jathikka nutmeg (i’m just finding out what jathikka is, I swear kids back home eat this right off trees. My family in kerala farmed this during mid to late 2000s cause it was in demand but it is difficult to farm, many families faced losses. This is one reason for everyone to be conscious consumers, especially because sudden changes in trends related to spices or food lead to suffering for farmers from other countries. They hope they can make a profit, but companies don’t want to pay full price for products either- taniya)

Herbs aka Spice Leaves + Chilli

*മുളക് mulaku chilli (there are several types of them)

*കറിവേപ്പില karivappila curry leaves - this is fully unique to Kerala cusine, it what makes our dishes absolutely delish.

*ഉള്ളി ulli onion

വെളുത്തുള്ളി veluthulli Garlic (lit. white onion)

ഇഞ്ചി ingi Ginger

മല്ലി ഇല malli ila cilantro or coriander leaves

പുതിന ഇല puthina ila mint leaves

പാചകം pachakam cooking/cuisine

You’ll find that Kerala cuisine is more about fresher (read raw) ingredients and adding powders or spices only to enhance the flavor, we do not use garam masala or turmeric in everything, we don’t make spice mixes often, it a more modern integration. Below are basic ingredient to make different types of food, if you have this as your base then all you need to do is adjust according to the main ingredient (ie vegetables, meats, fish) cause you don’t want your all vegetable dishes to taste the same or worse having the same taste as your fish or meat dishes) at that point what the point of eating, everything tastes the same.

THE RECIPE sorta

Base of every kerala dish: you need to make sure you are ready to sauté some onions (unless you’re cooking for me, I hate onions - Mrin), in Kerala everyone cooks now with നല്ലെണ്ണ, at one point it was palm oil but we kicked that shit out for scaring us from using coconut oil for decades. There’s a reason it’s called "good oil", after all). But for those of us outside of South India you’re free to use any vegetable oil. You can use coconut oil, it had a whole new taste especially when you enhance it with curry leaves and mustard seeds.

Once your oil (enough to cover the pan) is warm, toss it in കടുക് and run away till every last one of them explodes (medium heat will do for beginners).

Toss the കറിവേപ്പില and step away till that stop making scary noises (Malayali cuisine, ladies and gentlemen).

Now toss your chopped ഉള്ളി (ulli, onion), depending upon your mood and vegetables these can be cubed or sliced as long or chopped into super tiny pieces, (add വെളുത്തുള്ളി and ഇഞ്ചി now if recipe calls for it) you can sautee now till they are light brown.

വെളുത്തുള്ളി and ഇഞ്ചി really depends on the vegetable you’re making and also if you’re gonna make തോരൻ thoran (coconut shavings) or മെഴുകുവാര്ട്ടി meyukuvarti (stir fry) or other types which I’m not gonna cover because this will never end then.

Add chopped or sliced മുളക് stir those in well for about 1 minute.

For മെഴുകുവാര്ട്ടി: add vegetables mix together and at this point you may add a pinch of മഞ്ഞൾ പൊടി cause you probably want that immunity boost, along with a pinch of മല്ലി പൊടി or fresh മല്ലി as I prefer. Both are optional. Stir those well and keep an eye on it till it fully cooks.

If you’re going the തോരൻ route: after mixing together, make a valley in the middle of pan, place half cup of dried or frozen/fresh coconut shavings and create a mountain by covering it with the vegetable. Close the pan with the lid and wait for about 5-10 minutes.

Open the pan mix everything together and close again for about 5 minutes, your thoran is now ready. Everything except for potatoes can be turned into thoran (but that's my taste buds, I’m sure there is an amachi out there who makes an amazing potato thoran but I haven’t had it yet so it’s a no for me lol - taniya)

Fish and meat recipes are more specific, there are plenty online as well. If you want more Malayali recipes or just a Malayali take on non-Indian recipes, Dr Lekshmi Nair aka Pachaka Rani (Cooking Queen) is your woman, she has had a cooking show and you can find it on YouTube, like Magic Oven or the new one, Flavors of India (that’s a little more focused on exploring, I believe). She’s one of the best.

If you want more specific recipes from either of our families we can share those if requested, I’m from the Kanjirapally region while Mrin is from Kozikode plus our religions are different so that influences our cooking as well. Kerala is a religious melting pot.

If all this doesn’t convince you how awesome our food is, you can let Dulquer Salman show you in his movie Ustad Hotel. That movie will make you hungry and angry cause you can’t taste all the delicious food! (And as a bonus, since Taniya is from a Christian family and I’m from a Hindu one, the movie explores the Muslim side of things that neither of us can explore better than Malayali Muslims themselves can).

We hope you enjoyed this post, because it was a lot of fun when we were writing it!

#currylangsmalayalam #malayalam vocab #Kerala cuisine #mod: taniya #mod: mrin

22 notes · View notes