Cooking in Malayali Homes and Childhood Memories

Cooking for your loved ones is what our mothers and grandmothers have been doing, where the women from the different households of Kerala have been weaving their magic to bring out tasty dishes which we say is ‘kaipunyam’ where ones hand would bring out magic through those wonderful dishes that one gets to recreate.
I learned cooking by seeing how my mother and grand mom used to make such nice recipes and also through my culinary experiments I have done through the walk of my life as a cook, diner and taster of some great recipes I have got to taste throughout my life. The taste buds of every ‘malayali’ in the modern era is a blend of many Indian and western style of cooking. In the modern times, Kerala homes love food not only centred around the south but they love Punjabi, Chinese and North Indian food like the tandoori fish, tandoori chicken, chilly chicken, butter chicken and what not. Butter chicken is loved by all in Kerala. When these people find time for going for outings to hotels with family and friends, butter chicken is on the menu of most hoteliers.

I guess I got my culinary tastes from both my mother’s and father’s side. My paternal grandmother used to make great pickles (or ‘achaar’ as we call it) that triggers our taste buds so that our mouth starts watering with juices & saliva. Her ‘Chakka Koyachattu’ was my all-time favourite made with jackfruit was a lunch favourite.

Her fish fry in Bananna leaf was another special, it used to taste different as she used to make the fish masala for frying with the old Arakkallu at my grandmom’s place.Kappa with Meen curry is an all time favorite at my grandma’s place.
My grandmom used to make a wonderful dessert made with Jackfruit. It’s called the ‘Chakka Varattiyadu’ and we used to call it as Chakka Jam/Jackfruit Jam as it can be had with bread and it just tastes yummy. I used to ask for more and more after each helping. During our childhood we used to spend most of our holidays at my dad’s house. Grandmother used to make us tasty ela ada or elayappams whenever we went visiting at her home.
Kozhalappam & Achappams used to be bought from bakeries at our grandma’s place. They used to make the best & tasty Kozhalappam and Achappams. The bakery was once our favourite place of visit. Even to this day the taste of the yummy savories, makes my mouth water.

For breakfast we used to have rice cake or ‘puttu’ which used to be steamed out of ‘puttukkudam’.We used to have it with ripe banana or with ripe mangoes or papad with payar vevichathu (boiled lentils) or even chickpea masala (kadala curry). During weekends I used to go to kitchen to see what my mom was doing in kitchen, of course she used to cook traditional home cooked meals. My mom was a home chef in her own means. Her dishes specialized in homely traditional south Indian and Kerala style cooking.

These memories of my childhood are indeed a source of inspiration to make tasty delicacies for my loved ones.