CHENNAI: I entered the industry at a time when it was unacceptable for a woman to be there. It was considered shameful to work in the hotel industry. Not many would have survived the pressure and challenges, but I chose to stay and fought my way up the ladder. And now, I am the first woman chef from Kerala.
I have been cooking for the last 27 years and it is only, and only, by passion and love for food that has kept me moving forward. I have been studying, training and working in different places including Calicut (my hometown), Dubai, Chennai and Kochi (where I live now). When I started my career, all that I knew was to cook South Indian food, but I wanted to learn more cuisines; so I learnt Arabian, Italian, Continental, Chinese, Thai, etc.
There is a lot of similarities I have noticed between Kerala and Thai cuisine, in ingredients and flavours used — kanthari mulagu (birds eye chilli), coconut milk, green chilli, etc. I have also travelled across Kerala, stayed in different districts and studied each cuisine — from Wayanad to Kasargod and even have specialised in tribal cuisine as well.
Every district in Kerala has a different variety to offer, be it Kottayam or Kochi or Calicut or the Malabar side. The Syrian Christian cuisine which is known for its rich and spicy flavours includes dishes like the stew and the meen molees. Brahmin cuisine is the most mild and healthy too. And then again Malabar mappillai cuisine is quite rich and heavy and used ingredients like cashews, ghee etc abundantly. It is basically borrowed from Persian cuisine.
Tribal cuisine is the healthiest of all. Their way of cooking and ingredients used are commendable. They use pepper leaves and guava leaves in their curries, and usage of oil is very rare; they grill and steam most of their food. Even when they make their fish curry, they use Kaattu Kurumulaku(pepper), kaattu jeeragam (cumin) along with turmeric powder and leaves of tamarind together and then grill it.
If you ask me what my speciality is or the USP of my cooking, it is in the ingredients that I use. Till date, I have never used any packaged masalas. I make them all from scratch. The shelf life of chilli powder is a maximum of three months, but the packaged ones last upto a year. I never use any colours, preservatives or even things like ajinomoto, etc.
So far, I have made 500 recipes on my own and 25 different kinds of powders — pickle powder, rasam,sambar powders, etc. I have seen many people make palada pradhaman (milk kheer) using milkmaid. You don’t need milkmaid; all you need to do is reduce the amount of milk and for that you require time and patience. And this is what most people today lack, and hence they find it difficult to work with people like me. I don’t go behind any shortcuts or find an easy way out.
Meen Pollichathu
Ingredients
Shallots: 1 kg
Karimeen: 10 nos.
Tomato: 350 gm
Kokum juice: 50 ml
Coconut oil: 50 ml
Pasted red chilli: 100 gm
Chilli powder: 100 gm
Oil: 20 ml
Salt: 30 gm
Curry leaves: 20 gm
Ginger: 10 gm
Garlic: 10 gm
Method
As you cook the shallots in a bit of oil, add the kokum juice, ginger, garlic and cook together.
Make a paste out of the turmeric powder, chilli powder, pepper powder, ginger and garlic.
Apply this paste on the fish and then grill
it on a tawa for a few minutes (half grill).
Once it is done, take a banana leaf and add
the earlier made shallot masala onto the leaf,
put the fish on top and seal it well.
This can either be steamed or grilled further.
Beef Kaai curry
(Angamally Syrian Cuisine)
Ingredients
Beef: 1 kg
Raw Banana (kaai): 300 gm
Coriander: 300 gm
Red chilli: 30 gm
Pepper: 30 gm
Fennel: 10 gm
Ginger: 20 gm
Garlic: 20 gm
Green Chilli: 20 gm
Shallots: 350 gm
Oil: 50 ml
Method
Fry all the above given masalas (coriander, red chilli, pepper, fennel) on a slow fire for around 50 minutes, till they turn golden.
Powder the mixture and then turn into a paste.
Now, cook the beef along with shallots and as the beef is cooked around 3/4th, add the raw banana into it.
Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli into it.
Once the mix is half cooked, add the paste of masalas made earlier, into it.
Close it and cook for exactly 15 minutes.