CHENNAI: If you are a fish lover, then Moplah Cuisine is your calling. According to author and chef Ummi Abdulla, there is no meal that is complete without a plate of fish. “They have fish even for breakfast. Puttu (steamed cake) and meen varattiyathu (fried fish) is quite famous. For lunch, there will be at least two varieties of fish — meen curry made out of coconut (with or without roasting it) and another with tamarind and chilly. The former is thick and the latter is more gravy like,” says Ummi, who has six books, including Malabar Muslim Cookery also known as The Bible of Moplah Cuisine, to her credit.
According to Ummi, the coconut fish curry is specific to Moplah cuisine and is not part of other cuisines. Apart from fish varieties, a typical Muslim family in Kerala also includes pancakes or gothambu dosa (wheat dosa) with egg curry and vellayappam (pancake made with rice and coconut) with mutton stew. “For vegetarians, there are items like chena char (yam curry), manga char, parippu stew, muringa ela char (drumstick leaves curry), etc. Also, we are not that particular about butter milk and curd, we just have fried pappadams to go with the main dish,” she says.
Dinners are the heaviest in every Moplah house, with a generous number of non-vegetarian dishes. “We usually make mutton curry stew, Mutton Varutharacha Curry (mutton roasted and ground), meen varatiyathu and so on. This is paired with a pathiri (pancake), which has several varieties — podi pathiri, aripathiri, meen pathiri, and so on,” she says. “Yet another famous dish is Arikadukka, which is mussels stuffed, steamed and fried with masala. This dish is made mostly in Calicut and Malabar side, as mussels are available widely there,” she adds.
However, the highlight of the cuisine is the Malabar Biriyani, which according to a food enthusiast Sreehari follows the Arabian cuisine. “All other biryanis except for the Lucknow and Malabar versions, are derived versions of pulao, that usually involve mixing the gravy with the rice,” he says.
As far as sweet dish is concerned, one dish that is a must in every wedding feast is mutta maala (egg garland). “It is made of egg yolk and sugar syrup. The egg yolk is added through a small hole in the coconut shell so that it falls like a thread in the boiling sugar syrup like a garland. Also, the egg white is beaten, and mixed with sugar and elakka (cardamom), steamed, cut and served seperately,” she says. Sreehari adds, “Pazham narachadu (stuffed banana) is also pretty famous. It involves filling up a banana with a mixture of beaten rice, grated coconut and jaggery.”
To taste the Moplah cuisine, head to Ente Keralam’s restaurants in Anna Nagar, MRC Nagar and Poes Garden. The festival is on till June 21.
Malabar Fish Curry
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