CHENNAI: Palappam and veg mappas, pidiyum koorkayum, kooran biryani...but, wait a minute. Isn’t it supposed to be palappam and duck mappas, pidiyum kozhiyum and mutton dum biryani? If you are someone as well-versed with Kerala cuisine as we are, chances are that you might wonder if you are at the wrong restaurant, as you browse through the menu for the Kerala food festival being held at Entree – E Hotel in Express Avenue.
Don’t fret yet. Chef Anna Jomon, the curator of this fest, along with her team have given a vegetarian spin to popular non-vegetarian staples in Kerala cuisine while staying true to the authentic methods of preparation. As we sit down to immerse ourselves in this novel experience, accompaniments comprising inji puli, lemon pickle, mango pickle and pappadam are served on a vazhai elai, setting the mood for a traditional meal. We try to peep into the kitchen and take in the aromas, when chef Anna asks us intuitively, “Were you already expecting a sadhya? I’m sure you have tasted it many times.
For a change, I planned on offering the local delicacies of my village Kooroppada near Kottayam. You wouldn’t find these items at a usual Kerala joint. The recipes are inspired by my mother’s cooking. She uses fresh and easily available vegetables, predominantly root vegetables, in her everyday cooking. You will find the same in my cooking today.” Keeping up to the expectations, the starters — vazhaipoo cutlet and ela ada — are homely.
The struggle was to stop our oohs and aahs from the crunchfilled happiness stuffed in the cutlet. The ela ada, on its part, had the perfect proportion of jaggery and coconut, neatly wrapped into the steamed banana leaf. After months of being locked down and socially isolated, we relished hope and happiness with this sweet ‘n spice beginning to our meal.
Once we peeled our eyes off the appetisers, we brought a conscious focus to an array of flavourful sides — kadala curry, chembu curry, avial, mezhukkupuratti and thiruvathira puzhukku. “The curry is prepared by boiling or steaming around eight root vegetables and seasoned with coconut paste. Women in the village fast for 18 days during the month of Thiruvathira (December-January) and break their fast with this staple. You will find sweet potato, raw banana, yam, colocasia, tapioca and more,” explains Anna.
Main matters
Despite belonging to the league of mostly-carnivorous, we take a leap of faith when served with steaming kooran biryani, palappam, puttu and red rice. Prepared in dum style and wearing the appearance of a Malabar mutton biryani, it is a vegetarian variant with mushrooms. True to the description, it is the biryani that stood out. “In our village, there’s a smaller variety of mushroom called ari koon that grows during the monsoon and that’s what we predominantly use.
It’s tastier and nutritious,” details Anna. Murmuring between bites of this all-veg fare, we ask for a helping of pidiyum koorkkayum. “As you know, pidiyum kozhiyum is a famous combination. I’ve replaced chicken curry with mushroom curry. Pidis are the white dumplings and they are supposed to be doused in the curry and relished,” Anna says. More surprise awaits us when palappam is served with a vegetarian variant of mappas, which is otherwise made using meat or fish.
“Mappas is like a stew. It goes well with all kinds of main dishes. While it’s a sin to make mappas with vegetables, we’ve tried to offer the closest in terms of flavours and consistency,” laughs Anna, adding some seasoning of humour to our meal. Regardless of our reverence for non-vegetarian food, the freshness and goodness of the veggies along with Anna’s philosophy of life and food, there was just enough time for us to loosen our belts for a sweet ending. The decadence of chakka pradhaman and elaneer payasam was easy on the taste buds (while it may not be on our waist), but the richness of the tender coconut and jackfruit ensured our rest of the evening was promisingly sweet.