Kerala is situated on the South West coast of India right beside
Tamil Nadu. The capital is Cochin with its bustling harbour
lined with fishing nets and home to fishing boats of all shapes
and sizes.
Much of the architecture has been influenced by the Chinese who
traded along the coast leaving legacy of cooking pots similar to
woks, cleavers and pickling jars. As well as the Chinese, the
abundance of spices in Kerala attracted the attentions of the
early Phoenicians, Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all of
whom were happy just to trade and return home. Fighting over the
territory didn't begin until the late 15th Century when the
British, Dutch, Portuguese and French tried to stake their
claims to the spice riches. The British ended up the victors and
set up a factory and depot dealing in spices in Tellicherry, a
name still associated with good quality pepper.
Black pepper is prolific in Kerala and makes a major
contribution to India's input of one third of the world's
production. Cardamom too is a native here and the warm, damp
growing conditions are ideal for ginger and turmeric rhizomes to
flourish.
Kerala is famous for its inland waterways including lakes,
lagoons, canals and rivers, collectively known as backwaters,
bordered by tropical, lush, greenery and paddy fields as well as
homes and schools. The backwaters provide a road network along
which transport in the form of canoes, grass-thatched rice boats
and overloaded water buses ply their trade.
Kerala means "land of the coconuts" and no part of the coconut
is wasted - the oil is used for frying and the dressing of hair.
The flesh appears in a large number of cooked dishes and the
coir which is produced from the husk of the coconut, is used to
make floor mats, mattresses and many handicrafts.
Fish is big business here - a lot of prawns are exported to
Japan and USA, having first been peeled and sorted by size by an
all-woman workforce and frozen. Squid too goes to Japan as well
as frogs' legs to France but the majority is eaten locally.
There are many methods of fishing - Chinese fishing nets
attached to upright wooden poles catch what is swimming by. The
nets are raised and lowered with ropes and the catch extracted.
Trawlers fish the deeper waters and, as elsewhere, fill their
nets with anything and everything which can't escape through the
mesh.
On some beaches you can buy fresh caught pomfret, tiger prawns,
red snapper, crabs and mullet, to name but a few and have it
stir-fried at a shack where a quick sauce of garlic and shallots
is tossed with turmeric and chilli.
The fishermen eat what they call Boatman's Curry. It uses meaty
fish steaks such as cod, swordfish or salmon, cooked in a thick
spice paste (red chillies, cayenne pepper, paprika, ground
coriander, turmeric and grated coconut) which is first fried
then mixed with tamarind paste, green chillies, ginger, shallots
and salt.
Apart from fish, a popular celebration meal is "stew" for
especially for Christians at the end of fasting for Lent. Made
from boneless lamb shoulder with potatoes and carrots simmered
in spicy sauce of cardamom, cinnamom, cloves, curry leaves,
ginger green chillies and onion with coconut milk added at the
end, it resembles a spicy Irish stew.
Another favourite lamb dish is shoulder meat stewed with fennel,
spices, vinegar and toasted coconut chips. The sauce is allowed
to dry out so it clings to the meat and the dish is finished
with fried mustard seeds, shallots and curry leaves.
Duck and chicken are readily available and vegetable dishes are
common as many Hindus are vegetarian. Whatever the vegetable, it
will very often be mixed with coconut.
Local boiled red rice is eaten with every meal and sometimes
appams which are rice pancakes with a spongy centre. Ginger
chutney or yoghurt with pineapple may also be served.
Favourite snacks are paper-thin slices of plantain or banana
deep fried in coconut oil - the Keralan equivalent of western
potato chips.
About the author:
Liz Canham:
As well as a love of Asian cooking and travel as you can see in
her
http://www.lizebiz.com/asian-food>Asian Food and
Cookery and
http://www.travellers-tales.lizebiz.com>Travellers'
Tales websites, Liz seeks to help newcomers to the world of
internet marketing with tools, tips and training from her
http://www.lizebiz.com>Liz-e-Biz.com website.
