The Trilogy restaurant at Crowne Plaza in Kochi is named after the three regions of Kerala — Travancore, Kochi and Malabar. Last year, the team decided to explore the little-known flavours of all these three regions and came up with a unique concept called ‘Culinary Yathra’ food festival.
Chef Rejimon P.R. was selected to go out and explore. It sure sounds like a fun job to be a part of but being the Senior Sous chef, the task was huge. He travelled the length and breadth of Kerala, visited homes and returned with a treasure trove of recipes. This year Crowne Plaza will be organising the second edition of ‘Culinary Yathra’.
Once again, Rejimon has uncovered many mouth watering flavours after being on a hunt for nearly seven months. “This time, we thought we will travel from south to north. Tirur, Malappuram, Thalassery, Angamaly,Alapuzha, various regions within Kochi, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram were covered. At Thiruvananthapuram,
I went to Gowreesapattom and tried out a recipe by Vijayalakshmi Amma. It was a vegetarian dish called Chena Manga Vattam. Then there is this special dish from Kollam called the ‘Aikura’, named after the fish of the same name. The Aikura’s head is the main ingredient along with ripe bananas and coconut. Although we joke about combinations like ‘Halwa and Mathi curry’ I was smitten by the taste of this dish,” he laughs.
“From Tirur we have selected something called ‘Kozhi Musamman’, a delicacy with heavy stuffing and a gravy using split chickpeas, a specialty during the welcoming of ‘puyyapla’ (groom).The pazham vilayichathu from Kollam is a recipe by Tasneem Ansar. A beautiful, easy to make dish. Even places as close as Vazhakkala was covered this time.”
The chef visited around homes across the state. “We were on the look out for dishes that we never hear about on a regular basis. The idea is to bring such recipes to the limelight and give it our own little twist.” The fest commences on October 7.
Chukkappam
Chukkappam
Ingredients
Beef small cubes-150gm
Ginger garlic past-2tsp
Turmeric pwder-1/2 tsp
Red chillipowder-2 tsp
Coriander powder-1 tsp
Garam masala-1tsp
Pepper pwder-1tsp
Rice powder -¼ cup
Onion slice -1nos
Coconut slice-10 piece
Coconut Oil-250 ml
Method
Beef making
Boil beef with 1tsp ginger garlic paste,1/4 tsp turmeric ,1 tsp chilli powder,1tsp coriander powder and salt to taste
Reduce the gravy make it dry, cool it
Mix the remaining masalas, keep it for 10 minutes
Deep fry
To make appam
Use rice powder similar to the idiyappam dough with black jeera
Take a small amount of dough and make oval shape dumplings
Deep fry the dumpling. Then mix together (beef & rice dumpling)
Spread little pepper powder and garam masala, serve with fried onion, fried coconut, red chilli, and curry leave.
Chena manga vattom
Chena manga vattom
Ingredient
Chena (Yam)-200gm
Mango 50-gm
Coconut -1/2no
Onioni-50gm
Ginger, garlic Julian-25 gm each
Green chilli slice-20 gm
Tomato slice-25 gm
Coconut oil-25 ml
Red chilli powder-1tsp
Turmeric ¼ tsp
Coriander powder-1tsp jeera powder
Jeera powder-1 tsp
Fenugreek pwder-1/2 tsp
Tamarind pulp-25ml
Jaggry syrup-20 ml
Coconut milk-50 ml
Method
Boil yam with salt, turmeric, red chilli, strain it and mash it
Make a chutney with mango,coconut green chilli and curry leaves
Take the mashed yam and make dumpling, stuff it with mango chutney (like parippu vada)
Shallow fry the dumplings it in coconut oil
Heat coconut oil add ginger,garlic,green chilli, curry leaves,tomato, sauté it till golden brown
Add masalas, sauté it. Aadd tomato,tamarind pulp ,jaggry syrup, sauté well then make a raw paste. Sauté the mixture again. Add little water and coconut milk. Put in the shallow fried dumpling in this gravy,reduce the gravy, check the seasoning .
Nenthrappazham vilayichathu
Nenthrappazham vilayichathu
Ingredient
Ripe nenthran banana-2nos cut into small cubes
Sugar-30 gm
Grated coconut -1/2 cup
Ghee 30 ml
Rava- 25 gm
Cashew nut-25gm
Kissmiss-25 gm
Cardamom powder-1tsp
Method
Heat 15 ml ghee in a pan , put the cubes of bananas. Sauté it till it becomes slightly golden brown Once the colour change add sugar and mix it well
Take another pan and pour the remaining ghee. Put cashew,kiss-miss and grated coconut . Sauté till the light golden colour change and add Rava. Sauté well then mix it with banana mixture, add cardamom powder. Serve it hot.
