Moplah Cuisine

During my childhood years seafood was not a significant part of our diet. We may eat seafood once in 2 months or so. Fresh seafood was not readily available in our town and we were discouraged from ordering seafood in restaurants since the quality and freshness of the seafood was questionable. But from the time I got married, I was introduced to a whole new array of seafood by my husband and now there is no looking back. I never imagined that I would be cooking squid in my own kitchen, one day.

I first heard about ‘Moplah cuisine” from my mother-in-law who has a friend from the Calicut region in Kerala. This is a cuisine from the muslim households in the northern regions of Kerala. It has strong influences from the Arab, Persian and the Moghul cuisines. There is an array of meat and seafood dishes along with a long list of sweets. Moplah cuisine is very rich and uses many exotic spices and dried fruits. Having heard all this, when I saw a cook book on Moplah cuisines (which is not very common in book stores) I immediately bought myself a copy.

Title – Malabar Cuisine – Traditional Moplah Favourites

Authors – Rasheed, Roshna Khader, Reshmi Joseph and Salim Pushpanath.

Published by Salim Pushpanath at DEE BEE INFO PUBLICATIONS, Kottayam, India.

www.dbventure.com

The book has a lovely introduction to the Malabar region and the Moplah cuisine. There are many recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and desserts. The recipes are predominantly for meat and seafood dishes and also include a variety of desserts. I tried the squid roast (Koonthal Varuthathu) today. And it turned out well and my family enjoyed it with ghee rice and a beetroot pachidi for dinner.

If you are interested in trying out Moplah cuisine in your kitchen, this book is a good buy. I have tried some other recipes from the meat and seafood sections and they have all come out well. The ingredients are listed well and the instructions are detailed and easy to follow. And it has great pictures that tempt you to try out new dishes everytime.