Elevate Your Onam Celebrations With These Traditional Foods

Onam is a very auspicious festival celebrated by Malayalis across the globe, regardless of caste and religion. It is a harvest festival of Kerala , marked by 10 days of celebrations. During this time, Malayalis lay floral carpets in the courtyard, symbolizing the arrival of Onam.

Several programs are hosted during the 10-day celebration, including folk dances, boat races, tug of war, and more, along with the famous Onam Sadhya, a vegetarian feast traditionally served on banana leaves with around 25 dishes.

Here are two of our favorite dishes among the 25. Try out these recipes:

Ada Pradhaman 

Ingredients
1/2 cup ada
1 cup jaggery
1 cup thin coconut milk
1/2 cup thick coconut milk
2 tablespoon ghee
12 cashews
2 tablespoon coconut
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder
1/8 teaspoon dry ginger powder

Instructions

• Rinse 1/2 cup ada in water first.
• Boil 2 cups water. Switch off and remove from flame.
• Add rinsed ada to it and set aside for 15 minutes.
• Transfer to a strainer. Rinse it with water to avoid further cooking.
• It should only be slightly soft as it will again get cooked with the jaggery syrup and coconut milk. It should not be too mushy.
• Add 1 cup jaggery with 1/2 cup water and heat it up.
• Cook until jaggery completely dissolves.
• Strain through a metal strainer to remove impurities if any.
• Heat 1 tablespoon ghee add around 12 cashews fry until golden brown remove and set aside.
• Add 2 tablespoon coconut and fry until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
• Now add drained ada and saute for a minute.It will stick a bit so don’t panic.
• Add strained jaggery syrup.
• Cook until the syrup is thick, it will take at least 10 minutes.
• Now it has become thick.
• Add 1 cup thin coconut milk.
• Let it boil again for about 10 minutes or until thick.
• It has become thick now.
• Add 1/8 teaspoon dry ginger powder, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder.
• Add 1/2 cup thick coconut milk.
• Mix it well.
• Add fried cashews and coconut.
• Add 1 tablespoon ghee.
• Give a quick mix. When it starts to boil switch off. Do not boil after thick coconut milk is added.
• It thickens after cooling down so switch off accordingly.
• This is after cooling down see how thick it has become.

(Recipe credit: sharmispassions.com)

Kootu Curry

Ingredients

For cooking black chickpeas

⅓ cup black chana (black chickpeas)
¼ teaspoon salt
1.5 cups water

For cooking veggies
1 to 1.25 cups plantain (raw banana)
1 cup elephant foot yam (suran)
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
1.5 cups water
½ teaspoon salt or add as required
1 teaspoon jaggery – optional
¼ cup water added later – optional

For coconut paste
½ cup grated fresh coconut
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 dry red chilies
½ cup water for grinding coconut paste

For tempering kootu curry

2 tablespoons coconut oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram)
8 to 10 curry leaves
1 dry red chili
⅓ cup grated fresh coconut

Instructions

For soaking and cooking black chickpeas

• Rinse ⅓ cup black chana (black chickpeas) in water a couple of times and then soak in enough water for 8 hours or overnight.
• Before cooking, drain all the water. Add the chana to a pressure cooker along with ¼ teaspoon salt.
• Pour 1.5 cups water. Cover and pressure cook for 10 minutes or 12 to 14 whistles on medium flame. 
• Depending on the quality of chana it may take less or more time to cook. So do use your experience in cooking chana if you are using the same brand. At times some quality of chickpeas, take only 3 to 4 whistles to cook and at times more.
• When the pressure settles down open the lid and check if the chickpeas are cooked. If not, then add about ½ cup water and cook for some more time.

For cooking veggies

• When the chickpeas are cooking, you can peel, rinse and chop plantain (raw banana) and elephant foot yam (suran). You will need 1 to 1.25 cups chopped plantain and 1 cup chopped elephant foot yam. Add them in a pan.
• Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder and ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder. Also, add ½ teaspoon salt or add as required.
• Next, add 1.5 cups water.
• Cover the pan with a lid and cook the veggies on a low to medium flame.
• In between while cooking, check and stir the veggies. If the water dries up, you can add some more water.

For coconut paste

• When the veggies are cooking, you can prepare the coconut paste. Take ½ cup freshly grated coconut, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 dry red chillies (broken and seeds removed) in a grinder jar.
• Add ½ cup water and grind to a semi-fine paste. Keep aside.

Making Kootu curry

• Once the yam and plantain are cooked, it's time to add the cooked chickpeas. If there is any water in the pan, then evaporate it by cooking without a lid. There should be no water or very little water in the pan (about 95% of water should get evaporated).
• Add the cooked chickpeas.
• Then add the coconut paste.
• Add about ¼ cup water only if required and if the curry is too thick. Mix well.
• Add 1 teaspoon jaggery. Adding jaggery is optional and can be skipped.
• Bring the curry to a boil. You need to cook till the raw taste of coconut and red chillies goes away. Then switch off the flame. Cover and keep aside. Do stir at intervals.

Tempering for Kootu curry

• In a tadka pan or a small frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil. Add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds and ½ teaspoon urad dal.
• Let the mustard seeds crackle and the urad dal turn golden. Stir often for uniform cooking.
• Then add 10 to 12 curry leaves and 1 dry red chilli.
• Fry till the red chillies change colour and the curry leaves become crisp.
• Next, add ⅓ cup fresh grated coconut.
• Mix the coconut very well with the remaining tempering ingredients and continue to saute stirring often.
• Saute till the coconut turns golden.
• Add this mixture to the Kootu curry.
• Mix very well. Cover and keep aside for some minutes for the flavours to mingle.
• Serve Kootu curry with steamed rice.