Fresh off the stove · Snacks
Kerala home cooking, explained properly
Nadan recipes from a Kerala kitchen, with the why behind every step.
Appam and stew, fish curry, sadhya sides and payasam: tested Kerala recipes written for Malayalis abroad and anyone cooking Kerala food far from Kerala.
29Kerala recipes
8courses on the leaf
Weeklynew dishes
Latest from the kitchen
New Kerala recipes
Main Course
Kerala Fish Fry: Meen Varuthathu Masala and Method
How to make Kerala fish fry at home: a thick chilli-pepper paste with rice flour, the right fish (mathi, ayala, neymeen), a 20-minute rest and a slow coconut-oil fry with curry leaves until the masala turns into a crisp red crust.
Main Course
Kerala Chicken Roast: Nadan Pan-Roasted Chicken
How to make a dark, dry Kerala chicken roast on the stove: slow-browned onions and shallots, a fennel-pepper spice mix, and chicken roasted in its masala until it clings. Serve it with appam or parotta.
Main Course
Kerala Beef Curry for Parotta (Nadan Thattukada Style)
How to make the thick, pepper-forward Kerala beef curry served with parotta at thattukadas: roasted meat masala, fried coconut slices, deeply browned shallots and a gravy that clings to torn bread.
Breakfast
Idiyappam with Chicken Stew: Soft Kerala String Hoppers at Home
How to make soft idiyappam (nool puttu) with roasted rice flour and boiling water, press and steam it, and loosen a Kerala chicken stew so it soaks into the strings.
Vegetarian
Kerala Parippu Curry for Sadya: Moong Dal with Ghee
How to make sadya-style Kerala parippu curry: roasted moong dal mashed smooth, simmered with a fine coconut and cumin paste and finished with a ghee tempering.
Breakfast
Kerala Kadala Curry for Puttu: Black Chickpea Curry Recipe
How to make Kerala kadala curry with black chickpeas and roasted coconut, thick enough for puttu and easy to loosen for appam or idiyappam.
How we write a recipe
Cook it once, understand it for good
01
The short answer first
Every recipe opens with what the dish is, how long it takes and what to serve it with, before the story.
02
The why behind each step
Why the onions go dark for a roast, why coconut milk goes in last for a stew: the reasons that make it work in any kitchen.
03
Made for kitchens abroad
Swaps for what is hard to find outside Kerala, plus the plate each dish belongs on, from breakfast to sadhya.
The full leaf
Every recipe, by course
Main Course10
Nadan curries, roasts and fries for rice, appam and parotta
- Kerala Fish Fry: Meen Varuthathu Masala and Method
- Kerala Chicken Roast: Nadan Pan-Roasted Chicken
- Kerala Beef Curry for Parotta (Nadan Thattukada Style)
- Kappa and Meen Curry: Kerala Tapioca with Red Fish Curry
- Egg Roast: Kerala's Spicy Comfort Food
- Chicken Stew: Kerala's Gentle Coconut Curry
- Prawn Masala: Coastal Kerala's Spicy Delight
- Karimeen Pollichathu: Kerala's Pearl Spot Pride
- Beef Ularthiyathu: Kerala's Spicy Beef Fry
- Meen Curry: The Soul of Kerala's Backwaters
Vegetarian6
Sadhya sides: avial, thoran, olan, erissery and parippu
Breakfast4
Appam, puttu, idiyappam and the curries that go with them
Snacks3
Chaya-kada favourites for the four o'clock tea
Dessert3
Payasam and festival sweets
Traditional Recipes1
Feast menus and the way a sadhya is served