Welcome to The Kerala Kitchen - an online cooking club for those who are in love with Kerala cuisine, would like to be introduced to it, or rediscover it, by cooking together! Come join us and help to preserve and share traditional and age old family recipes, or some new Kerala inspired ones and learn more about it, but most of all enjoy some good food and good company!
We meet every month for a virtual potluck to share the dishes we have cooked that are inspired by the flavors of Kerala. Be it by the cuisine itself, that features dishes as varied and delectable as those of the Onam Sadhya to the Malabar parotta or Syrian Christian "ishtoo" or inspired by the flavours of unmistakably Kerala ingredients like the blazing heat of aromatic spices, the sweetness of coconut milk, the tang of tamarind or the myriad tastes, smells, textures and sights that remind you of this little state proudly called "God's own country".
The Kerala Kitchen closes on the 30th of every month and will be reopened at the beginning of the next.
To introduce some friendly food blogging competition, the Kerala Kitchen will be giving badges for the foll categories:
- Top Dish
- Best Pic
- Top Contributor : Most number of entries
- Member: All participants will get Kerala Kitchen member badges
We also have monthly challenges, where we pick a dish that we all cook together, adding our own special touches to it of course!
We would love to have you join us. Read our simple rules below to join. We are a relaxed group and like to keep things simple:
Basic Rules
- Here at the Kerala Kitchen, we like to keep things simple, so there are no strict rules as such, and anyone can join in all the fun! It doesn't matter if you have never tried Kerala cuisine and want to learn all about it, or if you are a Pachakarani who would like to share your vast knowledge with some enthu newbies :) You are not required to participate every month- though we would love it if you do! You are not restricted from sending your entries to any other contests, in fact we actively encourage you to participate in as many as you can!
- Simply cook a dish (or as many as you like) that is inspired by Kerala. Be it a traditional Malayali dish like Idiyappam or Kappa and Meen curry, or your unique take on it, even a dish that features a flavour or ingredient that reminds you of Kerala but may not be typical Malayali fare (like coconut macarons maybe?) and post it on your blog anytime before or on the 30th of that month
If you are looking for ideas check out our collection of Kerala inspired recipes from all our talented members.
Some of the typical ingredients : Coconut, bananas and plantains, tapioca/ yucca, mango, jackfruit, lentils, cashews, pepper, cardamom, cloves, tamarind, rice and rice flour, ginger, curry leaves, jaggery, buttermilk...
- Email your entries to the host with your name, a photograph of your dish (preferably a thumbnail, no wider than 300 pixels) and a link to your post before or on the 30th of that month, with the subject line: The Kerala Kitchen. If you don't have a blog, simply email your entry and photograph to the host if you want us to include it.
- You can even submit posts you made earlier by simply editing them to include the links to the event. No need to repost them.
- In your post (as well as the older posts submitted for the event) please include a link to the host's event announcement post as well as this blog
- Check the event calendar page for information on the host for the month as well as the links to previous roundups
- Feel free to add these cute badges with a link to http://thekeralakitchen.blogspot.com to your blog post or sidebar and spread the word that you are a proud member of Kerala Kitchen!
How to apply badges to your blog's sidebar:
- Download a logo/badge - just right click on it and choose SAVE PICTURE AS.
- If you use Blogger,go to LAYOUT and then choose ADD A PAGE ELEMENT – this will bring you to a window full of widgets – choose the one that says PICTURE.
- Once the window opens, you just fill out the boxes and then browse your hard drive for the logo you want to use.
- E.g where it says TITLE – you can put “I’m a Proud Member of” or something like that or leave it blank. Same for CAPTION.In the link box you’d put (http://www.thekeralakitchen.blogspot.com) and then for IMAGE, choose FROM YOUR COMPUTER, hit the BROWSE button and find the logos/badges on your hard drive. Then click SAVE – this will bring you back to that window where you clicked on ADD A PAGE ELEMENT. On top will be another link to SAVE the page. You can click on that right away if you are happy with where the logo has been placed – or you can put your cursor over the little box that is your logo and click on it, keeping your finger pressed down on the mouse, you can move that square up or down – when you have it where you want it, just let go of the mouse and it will stay there.Then click SAVE on the top of the page. And there is a PREVIEW link which you can click and look to see what your blog will look like with the new logo/badge before hitting SAVE, in case you want to check.IF you use Wordpress and typepad etc. there must be a similar way to add an image, you can check their forum here for details.
