Happy Easter!

We have decided to start a new tradition! That tradition is that every Easter weekend, we will either do big take-out haul of Kerala food or we will break out our Kerala cookbook and make some good old fashioned traditional cuisine.

To start off with this tradition, this weekend we visited a restaurant which used to be an old favourite of ours that moved to a different location and really upgraded the interior! We got more than enough takeout to last us three days.

If you didn't know, not every Indian is either a Hindu or a Sikh. Actually, in India, Christianity is the third most common religion. However, most Christian Indians (usually from South India) immigrated to the Middle East if they did not stay in India. This may be why so many North Americans connect Indians as being predominately Hindu or Sikh, but are shocked that there is such a thing as a Christian Indian. Alas, they do exist and boy, are they wonderful!

So, as per ShoJo's cravings, we gave in to visit our old favourite restaurant for a large haul of take-out!

We bought four different curries and two types of bread. These were the curries:

1. Beef curry

2. Duck curry

3. Malabari Veg Masala

4. Moore Curry

While these were the bread styles:

1. Paratha Bread

2. Appam Bread

We really stocked ourselves up!

What he was really happy to have is the Moore curry. Moore curry, also known as Moru curry, is a staple curry that every Malayali household cooks and enjoys. It is a simple curry, but so delicious!

Although, this was the first time I have ever tasted it, I can surely say that I will be making Moru curry for S and I in the future.

So, because I came home a little later than expected, we decided not to cook rice and instead make that the following day. That means that we did not have the Moru curry immediately as I was taught that Moru curry tastes better with rice and the beef curry. Instead, we decided to enjoy the beef, duck, and veg curry with the paratha and appams.

Top (wet) curry is the Duck & the bottom (dry) curry is the beef

Sadly, I was unable to enjoy the beef curry as it was still a bit too spicy. I added some yoghurt to my beef curry, but unfortunately that was not able to help curb the spice. However, S, really enjoyed the beef curry. He loved the way the spice level made him feel while enjoying the flavour altogether.

Thankfully, we still had duck that I really liked. This was the first time that I ever tried duck and I can say that I really enjoyed it.

This curry had a slight sweet flavour to it, but still had the kick that all curries have. I believe that the sweet flavour was the duck meat itself.

The following day, on Easter Sunday, we decided to have an early supper with the Moore curry. Shojo was so excited to have it. He was even more excited that I, too, really enjoyed it.

Moru curry is actually a spiced buttermilk coconut curry. It is very creamy and smooth. I am not sure if this is a traditional taste, but it had a bit of a sour taste to it that I really enjoyed.

S said that it goes really well with beef curry and rice. Especially if the beef curry is a lot spicier, the Moru curry acts as a substitution for yoghurt to take the spice level down.

Alas, the beef curry was just too hot for me. He did say that his family normally cooks their beef curry with the same sauce as the duck curry, which we both believe I would prefer much more.

Upon reheating the breads, we have learnt that appam does not reheat well. If you have appam, definitely finish it the first day and if you want more, make more the following day. To make appam, you will want to make the batter the previous day and then cook it up to 12 hours later. I found this nice detailed recipe that I may eventually follow myself! This recipe for the appam says that you should get a kadai pan. If you Google what a kadai pan looks like, don't be fooled as I was, it is not a wok. It is similar, but not the same. It has a wider bottom surface and steeper sides. I got my information on kadia pans from the Foods Guy.

Otherwise, paratha reheats well! Though, you can also buy instant from frozen paratha to make on your own stove top. We love the paratha from Shana that we can get at our local superstore.

If you are intrigued by the people on the window to the restaurant, you are not alone. The green faced character is definitely different and a little off putting if I am honest. However, his name is Pacha and he is a gentle character from Kathakali, which is a classical dance/story telling that is portrayed and enjoyed in the state of Kerala in India. The yellow more female-looking person is another character known in the Kathakali dance.

I truly cannot wait to be able to travel so that I can experience Kerala for myself. I want to learn the culture and how to go about making traditional Kerala cuisine so much. I want that our future children have a strong link to their Indian culture and heritage. Especially as through DNA, we know that ShoJo is 100% South Indian. His ancestors did not mix with the British.

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter weekend and were able to have a blessed time with your family and loved ones.

As I like to end my posts by saying "enjoy your meal" in the local language of the place I wrote about, here is the curly language of Malayalam for you:

ഭക്ഷണം ആസ്വദിക്കുക

(phonetically written as: bhakṣaṇaṁ āsvadikkuka)