The letter X  tripped me down. Forget a sadya recipe, I am not even able to think of a Kerala recipe with X. So a bit of cheating here and I am serving you eXtra tips for making a sadya.

The time savers, you know!

When it comes to preparations, the first thing to do is to make a list. A list of the dishes want to make. Its best to make this list before the weekend, so that you can buy the required items on the weekend. When making the list, note your choice of payasams as well and cross verify whether you have all the ingredients, including cashews and raisins.

Traditionally, a sadya needs the following items.

This is not an exhaustive list, but what I know. If there is any additional dishes that you make at your place, please share with me :-).

Side dishes

• Kichadi
• Pachadi
• Avial
• Thoran
• Erissery
• Olan
• Kalan
• Koottu Curry

Ozhichu curry varieties (Gravy to mix with rice)

• Parippu
• Sambar
• Rasam
• Pulissery
• Moru

Pickles (3 or 4 varieties)*

• Inji puli / Inji curry (must)
• Lemon pickle
• Mango pickle
• Wild lemon pickle (Vadukapuli naranga)

*Inji curry is must, other pickles are of your choice

Upperi (Fries) – 3 or 4 varieties

• Sharkara varatti (must)
• Banana chips
• Any one/two of your choice

Payasam: (3 or 4 varieties)

• One milk based (must)
• One jaggery based
• Your choice of payasams

Other Items:

• Rice
• Pappadam (sometimes big and small pappadams are served, the big one is to go with rasam)
• Banana
• Steamed banana (Pazham vevichathu)
• Boli (in Trivandrum side)

And the most important one – Vazhayila (banana leaf) for serving the sadya.

Based on the dishes you want to prepare, make a list of the vegetables and groceries to be bought. Don’t forget to add the coconut, banana and the banana leaf to the list!

A very important thing to remember is that, if you are cooking for four, don’t cook each and every item for four people. Keep in mind that there are many dishes and if you cook everything for four, you might be wasting a lot of food.

The pickles, esp. inji curry, can be made well ahead. Sharkara varatti and banana chips too can be made ahead (or bought ahead). Kalan can be made 2-3 days before, it stays good for over a week in the fridge.

I buy the coconuts 3-4 days ahead at least, scrape them and freeze/refrigerate in tupperware containers. I buy one or two extra, just in case. For garnishing wheat based payasams, cut thin coconut slices and refrigerate in airtight containers.

In olden days of joint families, the work was divided between the ladies of the house. Now with nuclear families, it’s almost always one single person cooking the entire sadya. So bit of preparing ahead is fine, in my opinion.

A day before:

• Traditionally, everything is made of the day of Onam. But I get some of the work done the day before, just my way of making life easy!
• If possible, I cut the vegetables a day before.
• Fry the pappad and store in an airtight container.
• Extract coconut milk. Keep in mind that you are taking a risk here as coconut milk is best used on the day of extracting it. (I keep a tetra pack of ready made coconut milk as a back up, anyway).
• Soak the pulses. (Chana for koottu curry, red beans/ black eyed beans for olan and erisseri).  I cook the pulses a day before, it makes cooking really easy.

On the day, let’s start cooking!

Have a simple breakfast and then get into the main cooking.

Traditional rules for making the sadya:

• Take bath before you start making the sadya. This will help you be fresh and energetic.
• At my place, my mother never tastes the food before serving, esp on auspicious days. It’s usually because food is served to the Gods first and it shouldn’t be your left over. This is up to you, however.
•  In some places/communities, garlic and onion is not used on auspicious days. Again, your call!

With so much to do, people sometimes forget about rice. At lunch time, you will have a dozen dishes – but no rice. Rice takes time to cook, so start with it.

Pressure cook rice and toor dal first. You can prep the vegetables while the rice is cooking. Dal can be used for sambar, rasam and parippu. If you are making parippu curry, you need to cook moong dal separately. 

Clean the kitchen counter and your dining table. You are going to have 16-20 dishes coming out of the kitchen. Its best to identify a place and bring it there once a dish is done. 

Get into vegetable preparations. 

Try clubbing as much chopping as possible and as much grinding as possible. For ex. Pumpkin can be used in olan, sambar and erissery. The vegetable cutting is almost same for all three.

Once cutting for a vegetable is over, transfer it to a MW proof dish (if you have MW) and get it going there.  Believe me, MW speeds up the process like nothing else!

If you have to extract coconut milk for the payasam/olan, do it first before you start grinding for the curries. You don’t want a jeera flavored payasam! 

Grind coconut together for kichadi and pachadi. Its  the same mix. With little variations, its a combination of coconut + cumin + chillies for almost all the dishes. It’s the consistency that varies (smooth, coarse) most of the time. 

Roast coconut together for Erissery and Koottu curry (if preparing both).

Once a dish is done, bring it to the dining table (that’s what I do), or keep it in a separate place so that it doesn’t crowd the kitchen counter.

If have a big pressure cooker, try to use separators and get as many dishes as possible cooked at the same time. Ex. when cooking for avial, you can cook for koottu curry or erisseri too along with it. It requires the same number of whistles.I made kalan and koottu curry with yam and raw banana. I was able to pressure cook the vegetables together this way.

Get to the payasams. I do it last, because that needs the most attention.

Check out ‘How to Serve a Sadya‘ on serving the spread.

By now, you will be in the full run and things will just fall in place – or fall out place, whatever ;-P! The thing to remember is that the sadya is for your family and its OK if you make a couple of items less. Its more important that you spend a good day with your family, enjoying the food than collapsing at the time of serving!

Happy Sadya everyone :-)…

Previous Posts:

1. A – Avial, Ada Pradhaman, Achinga Payar – Chena Mezhukkupiratti
2. B – Beetroot Kichadi, Beet root thoran, Beans Thoran
3. C  – Carrot Thoran, Cabbage Thoran
4. D – Daal – Parippu Curry
5. E – Erisseri – Chena & Mathan Vanpayaru
6. F – Fruit Pachadi
7. G – God’s Own Country – Kerala
8. H – How to Serve a Sadya
9. I – Inji Puli
10. J – Jackfruit Payasam – Chakka Payasam
11. K – Kalan & Koottu Curry
12. L – Lemon Rasam
13. M – Mambazha Pulisseri & Mathan Pachadi
14. N – Neer Moru/ButterMilk
15. O – Olan
16. P – Payasam & Pookkalam
17. Q – Quaker Oats Payasam
18. R – Rice and Rasam
19. S – Sambar
20. T – Thenga paal
21. U – Upperi
22. V – Vegetable Cutting
23. W – Wheat Payasam

Logo courtesy : Preeti

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