Sunday, September 15, is the most important day – the tenth – of Onam 2024. On Thiruvonam, which is what this auspicious day is called, Prima Kurien is laying out a feast – a grand Onam Sadya – at the We The Chefs Experiential Centre in Gurugram. And as she prepares for it, Prima travels back in time to when she was growing up in Kathmandu, where her father was posted as one of the first Royal Nepal Airlines executives.
Prima comes from a Syrian Christian (Suriani) family, yet it used to be an annual ritual for her parents and her to fly back to Kottayam, Kerala, where her grandmother would have a feast awaiting them. For Malayalis living anywhere in the world, irrespective of the religion they follow, Onam is one of the two most important festive occasions. Vishu, or New Year’s Day, according to Kerala’s traditional calendar, is the other big celebration and it took place on April 14 this year. As Prima describes the predominant sentiment, “All communities celebrate Onam, just like in the days leading up to Christmas, when you’ll see a star on every door or a brightly decorated Christmas tree in every home.” That is the beauty of Kerala’s syncretic culture.
The Onam Sadya, which marks the annual feasting to celebrate the descent of the righteous King Mahabali from his perch in between Heaven and Earth, is 100 per cent vegetarian. It is served on a banana leaf, eaten with one’s fingers and you’re expected to be seated on a mat on the ground. In Sanskrit, the word ‘sadya’ means ‘immediate’ (indicating perhaps that it is a feast that immediately follows the harvest season in Kerala) and it is said to originate from the root ‘sadhya’ (Sanskrit for ‘attainable’).
The items arrayed on the banana leaf could add up to 24 to 28 – there appears to be no logic behind the number; Prima, in fact, remembers how her grandmother’s spread would have up to 36 items, from a spoonful of table salt and pickles to the ‘payasam’ at the end, but her feast on September 15 will have 22. What makes the spread stand out is that each item represents an essential nutrient. And it is this melange of the body’s building blocks that makes it a nutritional powerhouse.
To a first-timer, the Onam Sadya platter may seem to have so much to offer that it is hard to figure out where to start from. Prima suggests we follow this order while digging into her Onam Sadya: start with rice, ‘parippu’ (the thick dal), ghee and papad – as a pick-me-up, you could add ‘inji podi’ (ginger powder) or ‘samandhi/chammanthi podhi’ (roasted coconut chutney powder) to the rice and ghee. You could also have the lemon pickle to open up your palate and send your digestive juices into an overdrive.
View this post on Instagram
The opening course should be followed by ‘sambhar’, ‘theeyil’ (coconut-based curry), ‘thoran’ (finely chopped seasonal vegetables lightly sauteed with grated coconut, mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric powder), ‘erissery’ (pumpkin and lentil stew), ‘avial’ (mixed vegetables cooked in coconut and yoghurt sauce), ‘mezhukupurathiath’ (stir-fried vegetables), ‘pulissery’ (spiced buttermilk curry), ‘kootu’ (yam, plantain and black chickpeas cooked with coconut and spices) or ‘vareka uperi’ (raw banana and black-eyed peas curry), and ‘olan’ (curry made with ash gourd and cowpeas – red lobia – cooked in coconut milk).
Throughout the meal, you could bite into familiar banana chips or banana candy (the latter being called ‘sharkara varatti’). And before you dive into the desserts, there’s a palate cleanser to be had. It’s the ‘sambharam’ or spiced buttermilk.
The earlier food attack notwithstanding, you must keep room in your system for the ‘palada payasam’ (this Onam special is a rich cardamom-flavoured ‘kheer’ made with rice flakes, milk and sugar), ‘chakka varatti payasam’ (jackfruit cooked in milk – a dessert served to victorious warriors) and ‘pazham’ (the mandatory banana to help you digest the treat). That brings to an end a festive feast truly worthy of a righteous ruler who may have lost his kingdom but attained immortality in the hearts of generations of Indians.
To find out more about Prima Kurien’s Onam Sadya at the We The Chefs Experiential Centre in Gurugram, log on to www.wethechefs.in.