Celebrate Eid al-Fitr with these traditional southern Indian delicacies

Though the food served during Eid has become more contemporary, traditional recipes are still prepared by home chefs in southern India

As Ramzan draws to a close this week, home cooks from the Muslim community will be reaching out for their special recipes on Eid al-Fitr, the festival celebrated globally to mark the end of the ninth Islamic calendar month of dawn-to-dusk fasting.

Eid is also a time of family gatherings. While nothing says Eid more than ‘sheer khurma’, a fragrant milky concoction of roasted vermicelli and nuts or mutton biryani and dhalchar lentil and bone curry with curd and onion chutney, many other traditional recipes, especially sweet dishes, from southern India are prepared in Tamil Nadu.

“Every region has some delicacies that are made for breakfast, with common local ingredients. In Tiruchi and Thanjavur districts, jaalar vada (lattice pancakes stuffed with chicken filling) and vattalappam are served when the family assembles after Eid prayers in the morning,” says S Faizunnisa Ansar, a homemaker from Thanjavur based in Chennai. “Sometimes the plain jalar pancakes and vattalappam are eaten together as dessert.”

Vattalappam is a steamed custard of Malay origin that exists in several avatars in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. “In Thanjavur, we use the coconut’s first milk extract for the best results. There are places where vattalappam is made with regular dairy milk too,” says Faizunnisa, adding “Vattalappam keeps well in the fridge for weeks.”

To add body and thicken the pudding mix, she soaks one and a half tablespoons of raw rice and grinds it on an ammikkal with cumin, anise, cashew nuts, poppy seeds, cardamom, clove and cinnamon to get a lemon-sized ball of fine paste. Six eggs are blended in an electric mixer with a heaped cup of sugar (some variations use jaggery), plus the coconut milk (around a cup and a half), along with the ground paste to get the custard base ready. The mixture is strained and poured into a greased mould, covered with a lid and pressure-cooked for around 15-20 minutes. Once it’s ready, it can be unmoulded and served in small slices.

Coconut milk plays an important role in Dum Adai — a speciality of Muslim cuisine in Kayalapattinam — which resembles mini cakes. “Usually we have a heavy breakfast of non-vegetarian curries accompanied by idiyappam, washed down with javvarusi [sago] payasam after the Eid prayers. Dum Adais are the sweet treats we keep ready for visitors and festive snacking,” says Kayalapattinam-born caterer Ashika Kader, who also makes the desserts to order from home in Tiruchi.

The ease of ordering food and the availability of exotic sweets such as baklava’and kunafa in local shops have foreshadowed the older recipes.