Kitchen essentials to make a homemade Sadya this Onam

With Onam festivities kick starting and Thiruvonam, the last day of Onam, falling on August 31, it’s that time of the year to plan, prep and crave a celebratory Sadya meal.

Sadya, a Malayalam word for a celebratory meal shared with family and friends, is the traditional festive meal served on special occasions like Onam, Vishu, and weddings. The scrumptious spread demands a tall order of 25 to 48 dishes.

But, if the thought of preparing such a meal from scratch at home seems like a daunting task, worry not. We spoke with top chefs who shared easy hacks and mindful advice that will help in preparing a memorable meal using standard kitchen appliances like the hand blender, mixer grinder, microwave, air fryer, and the vegetable processor among others.

A tall order

“A typical Sadya has a set of thottu kootan comprising of crackers, banana chips, pickles, and inji puli (tamarind ginger chutney) on the side, and mains like erissery (pumpkin curry), olan, pachadi (cucumber raita), theeyal (gravy dish), kootu curry (lentil and vegetable stew), avial, kaalan, thoran, kichadi, and mezhukkupuratti,” says Sara Jacob Nair, partner and chef at Nair on Fire, a homestyle Kerala food kitchen.

“Once the rice is served, there are multiple pouring of curries like parippu (dal), sambar, pulissery (vegetarian side dish), and to wash all this down, we serve rasam and buttermilk,” Nair adds. “Palada payasam (kheer) and boli (sweet flat bread) are served between the courses, along with ada payasam (made of rice noodles and milk) or parippu payasam.”

Lately, there’s been a notable shift towards adopting modern cooking techniques and innovative appliances in preparing a traditional Sadya. Chefs have been experimenting with innovative methods of food preparation and presentation, incorporating modern kitchen equipment and culinary practices to enhance the flavours and textures of their dishes. While some steps cannot be skipped, kitchen gadgets help ease the process.

Nair confesses that the biggest bane in a Sadya preparation is grinding the masalas in various consistencies – be it the fine grinding of wet coconut masala for the puliserri or the coarse grinding for pachadi. Spices are also roasted for sambar masala, theeyal and kootu.

“All these require a good wet grinder with different grind options and multiple sized jars. If one decides to prep white rice, the rice cooker helps ease the process. One can forget about it once the rice is washed and set into the cooker for cooking,” she explains.

When preparing a Sadya meal, every dish doesn’t need to be worked on in real time as some can be prepared and stored in advance. “Coconut-based and yoghurt-based dishes, for instance, are better heated in a microwave oven,” Nair suggests. “One can simply set the timer and heat it in stages and thus reduce the damage to the texture and taste of the dish when reheated on stove.”

Intelligent shortcuts

While Nair loves the cooking process, and even had a small sil batta at home to make pastes, she agrees that it is not a practical option. She shares her top tips:

– Food hacks may look easy, but they have to be done properly. For example, one can use a microwave to roast shredded coconut but depending on quantity, it can burn within seconds if not stirred every 10 seconds.

– Some dishes require pre-boiled vegetables, and this can be easily done in a microwave. In fact, it can be done a day in advance and assembled with the coconut masala the next day.

– Similarly, milk for the payasam too can be boiled in a microwave.

– Lastly, do not cook red rice in the microwave. Instead, opt for either a solar cooker, rice maker or desi pressure cookers.

Chef Ananda Solomon, known for Thai Pavillion at President IHCL SeleQtions and who now runs a tight ship at Bharat Excellensea restaurant at Fort, says, “The idea should be to cut down my effort in kitchen and ensure I get a good product.”

He draws attention to simple electronic gadgets and kitchen essentials. “We use a lot of ginger in cooking, which can be shredded using the conical shredder. To mix the coconut stew and masalas for avial, one can use a hand blender instead of a mixer,” he adds.

“We use a lot of suran, carrots, pumpkin, white pumpkin in our cooking, and the food processor comes handy here,” he says. “We use it in hotels, but it’s a great companion in a home kitchen too. It is elegant, fast, clean and hygienic, and it will also help make all your pastes.”

Simple techniques for a scrumptious Sadya at home

Solomon believes in cooking from the heart, and using what is available to create a meal. Kitchen equipment are meant to lessen our work, but we must learn to use them well. His top hacks:

– For the pickles, use the shredding machine and cook it in the induction pan.

– For Sadya, we need two types of banana chips – salted savoury and the sweetened jaggery. Fry the chips in an air fryer with little or no oil.

– Thoran, a dry vegetable dish with shredded coconut, can be semi-ground in the hand blender.

One can be forgiven for feeling a tad overwhelmed when planning on preparing a Sadya meal. But, with the help of standard appliances found in most kitchens and some hacks, one can make the entire preparation process a bit easier.

Phorum Pandya is a Mumbai-based journalist covering food, travel, and lifestyle.