The Unique Cuisine of The Kochi Kutchi Memons

Still bearing resemblance to the flavours of Gujarat and Sindh, the Kutchi Memon community’s migration to Kerala’s coast saw a significant incorporation of local ingredients and techniques, creating a fascinating hybrid cuisine.

Glasses of sweet badam sharbath, crisp half moons of mutton kheema maanis, crunchy roat, and bowls of creamy almond-studded shahi phirni, fueled my conversation with members of the Kutchi Memon diaspora in Kochi, talking me through their manzils, unique customs, and culinary traditions. It was in the Kochangadi area of Mattanchery, in 1815, that their ancestors fleeing the drought of Kutch, settled down to build homes, warehouses and the famed Hanafi Mosque. Armed with an astute business sense, strong principles and a sense of philanthropy, this close-knit Kutchi-speaking Sunni Muslim community put Kerala on the global seafood market in the 1930s. With a population of only about 3,000, this community owns some of the region’s largest seafood, real estate, hospitality and trading businesses in the region today. Speaking fluent Malayalam, they seamlessly integrate with the local community, and are fondly referred to as Saitoos (a popular second name being Sait) by the locals.

In a breezy, spacious living room dotted with heirloom Kutchi artefacts including a rare thaangaa manji (an infant’s bed), Tasneem Arif, the doyen of Kochi Kutchi Memon food, and keeper of their unique food traditions, showed me photographs and a dog-eared notebook spattered with masala on sepia-toned pages. It is here that Tasneem’s heirloom recipes, handwritten in Gujarati script, are documented. “Every minute detail, secret tip and substitute has been noted down, so that authenticity is maintained. We go all out and ensure everything from the selection and purchase of ingredients, to precise cooking techniques, are followed to achieve this.”

From another hand-written recipe book, sans illustrations and photographs, Yasmin Ismail describes in vivid detail, Memon staples such as paya saag (mutton trotters in gravy, to which cooked goat brain is added in the last few minutes of cooking); kabab saag (meatballs in a creamy coconut milk broth); kkkini (a pulao-style rice dish cooked in aromatic mutton broth, with potatoes, chana dal and spices); memoni faal (pan-fried mutton chops marinated in spiced yoghurt); varieties of sharbats made with milk, almonds and rose water; goondh jo laddoo (made with acacia gum) and gud papadi (a barfi of rice, jaggery, fennel seeds and cardamom) are meticulously recorded.

Zukeikha Usman, in the 1950s, photographed by her daughter-in-law Haleema Hashim
Image courtesy: Nihaal Faizal

Naaz Naseer regaled me with stories spanning decades, from the iconic Yasmin Manzil on Darussalam road in Mattanchery, where she was born. “Back in the 1950’s, my naanimaa (grandmother), Zuleikha Usman, the matriarch of a large joint family of around 35 people, presided over the vast rasoda (kitchen). Redolent with aromas of freshly ground masalas and spices for staples like kichda, kabab saag, Kutchi dal, and akkini, she was always surrounded by a retinue of servants and helpers,” she recalls. “At meal times, a large ‘supra’ cloth was spread over the floor and individual plates were arranged for us around the dishes, placed in the middle. Naanimaa made sure her stamp of approval was over each ingredient that went into the making of all the food.”

Tasneem explains the basics. “Shallots, ginger, garlic, green chillies and saunf (fennel) come together as the core masala of our food in Cochin. Our kitchens use a lot less garlic and very little mint, compared to other Kutchi settlements around India.” While bearing significant resemblance to the flavours of Gujarat and Sindh, the community’s migration to Kerala’s coast saw the incorporation of rice and coconut, and a variety of seafood dishes. Naaz adds, “The kichda for example (a one-pot dish of broken wheat, rice, a mix of lentils, spices, and cooked with mutton), has grated coconut added in. Rice powder is used to make muttiyas, unlike gram or wheat flour, used in the Gujarati kitchens.” 

 According to Faraz Javeed, a businessman and food connoisseur from the community, it is the muttiya that emerges as the most unique dish of the Cochin Kutchis. Muttiya is a meal by itself; rice dumplings in a thick gravy of fish, mutton or prawns, served with a special coconut chatni made by combining grated coconut, finely chopped onions, green chillies, lime juice and salt. Fish muttiya is made by marinating and frying fish, then gently simmered in their signature masala. The gravy is then mixed with rice flour, ghee and enough water to make a dough, pieces of which are clenched in the fist to achieve the classic mutti (fist) shape, and then steamed. They are served neatly arranged on a platter, topped with fish and garnished generously with crisp-fried onions and coriander leaves. The prawn muttiya on the other hand, consists of dough shaped into small cylinders, in a thick, white gravy, to which plenty of fresh methi leaves are added. Mutton muttiya features discs of steamed dough, more gravy and vegetables. And there is always coconut chatni.

Fish muttiya with chatni
Image credit: Leah Samuel

As with other communities, occasions like festivals, births, deaths, marriages and other gatherings called for the preparation of specific traditional dishes.

“A baby’s first steps is marked with trays of gogri (a savoury mix of cooked chickpeas, wheat, scraped coconut) and jalebis to be distributed among family and friends. But these days, people tend to go for things like hampers with chocolates and such,” observes Yasmin dryly.

Then there is the peethi ritual — where, for seven days leading up to the wedding, every Kutchi bride stays indoors for a daily application of herbal body polish (made of sandalwood, haldi, almond meal, herbs and rosewater), and a bath of herb-infused kosadi water. “The women of the family look forward to the first day of the peethi – a time of merriment and banter when we sit together and shape the muttiyas , which are then steamed and served for lunch with the fish and chatni,” said Yasmin.

On the night of the Mehendi, the eve of the wedding, women from the groom’s family arrive with an elaborate trousseau for the bride. “We serve them paalchaaya (milk tea), crisp, layered savoury khaja, and delicate cardamom scented nankhatais,” describes Tasneem.

The Nikaah lunch on the day of the wedding, served separately to men and women, consists of fragrant Kutchi mutton biryani and puli chatni (made with finely chopped shallots, green chillies, jaggery, chilli powder and tamarind!) is followed by a serving of seero (a rich semolina halwa with nuts and dry fruits). 

On more sombre occasions, there are other rituals. Nihaal Faizal, a keen researcher and one of the younger members of the community, explains that the busy activities of the rasoda come to halt, and no fire is lit, when a member of the family passes away. Only kunni is served — rice and dal with ash or bottle gourd, cooked in another manzil and brought over by a relative.

Kochi Kutchi Memon delicacies. Clockwise from left: falooda, Zukeikha Usman's chicken, muttiya, and chatni.
Image credit: Leah Samuel

The members of this community strictly adhere to their Sunni faith, diligently observing fasts and other practices. Ramadan fasts are broken with juice and milk sarbaths (enriched with black khus khus) and nombu kanji (a savoury porridge of rice, fenugreek, aliv seeds and coconut milk). 

Eid celebrations begin with a breakfast of semiya (a sweet vermicelli dish of thickened milk, ghee and nuts) served with crisp, spicy pepper or masala pappads. “It is the celebratory lunch table laden with specialities of the cuisine of the Cochin Kutchis, which brings the larger extended family together,” notes Faraz. A sumptuous white biryani is the main dish, served with puli chatni and pappads. Cooked using the dum technique, this signature biryani has fragrant layers of rose water-infused long-grain basmati rice, dotted with fried onions, raisins and cashews, and mutton cooked with onions, green chillies and coriander; (‘white’ because no chilly powder or turmeric is used). For dessert, it’s a Kutchi special — falooda or phirni. This falooda, unlike its more popular cousin, consists of gelatinous morsels of sweetened milk studded with almonds, flavoured with cardamom, and set with China grass (agar agar). “Our phirni is a creamy delicacy, garnished with almonds and pistachios. We roast the semolina in ghee and cook it with thickened, sweetened milk and saffron, and then add an egg, and a milk and cream mixture in the end,” explains Tasneem, adding that this is uniquely ‘Cochin style’.

Over the past couple of decades, most of the joint families of the manzils have moved into separate, individual apartments, but within the same building — metaphorically, still under the same roof, keeping the joint family spirit intact. So there’s still lots of time for family banter in fluent Kutchi, with plenty of food to go around. Surely, the muttiyas, keema maanis , akkinis, sarbaths and such will continue to grace their tables for a long time to come. 

Find the recipe for Zukeikha Usman’s chicken here.

Find the recipe for Tasneem Arif’s fish muttiya here.

Tsarina Abrao Vacha is a Kochi based architect of facades and feasts.
Banner image credit: Leah Samuel

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