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Healthy spread for Ramzan

LOW-FAT DIET: Cookery expert Ummi Abdulla churns out special low fat sweets. Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

Watch your waistline this Ramzan season, is a message doing the rounds, given the growing health consciousness among the general public.

While the traditional Id delicacies continue to be popular on dinner tables during the Ramzan month, the growing number of the health conscious among the younger and the middle-aged are turning to a feast that comprise dishes that are low on fat and cholesterol and lighter on the stomach too.

Dishes are being thought out to replace rice with semia (vermicilli), generous meat helpings are being replaced with minced or diced chicken and lamb.

Use of egg and ghee is limited. And lots of fresh fruits to break the fast.

Cookery expert Ummi Abdulla known for churning out the delectable delicacies for which Malabar Muslim cookery is well-known says that those among the health conscious now prefer to go in for the less fat and low sweet dishes with a view to keeping an eye on the waistline.

Traditional Malabar Muslim cuisine is well-known for the generous use of rich ingredients such as aromatic fine-grained rice, ghee, banana, eggs, cashews, raisins and all that adds up to taste and, calories too.

Says Ms.Abdulla: "Delicious fatless food is on the agenda. Steamed items in place of deep-fried delicacies, less of ghee and meat are being preferred. Here the kheema pulao is an item that is low on fat and calories, and turning out to be popular with the modern health fad. The semia pulao, even without the meat is a tasty dish, seasoned with a dash of ghee and the right quantity of ginger-garlic paste, onions and coriander.

Also on the list is kadalakka pola (dal cake), a snack made of Bengal gram, egg, milk, sugar, flavoured with cardamom and rose water, and steamed. Ghee is used only to grease the baking dish.

`Khaya ada', a samosa-shaped delicacy of rice, mashed plantains and jaggery and steamed on banana leaf is another item on the menu thought up for the health fad.

The traditional Malabar biriyani, and `neichoru' eaten with meat dishes are still the most popular dishes in the Id menu, though people are increasingly turning to low calorie delicacies, Ms. Abdulla says.

Maleeha Raghaviah

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