Cooking Kerala-style Indian heritage dishes

Sharmini’s father Jacob (middle) says that his daughter’s Kerala-style food is as good as his late wife’s. On his left is Sharmini’s older brother Suchit John Jacob, who also says his sister’s food is pretty close to what his mother used to make.

Sharmini Ann Jacob’s large kitchen hosts a treasure trove of heirloom cookware and crockery, passed down from her grandmother and mother, both of whom hailed from the south Indian state of Kerala.

“We went to Kerala for Christmas one year and my mother said, ‘I need a claypot’. And Amachi (grandmother) went to her cupboard, took it out and said, ‘Will this do?’ And she wrapped it up and gave it to my mother. So that’s easily 40 years old. And if you pull out other things from the kitchen, chances are they are from India because everything you see in the kitchen, I’ve inherited from my mother,” she says.