Coorg’s copious cuisine

Kodava food is never tongue-numbingly pungent and accomplished chefs are fanatical about the precise order in which each ingredient is added since timing is everything when it comes to determining the real McCoy, writes Ajit Saldanha

Kodava cuisine is characterised by the generous use of spices often freshly picked from the coffee estates for which the region is justly famous. Pepper, star anise and the locally grown paringi mallu, aka bird-eye chilli, which is tiny in size but packs a wicked punch, play complementary roles while the usual suspects, ginger, garlic and oil, are sparingly used. To compensate, cooking is a meticulously drawn-out process and many households maintain their traditional outdoor kitchens since nothing quite matches the taste of food cooked on firewood. Coconut and coconut milk is used to add depth and balance to curries and stews and most of the homestays which have sprung up like parthenium pride themselves on the use of organic ingredients wherever possible.

Coorg is internationally renowned for its coffee plantations, but a local variety of rice known as Sannakki has a wonderful flavour and can be passed off as Basmati to the uninitiated. Rice is the staple used to make a stellar assortment of Puttus: Noolputtu (iddiyappams) Thaliaputtu (leavened with coconut milk and fenugreek), Sannas (also with coconut milk), Palputtu (steamed, broken rice with coconut and sugar), paputtu with milk and coconut and the belle of the ball: kadambuttu, soft little rice dumplings that are the perfect foil for the spicy and sour taste of pandi kari. An uncle of mine ate so many he looked like the belly of the ball. Rice flour is used to make akki roti, a traditional breakfast staple eaten with chutney and leftover curry.

Pandi kari is the man of the match here and was originally made with wild boar — Kodavas are of warrior descent, and Coorg is still the only region in India where weapons are legal. Of course, this can be dangerous if the gun owner has a hair-trigger temper, no pun intended, but by and large, pistols at dawn are not considered the most efficient dispute resolution mechanism and guns are used to shoot wild boar during the local Kayl Podh festival to lusty shouts of ‘Poli, Poli, Poli Deva’. Koli Barthade is a delicious local dish made with country chicken cooked with ginger, garlic, pepper, coriander, spices and green chilli with a generous dash of kachampulli, the tangy local vinegar distilled from the extract of the Garcinia Gummi Gutta plant. If you’re stuck for a reference point, the most similar thing to this in Western cooking would be balsamic vinegar but of course, the taste is quite different since kachampulli has a distinctive smoky flavour which is indispensable in making a decent Pandi kari.

Fish and mutton are quite popular here both as dry preparations such as mutton pepper fry or a succulent kurma or even a delightful mutton curry redolent with fresh spices, ginger and coconut milk. Akki roti made with rice flour goes best with the curry while the fish is best had with rice, dal rasam and a spinach or mushroom kootu. Another sought-after local speciality is Chuttudu pandi which is chunks of belly pork marinated in turmeric and salt, par-boiled and then finished in a wok with the rendered fat and sprinkled with judicious quantities of lime juice, pepper and bird-eye chilli. This is served as a snack with your evening chota peg and unwary visitors who “overtake” themselves often wind up with gustatory rhinitis when copious quantities of you-know-what gush from both nostrils.

Kodavas believe in ancestor worship and a quaint local ritual is sprinkling the first sip from one’s evening tipple to the elements. The foregoing may suggest that veggies get lean pickings but let the record reflect that Kodava cuisine has a wide selection of vegetarian dishes — wild mushroom and wild mangoes; bamboo shoots, cooked in a delicious curry or pickled; and various local greens, wild spinach, raw jackfruit and breadfruit which makes an awesome snack and a super curry. In the good old days, these were common daily fare but the passage of time, rampant over-building and a lack of respect for nature and the environment has ensured that these healthy, flavourful sources of vitamins and fibre are sadly, increasingly hard to find. Wild mangoes have a peppery, fermented and tart taste when compared to normal mangoes and are used to make a delicious kaad maange curry redolent with garlic, tamarind, red chilli and jaggery.

Sourness plays a lead role in this unique cuisine, but kachampulli is not just the one-trick pony; the limes grown here have a delightful flavour while the local bitter-sour oranges, kaipulli, are generously used to create an explosion of mouthfeel and flavour. Come to think of it, a traditional Kodava kitchen is a piece of installation art, with gleaming brass and copper vessels of various shapes and sizes hanging from wooden racks, the clang of the copper steamers known as sakalas, the myriad range of spice racks, curry-chattis suspended from the ceiling and haunches of cured meat suffusing the air with its distinctively gamey flavour.

(The author is an old Bengalurean and impresario of comedy and musical shows who considers himself fortunate to have turned his passions — writing and theatre — into a profession.)