Kodagu's timeless cuisine

HERE'S EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LOCAL CUISINE FROM THE SCOTLAND OF INDIA

- Kaveri Ponnapa

It's fascinating to see how the food of my childhood, Kodava cuisine, created by generations of gifted home cooks who were all experts in their own kitchens, very much in touch with the rhythms of the land, is making its way onto menus in popular restaurants and being added to the repertoire of cooks everywhere. This is the food that has made the deepest impression on me: images of produce and flavours imprinted themselves on my memory, becoming an essential part of my heritage. The rustic, black pepper-laden, rice-centric food of Kodagu evokes such a depth of memories, emotions, remembered tastes, flavours and seasons, that one dish or another makes its way onto my table every single day.

To plunge into the heart of it all, you begin with rice—every meal is built around rice. Akki otti, a plain rice flatbread made of rice flour and cooked rice toasted on a griddle without oil and puffed up over an open flame has the capacity to absorb and reflect multiple flavours with its slightly charred exterior and soft interiors, making it ideal anytime food. Sitting at the breakfast table, tearing off small portions to scoop up elle pajji- smoky and earthy chutney made of roasted onions and chillies, coconut and toasted sesame or dipping portions into butter and local honey, the layered textures of these flatbreads reveal the secret of why they are universally popular. Whether you are eating a baimbale (bamboo shoot) curry, bollari barthad (velvety Mangalore cucumber) cooked with a little jaggery and spices or kuru curry, a weighty curry of field beans or tender jackfruit, vegetable fry, or kaad mange curry, a sour-sweet concoction of wild mangoes, akki ottis are the perfect partners, bending themselves to the main flavours, allowing them centre stage, providing all the textures to complement them.