They were the freshest beans I’d ever seen and they were still to be picked by my own small hands. I was visiting my family as a child and it was nearly lunchtime. My uncle owns an agricultural farm, in Bidadi, just south of the cosmopolitan metropolis of Bangalore. My aunt had sent me out to the backfield with strict instructions to pick only the biggest cluster beans, so she could make a quick stir-fry or palya, as it’s known in my mother tongue Kannada.
During my trip, my all time favourite fruit, sapodilla (chikoo) was not yet ripe up in the hills. The sapodilla is similar to a peach in texture but has a malty taste like ovaltine and sweet, sticky juice. The sapodilla tree can bear fruit twice a year, but the fruit was hard as bullets inside and not ready to eat until February.
I’ll have to admit that ‘eating seasonally’ has been really important to me since I was a child. I remember choosing to eat locally and seasonally, as I did on a round-the-world trip in 1999. I enjoyed succulent water buffalo pho (a noodle soup) in Vietnam & the freshest ever fish and crispy chips in Kaikoura, New Zealand. So on a recent trip to southern India, I was more than happy to live on the staple vegetable and lentil curries of Southern India
I’d travelled up to the hill station region of Coorg, in the Western Ghats, where my aunt owns an estate growing coffee and Tellicherry black pepper. The pepper vines entwine the silver birch trees providing much needed shade for the Arabica coffee bushes.
The pepper vines have been grafted from Malabar pepper originally found on the Kerelan coast, a little bit further down from coastal Karnataka, just on the other side of the Western Ghat mountain range. Black pepper is native to South India and India produces 19% of the world pepper crop.
The green pepper drupes are harvested between December and March then dried, traditionally in the sun, which loses a little pungency or sometimes they are air dried indoors which reduces flavour loss. Telllicherry pepper is known as the finest in the world and only the plumpest & ripest pepper can be classed as such. Sadly pepper yields were down 30% last harvest because the monsoon rains carried for two and a half months after they were supposed to finish.
Further up the hill in Coorg, green cardamom is grown, but only above an elevation of 1000 metres and in areas where there is a supply of water, which is used for irrigation during the summer months.
When I arrived, it was the season for a little known winter squash known only in Kannada as sanna hanu. Similar to a pumpkin on the outside, this squash has white flesh, with melon like seeds, which need to be scooped out. The squash took pride of place in a simple lentil curry that had added sweetness from carrots and simple spicing from dried red chilli and black mustard seeds.
Local Coorgi cuisine is well regarded by foodies all over India. They have created many special recipes using local ingredients which don’t otherwise grow in the plains. One example is bamboo. It’s grows well all over the coffee estates and is used both for shade and so the local people can enjoy it as a delicacy.
Coorgi bamboo shoot & kala channa curry
One particular Coorgi dish is a bamboo and kala channa (black chickpea) curry which is traditionally eaten with a ‘rice roti’ – a flat bread made with cooked rice and pressed into a roti, before being toasted & served with ghee.
Serves:4
Ingredients
400g sliced bamboo shoots
1 cup kala channa (brown chickpeas)
2 cups water
½ teaspoon tamarind paste
½ teaspoon jaggery/brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Spices
Spice temper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
6 curry leaves
2 fresh red chillies
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 onion finely chopped
1 bulb garlic finely chopped
Masala powder
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seed
2-3 dry red chillies
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 inch stick cinnamon
Coconut paste
3 tablespoons desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon white poppy seeds
Method
Soak the channa overnight in a large bowl of water.
Dry roast all the masala spices on a low heat in a frying pan for 2 – 3 mins. Keep aside.
Grind coconut paste ingredients, then keep aside.
Add 2 cups water to a medium saucepan and add kala chana, bring to the boil and then simmer gently for approx. 25 mins until soft.
In a separate frying pan, add oil and when hot, add mustard seeds and cover. Turn heat very low, then when popping stops, add onion, red chillies, garlic, curry leaves and turmeric. Fry gently until onion becomes translucent.
Add bamboo to the channa then add the spice temper, tamarind and salt. Bring to the boil and then simmer for five minutes.
Add coconut paste, simmer gently for five mins until gravy thickens.
Garnish with coriander and serve with rotis.
