{"id":42928,"date":"2022-02-01T14:28:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T14:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/?p=42928"},"modified":"2022-02-01T14:42:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T14:42:58","slug":"tradition-and-kuru-curry-in-breezy-madikeri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/?p=42928","title":{"rendered":"Tradition and kuru curry in breezy Madikeri"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Progress in India may not be a pretty sight, but there is welcome respite to be had amid the birdsong, cuisine and coffee plantations of south Karnataka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The traditional Kodagu spread at the Muthanna household. (Photo: Priya Ramani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is something of a privilege for a city dweller to live in the middle of a coffee plantation, as I did for four days in the lush Karnataka district of Kodagu last week. I watched the early morning mists roll in, shivering lightly as the wind whipped in over the coral trees and silver oaks, and the air filled with the insistent \u201ctsees\u201d of Orange-headed Thrushes, the \u201czweets\u201d of Oriental White-Eyes and many other strange and wonderful creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey to Madikeri, the district headquarters, evoked mixed feelings . The cool winds and rolling hills of south Karnataka are always a pleasure to drive through but it is hard to ignore patches of rubbish, rubble and construction. Progress in India is not a pretty sight. Even the once sylvan Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe boasted double-glazed glass on mansions that evoked the architecture of their distant, lost land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is best to focus instead on more pleasurable things, such as reading aloud, and compulsively, the signboards along the highway, a disease that afflicts my family. So, I could not help but point out to my unfortunate travelling companions the whimsical ways of Karnataka\u2019s highway proprietors and municipal officials: wayside lunch stops called Hotel Stop And Taste, Hotel Le Ruchi, Hotel Purple Delicacy (only because its walls were painted purple) and\u2014to our perplexment\u2014Hotel Silent Zone; and settlements called \u201cTown of the Divine Goddess\u201d (Periyapatna), \u201cToy Town\u201d (Channapatna) and \u201cHistorical Town\u201d (Srirangapatna).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the base of the Kodagu Hills, we stopped for lunch at a little eatery that simply called itself Fish Curry And Rice Hotel. They brought us lacy neer dosas<\/em>, tawa<\/em>-fried kane<\/em> or silverfish and surmai <\/em>or kingfish pulimunchi<\/em>, a tangy, fiery coastal curry that derives its flavour and name from tamarind or puli<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That lunch was the harbinger of the meals to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At our destination, Captain K\u2019s Getaway, perched on the edge of a verdant valley, we found a host who was not just an accomplished chef but cooked our dinners herself, helped by her son and daughter. Leila Alvares, as it emerged, was a well-known name back home in Bengaluru, where she has produced many musicals. The daughter of a former mariner\u2014hence the home-stay\u2019s name\u2014she ran a coffee estate, hosted guests and offered sublime food, spanning Coorg to Continental, with a barbeque thrown in. Captain K\u2019s has only two rooms, so even when it\u2019s full\u2014we took both rooms\u2014it\u2019s empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also lucky that my old friend Kavitha Muthanna was a 20-minute drive away. It was for her wedding that we were last in Kodagu, 12 years ago. As we drove in to Madikeri, we stopped at a modest one-room home she and her husband were creating for themselves in a former storehouse for grain and coffee in the middle of the family plantation: a bed, tiny kitchen, tiny living area and a great, glorious outdoors, bounded by a paddy field and old-growth trees that towered over the coffee bushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One afternoon, Kavitha\u2019s mother, Veena Muthanna, invited us to lunch at her hillside home in Madikeri. As we admired the sylvan views, she told us how things had changed over the last decade, pointing to buildings over the treetops, including many ugly ones sporting those double-glazed, sealed windows\u2014why anyone would block the air in breezy Madikeri was a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We focused our attention on Mrs Muthanna\u2019s welcoming lunch table. There was, of course, a traditional and most delicious\u00a0pandhi<\/em>, or pork curry, and fried fish\u00a0<\/a>but what stood out was the vegetarian spread that I normally tend to ignore. There was a bamboo-shoot vegetable and a\u00a0kuru<\/em>, or kidney bean (of a local speckled variety, pictured), curry produced by Eliza, a smiling, robust woman who does the daily cooking. Instead of mutton\u00a0pulao<\/em>, there was a soya nuggets\u00a0pulao<\/em>, and there were fluffy\u00a0akki<\/em>\u00a0or rice-flour\u00a0rotis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kuru
Kuru beans before cooking. (Photo: Kavitha Muthanna)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As we retired for dessert\u2014home-made caramel custard and\u00a0gulab jamuns<\/em>\u2014we noticed eaves of paddy behind Mrs Muthanna\u2019s photo frames. They had been taken from the harvest and placed there for blessings and good luck. Tradition, the Madikeri breeze, welcoming hosts and fine food\u2014what better way to prepare for the week ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eliza\u2019s Kuru Curry<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Made with kuru, or fresh speckled kidney bean<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingredients<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half kg shelled kuru
In a mixie, grind
A handful of grated coconut
Half tsp chilli powder
One-fourth tsp dhania (coriander) powder
One-fourth tsp turmeric
One-fourth tsp jeera (cumin) powder
A pinch of saunf (aniseed)
Half tsp ginger paste
One-fourth tsp garlic paste
(Grind well. Do not add water to this mixture)
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp curry leaves
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Method<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a pressure cooker, heat the oil, splutter some mustard seeds, then fry a sliced onion until golden brown. Add the ground masala and fry further till it smells heavenly (Kavitha\u2019s description) and the colour changes. Add the tomato and saut\u00e9 for another minute. Add salt. Add water till above the level of the mixture. Add the beans and curry leaves. Close cooker. Let steam for two whistles, then simmer for five minutes. Open cooker and enjoy\u00a0madi<\/em>\u00a0with a lashing of ghee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Daily Bread is a column on easy, inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is the author of The Married Man\u2019s Guide To Creative Cooking\u2014And Other Dubious Adventures. @samar11<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

source: http:\/\/www.lifestyle.livemint.con \/ Mint \/ Home> Mint Lounge> Food> Cook \/ by Samar Halarnkar \/ December 19th, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Progress in India may not be a pretty sight, but there is welcome respite to be had amid the birdsong, cuisine and coffee plantations of south Karnataka. It is something of a privilege for a city dweller to live in the middle of a coffee plantation, as I did for four days in the lush … Continue reading Tradition and kuru curry in breezy Madikeri<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,1202],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture-entertainment","category-records-all","category-travel-tourism-homestays-wef-oct-03rd-2021-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42928"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42949,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42928\/revisions\/42949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kodagufirst.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}