A spicy edge

Anurag Mallick & Priya Ganapathy delve into the unique powders, pastes, potions and spice mixes used by various communities across Karnataka

Our foodie friend Arun Pandit once jokingly referred to Mangaluru’s local feasting season as a major health hazard. “After Christmas cirrhosis, after Ramzan cholesterol, after Ratholsava gas,” was his verdict. Each community in Karnataka has its own spice box and the manner in which they use them is unique. GSBs or Gaud Saraswat Brahmins are known for their use of asafoetida (hing) in signature dishes like Patrode, Batata Homanna and Hingashtak or Hinga Uddak. They like it so much they even make a hinga chutney with coconut. However, too much of it especially after feasting during chariot festival season can make one feel bloated!

Mangaluru’s cuisine is a rich tapestry of its communities. Integral to Catholic food is the Baffat powder, a red masala mix used in fries and curries and dishes like Pork Baffat and Dukar Maas. It’s a mix of slender Byadagi chilli, round uru mensinkai or Kumta chilli and whole spices. The Bunts or Tuluvas (Tulu-speaking community) have a similar dry spice blend called Kundapur Taal Masala which combines coriander seeds, fenugreek, peppercorns, cumin, dry red chillies and dehydrated garlic to balance the flavours of various dishes. They also soak red Byadagi chilli in water and grind it into a paste for their signature ghee roast, fish fry and curries. It retains an appetising fiery red colour but loses all the heat. Chicken pulimunchi, a curry named after its puli (sour) munchi (spicy) flavours, uses tamarind to add tang.

Further up the coast, Bhatkal’s Navayath cuisine rests on the twin pillars of aalelahsoon (ginger garlic paste) and lon miri (salt chilly paste). As you drive north towards the Konkan coast, Kokum (garcinia) is widely used as a souring agent in curries. Sol Kadhi, a perky blend of kokum, coconut milk and fresh ground masala is a digestive cooler popular all along the coast. Another key ingredient is teppal or jummankayi (numbness-inducing fruit), a country cousin of the Sichuan pepper that’s put into fish curries; a must-have in the Konkani kitchen. No curry in this coastal tract of Uttara Kannada is complete without Sanikatta salt. Sourced from the 581-acre saltpans near Gokarna, it is the secret ingredient in North Canara cuisine. The salt-making tradition has continued unbroken here for 300 years and these underground mineral deposits run hundreds of metres deep. After meandering through the densely forested Western Ghats, the mineral-rich waters of the Gangavalli and Aghanashini rivers are channelled into large basins and sun-dried to make sand-coloured salt in the brackish backwater region. Rich in trace minerals, the crystal salt has cooling properties with several medicinal benefits and is widely consumed during religious fasting. In the drier plains of North Karnataka jola (sorghum) is the primary staple consumed as jolada roti (flatbread), served with menthya (fenugreek) leaves and enriched with assorted protein-rich pudis (powders) like agasi (flax seed), gural or ucchelu (Niger seed), shenga (groundnut) and puttani (chana dal). At Lingayat eateries like Basaveshwara Khanavali and Basappa Khanavali in Hubballi-Dharwad, it’s common to sprinkle gural or uchhelu pudi instead of garam masala into star Lingayat dishes like yenne badnekayi (brinjal curry), hesara kalu palya (green gram curry) and other curries. In most Veeeashaiva or Lingayat households, they make an assortment of spicy condiments — be it belluli khara (garlic chilli chutney) or red chilli karindi (red chilli paste). In Coorg, the Kodavas who also have a great love for non-vegetarian fare prepare a unique tart vinegar to add zing to their meat dishes. They boil fruits of kachampuli (Garcinia gummi-gutta) and reduce it into a viscous black vinegar used as a souring agent for pandi curry (pork curry), koli barthada (chicken fry) and meen (fish) curry or fry. There is a lot more to our regional food beyond the three basic spice mixes — Rasam (saaru) pudi, Sambar (huli) pudi and Palyada (curry) pudi, which feature in everyday meals. But it is the unique powders and pastes devised since ancient times by various communities to create and enhance signature flavours in one state alone, which sets Karnataka cuisine apart.

(The authors are travel/food writers and culinary consultants “loosely based” in Bengaluru. They run a travel/media outfit customising solutions for the hospitality industry, have authored guides and coffee table books, set up an award-winning restaurant and feature as ‘Dude aur Deewani’ in a food-based digital infotainment show. Follow their adventures on Instagram: @red_scarab or their Facebook page Red Scarab.)