Konkani Flavours

The Konkanis, living mostly on the Konkan coast, inhabit all places of mention on the Western seaboard of India. Originally from Goa, they migrated southwards with the entry of the Portugese & settled in Karnataka & Kerala. Konkani settlements can be found in the Canara districts of Karnataka with Mangalore & Udupi leading the list. In Kerala, the largest settlement can be found at Kochi.

Having been through 3 states, Konkan cuisine has assimilated the best of all three states. The trademark of the Konakani kitchen is versatility. In this first post of many more to come, I will elaborate on Konkani varieties of the regular Dosa. Dosa is called Pollo by the Konkanis.I shall henceforth refer to Dosas as Pollos in this post.

The average South Indian, will have tasted a Plain Dosa,a Ghee Dosa & a Masala Dosa. But a Konkani isn’t your average South Indian. He/She would’ve taken a few more steps ahead and apart from this regular South Indian fare, would’ve also sampled Phanna Pollo, Methiye Pollo, Gova Pollo, Maida Pollo, Cabbage Pollo, Kharbaza Pollo to name a few.

I’ll tackle them one by one. Phanna Pollo is also made with rice flour, as is the regular dosa, but the Phanna Pollo batter has a coarser consistency & ofcourse it has the Phanna to add flavour. Phanna contains mustard seeds& curry leaves crackled and fried in oil. The Phanna pollo maybe made spicy red in colour or  plain white for the weaker stomachs.

The Methiye Pollo is, as obvious, made using  Methi Leaves. Batter still remains that of a rice flour base. This is coloured yellow with a dose of turmeric & a few red chillies thrown in for that extra flavour.Methi leaves are thrown in with their stems removed.

Gova Pollo, leaves the rice-flour alone & is made from wheat flour. Usually favoured by diabetics, It is also resorted by Konkani ladies when they have nothing in the larder. Personally, the Tastemaster avoids this brand of Konkani cuisine along with the Maida Pollo which is described next.

The Maida Pollo is evidently made from Maida. This is also a last resort effort to feed hungry mouths and isn’t resorted to unless there is not even wheat flour in the larder. Maida isn’t very nutritious & the rather slippery consistency of the Pollo makes it a rather poor choice for dinner in my opinion

The Cabbage Pollo is obviously made using shredded cabbage. But do not think that it is made entirely from cabbage. Shredded cabbage & red chillies are mixed into batter made from rice. Konkanis have a thing for rice & red chillies).This is also yellow coloured thanks to the turmeric added.( It is a spicy & oily delicacy. It tastes best when its fried to a crisp. Weirdly, the pollos come out well after a few hours rather than when the batter has been freshly prepared. 

The Kharbaza Pollo might not find favour with everyone, but its a delicacy nonetheless. Made from urad dal, and a large dose of pepper, this pollo has a sour & spicy flavour. Usually eaten with pickle of some sort, this will make mouths water especially for the elder generation. However, the present generation & the next is bound to wrinkle its nose when served this pollo.

Another variety of the dosa is the Adai which has been borrowed from tamil cuisine. Its primarily made from urad dal. This is usually served with a dollop of butter, cream, curd or the ubiquitous pickle.

Yet another variety is the Adsara Pollo. Also made from rice flour, this has coconut milk added to it to impart a different flavor. This is usually taken with dali toi( a dal based gravy preparation).

One thing that can be noticed is that rice flour is common to most Pollos. The trick lies in the proportions & the consistency. Infact, no two pollos could be more different even though they share a common ingredient.

Now, purists would say that there are various restaurants & food festivals which boast many varieties of dosas. I would like to put forward a point to them. The many dosa varieties advertised by restaurants are either to attract people or to show off. These would generally have any available  and sometimes even exotic ingredient tossed into batter or mashed up & served as a dosa variety.

The Konkanis on the other hand, had no intention of attracting others or of showing off when they started experimenting with various Pollos. The fact that many readers wouldn’t have heard of these dosa varieties mentioned above bears testimony to this fact. The pollos were the result of a bit of ingenuity on the part of Konkani house-wives (there were very few working women when these recipes were invented) when their larder was found lacking or in some cases even tried out with a spirit of adventure (I’m just speculating). The reader will find that all recipes are very practical & not flamboyant. All are made from commonly available materials & do not demand addition of jalapeno peppers or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (as can be seen in recipes that appear in fashionable magazines or on the menu cards of upscale restaurants). Konkani cuisine is made with the common man in mind.

So, if you happen to know a Konkani colleague or neighbour, do trouble them or their mothers for these specials.

Cheers!

The Humble Peanut

Mankind’s favourite snack since time immemorial. Lets pay homage to one of the cheapest and humblest snacks of all times. Yes, the peanut. Also known as groundnut, kappalandi (in malayalam), kadale in tamil, moomphali in hindi & so on. How many of us can confess to not having enjoyed a handful of peanuts, usually rolled into a cone of newspaper? For many diabetics & cholesterol freaks, this post might bring back childhood memories.

In the words of R.K.Narayan’s Talkative Man, the groundnut is “hermetically sealed by nature so that you can pick one off the ground,dust it, crack it and put it in your mouth with no fear”. This may not be verbatim, but you get the meaning. An evening spent on the beach, a walk in the park, a walk back home after  a late movie, waiting in a long queue, all these provide excellent opportunities for one to indulge in a handful of peanuts.  Peanuts bring to mind the clang of the vendor’s spatula against his iron cauldron as he heats up the peanuts on his cart. In India, one can come across this type of homo-sapien pushing his cart through sleepy streets on a warm afternoon or on the beach or outside a movie theatre or a hundred of other locations. In fact, one can say that the vendor is a part of the fabric of Indian Life.He brings joy to the bored.

Nutritionally, its full of protein, but also full of cholesterol. But who cares? A handful of fried peanuts never hurt anyone (unless ofcourse you’re just recovering from a coronary). The best part is that its cheap. Peanuts ought to be the most under-advertised, but highest selling snack of all times. Ofcourse, some have tried to cash in on the popularity of peanuts by bringing out canned versions, but I still swear by the roadside vendor. What other snack can you get for as low as a Rupee?

Another splendid thing about popping peanuts in your mouth is the attractive packaging. Now i don’t mean to say that peanuts compete with Lays. But, what can you read on a pack of Lays? But, with peanuts wrapped in a piece of old newspaper or a leaf torn out of a magazine, you are promised atleast 10 min of reading material. Now where does Lays stand compared to that?? I’ll admit that 10 min isn’t much, but 10min is a God-send when you’re waiting at the end of a very long queue.

Peanuts are an ideal companion whether you’re alone on the beach, chatting with a friend or out on a date on a very very tight budget. And there’s no age  limit for them. Any one from a kid with teeth to a elderly person with teeth can have them (provided the elderly person isn’t suffering from cholesterol related problems).

Lets have a look at some of the derivatives of the humble peanut. Enterprising women at home have found out that peanuts dipped in chickpea batter & fried make a tasty snack. The peanut plain fried in oil & garnished with curry leaves, garlic & chilli powder makes an excellent accompaniment to the evening cup of tea. And ofcourse, peanuts in jaggery paste made in the form of cakes (called chikki or kadalamittai) are another delicacy which the traders at Kovilpatti have cashed in upon (but that’s another story).

This might have jogged a few memories especially with the generation of the 50s & 60s. Back then, there weren’t Lays, Cheetos or Stax. Just peanuts. So, if there is still anyone out there (God Forbid) who hasn’t enjoyed a handful of peanuts rolled in a cone, please go out and have some as soon as you can. Its part of being Indian.

Cheers