Bamboo shoot is a much loved delicacy of the monsoon season. Though most varieties of bamboo have edible shoots, the two most commonly eaten in Coorg are the newly emergent culms of the Spiny or Thorny Bamboo (Bambusa bambos/ B. arundinacea) and the slender, asparagus like Ochlandra scriptoria/O.rheedii, known locally as watté baimbalé.

This season’s supply of the mullu baimbalé (thorny bamboo) has been badly hit, thanks to the flowering that happened earlier this year*.

Beginning in late May, emerging culms are harvested and the sliced shoots are processed by soaking in plenty of fresh water for 24 hours. This serves to leach out much of the hydrocyanic acid present in some varieties of bamboo. The rest is probably dissipated in the cooking process. In the picture below, you’ll see some bubbles in the water the sliced bamboo has just gone into. This frothing is instantaneous and, by the following day, you’ll see a lot more of it. There’s also a very distinctive fragrance to it – the scent of danger, perhaps?!

The water is changed and the shoots are once again soaked for 24 hours in just enough fresh water to cover them. The long soaking begins a process of light fermentation that gives the bamboo a slight but very appealing tang. The water from the second soaking can be used to cook the bamboo shoot. Prepared shoots are eaten in curries and stir-fries, turned into spicy pickles or preserved in brine for later use. Nowadays freezing is an easy and effective option. My mother usually has a stash of parboiled, frozen bamboo shoot to last her until the next monsoon!

* For me, the only good thing to come of this,was finding out firsthand about some of the “also rans” in the bamboo hierarchy- not too bad, some of them! Oh, and also some bamboo rice.

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The Southwest monsoon announces itself in Coorg with a spectacular sound and light show. Thunder rolls over the hills, lightning crackles across darkened skies and the land prepares for close to three months of heavy rains.

This is a fierce season, one whose beauty it’s easier to appreciate with the comforts of modern living. I’m not so sure that I’d be as quick to profess my love for the monsoon if I had to live through it with no electricity, damp and mould waiting to strike at every stage and a long period of semi hibernation. Wait, I believe I have done something very much like that!

Still, this is the season that throws up some of the most exciting foods in the Coorg repertoire. Whether from necessity, curiosity or the enforced confinement to home and hearth (or a combination of all three) the monsoon menu is a testament to some very creative culinary ventures.

I’ve been very lucky with mangoes this year!

There have been (not in any order of preference) Alphonsos, Banganpallis, Mallikas and more. And a windfall in the form of a generous gift from a friend – a  parcel containing several kilos of a little mango known as “Doodh Peda”, whose antecedents I am unsure of but whose buttery deliciousness I can vouch for ! Also in the parcel was a quantity of the Imam Pasand (written about here by Vikram Doctor). What a lovely mango! Pale yellow flesh, incredibly juicy, sweet, and yes, definitely citrusy. I don’t recall ever before eating a mango quite so, for want of a better word, “refreshing”. With each fruit weighing close to a kilo and with a small seed, that’s a lot of refreshment!

And then there’s the wild mango or Kaad Maangé in Coorg. These small mangoes (typically 3-4″ long) are sour-sweet, with a unique peppery, resinous flavour concentrated in the skin. The large, fibrous seeds provide quite an engaging dining experience! The whole mangoes are sometimes preserved in brine for use throughout the year.

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