Moving on to the second of the three most commonly made puttus, it’s paputtu next.

“Paputtu”, abbreviated from “paal puttu” (paal being milk) is definitely my favourite puttu. The flavours and fragrance of warm cardamom, creamy coconut and lightly sweetened milk mingle to perfection in this steamed rice cake. My mother maintains that the best paputtu she’s ever eaten was made in the home of Doli Sait, a Parsi gentleman who lived in Mercara. It’s no coincidence that he also kept some very fine milch cows!

My favourite memories of paputtu are tied to all those long journeys we made across the country by road. Parked off the highway, in the quiet shade of a Gulmohur tree, gazing out at the surrounding countryside while snacking on wedges of sweet paputtu and sipping “Thermos” flavoured tea. I’d do it again any time, flasky tea and all!

The thari used here is a slightly coarser grain than is used for kadambuttu. (See thari in a hurry).

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Over the labour day long weekend, we made a visit to Vancouver Island to spend time with friends in Victoria, the Widdowsons. A trip to Juan De Fuca Provincial Park* was on the cards on one of the days there, and what a day it was! If there has been any moaning about how there hasn’t been much of a summer in the Pacific Northwest this year, this was a day to banish those memories. Clear skies, hot sun and a cool breeze. Quite perfect.

The drive from Victoria to Port Renfrew takes about two hours along scenic and winding roads. Botanical Beach, where we’re headed, is a part of the larger Juan De Fuca Provincial park. The Juan De Fuca strait separates Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island and Neah Bay on the NW corner of Washington State in the United States.

If you’re going to visit a marine park anywhere on Vancouver Island, you couldn’t do better than to have two people as familiar with the area as Tom and Ann Widdowson as your guides. Marine biologist Dr. Tom Widdowson is a leading expert in the study of algae and seaweeds. He’s spent decades studying the marine life here, often camping out on Botanical Beach in far less favourable conditions than this day threw at us. In fact, he mentioned that in all of his of many visits here over the years, he was hard pressed to recall another occasion when the sea was as glassy and calm as this. Lucky us!

It’s a cool, tree-lined hike down to the beach. The west coast lies open to powerful winds across the Pacific, and signs of their tremendous power are everywhere. The trees are gnarled and wind-sculpted and hang heavy with moss, fed by the moisture from the fog that regularly shrouds the area. The path is lined with thick shrubbery, including salal, which I sheepishly recognize from florist’s bouquets but never knew the name!

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Returning recently from a weekend stay with friends, the car loaded with vegetables and fruit from their garden, I was reminded of the customary exchanges of home grown produce in Coorg.

When one sets out to visit someone in Coorg, chances are that the back of the vehicle will be laden with a sampler of whatever is currently yielding on the land, garden or kitchen garden. Avocados, a big bunch of mara balé (a local variety of banana), or an even bigger jackfruit. On the way home, one will very likely have been gifted, in exchange, some chikoos (sapotas), lychees, maybe some unusually succulent broad beans.

And there are the customary exchanges that accompany the exchanges along the lines of:

“You must try these. I got the plants from Kuttappa last year and they’re fruiting like nobody’s business. Fantastic flavour and such small seeds!”

“We saved the seeds from the fruit Kalu sent us but they didn’t germinate, so he’s promised to send us some cuttings.”

“I looked up the mystery fruit and it’s a Lakoocha.”

“These are limes from the plants Jagan brought from Bangalore a few years ago.”

The conversation  typically meanders in circles of sources, ideal growing conditions, and promises of more exchanges.

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In Coorg, as in most of South India, rice in some form is at at the heart of every meal. It never ceases to amaze me, just how creative cooks through the ages have been with a staple like rice.

The Kodava repertoire of rice based preparations is large, ranging from flatbreads to pulaos, pancakes to dumplings and more. And all those “puttus”. For the most part, a “puttu” is some form of steamed rice cake, savoury or sweet. But just to mix it up a little, there are several other kinds of preparations, fried, or made with roasted rice, that also carry the “puttu” tag!

Broken raw rice, known as thari, is used to make three of the most popular puttus, namely paputtu (broken rice, cooked with milk and coconut), nuuputtu (cooked broken rice pressed into noodles), and kadambuttu (steamed dumplings made from broken rice). The latter two use a finer grain of thari than is used for paputtu. If you don’t have access to suitable broken rice, it’s quite easy to make your own at home.

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